It’s interesting to know.

Attitude to silence during discussions.

We can distinguish between three styles of communication: Anglo-Saxon, Latin and Asian.

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Anglo-Saxon: People feel uncomfortable when there is silence. When one person stops speaking, another stars. It isn’t polite to interrupt.

Latin: People are very talkative and feel uncomfortable when there is silence. People friendly interrupt each other. This is not impolite but shows interest in what the other person is saying.

Asian: There is often a silence between the moment when one person stops speaking and the next person begins. It is a sign of respect for the other person if you take time to think silently about what they said.

Part3. DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES.

A. HEDGING

Hedging is when you avoid disagreeing directly. To hedge, you could say:

1. I take your point about punctuality, but clocking in and out would not be very popular.

2. I understand what you’re saying about the needs of each department, but each department must be treated in an appropriate way.

3. I see/know what you mean, but we must look at the human factors as well as the numbers.

4. I hear where you’re coming from on this, but we must remember this is an advertising agency, not a car factory.

B. CHECKING UNDERSTANDING, INTERRUPTING, REFERRING BACK.

C. AGREEMENT, CONSENSUS OR COMPROMISE?

Hilary Rhodes is talking about how to deal with agreements and disagreements. «It may be possible to reach agreement or to reach an agreement about something, or at least come to a consensus: something that most people can agree with.

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It may be possible to compromise or to find a compromise: an agreement where people accept less than they wanted at first. Or perhaps the differences are so great that there will just be disagreement. Something in particular that you disagree about is a disagreement.

AGREEING

DISAGREEING.

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D. INVITING PEOPLE TO SPEAK

E. MAKING YOUR POINT.

Note: You use «Of course» and «Obviously» to introduce an idea, but also to show that you think other people will be aware of it already.

Be careful, as this can sound rude.

F. CONCLUDING.

Carla Eagleton sums up and brings the meeting to a close: «Right. I’m afraid we’re running out of time so we’re going to have to stop there. To go over what’s been said, there is a disagreement about timekeeping and budgets in the design department. I’ve listened to both sides of the argument. I think I can sum it up by saying that it’s a problem of creativity versus control. I think you’ll just have to agree to disagree. I’ll let you know my decision about the solution to this problem by the end of the month. So unless anyone has anything else to add, I think that’s it. Thank you all for coming.»

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G. SUMMARISING

Exercise 1. Read the following text to find out:

a) three recommendations on how a meeting should end;

b) what should happen after a meeting.

Regardless of the type of meeting (information or decision–making), it is important to close with a restatement of objective, a summary of what was accomplished, and a list of agreed action that needs to be taken.

After the meeting, it is essential to follow up with action. A brief memorandum of conclusions should be written and distributed. Inform appropriate people who did not attend the meeting about essential decisions made.

Finally, each meeting should be viewed as a learning experience.

Future meetings should be improved by soliciting evaluations and deciding what action is required to conduct better meetings.

From Marion Haynes, «Effective Meeting Skills».

PRACTICE FILE.

Practice 1. Internet Research.

Search for the keywords «effective meetings» to find out more about what you need to do to run successful meetings.

Practice 2. Internet Research.

What are the essentials of a successful meeting? Search for the keywords «golden rules of meetings» to find out.

Practice 3. Below are a series of topics. Ask colleagues for their views and note if their opinions are weak, strong or neutral. If asked, give your views on the subjects either strongly or fairly weakly.

a) Arms trade

b) Testing cosmetic products on animals.

c) The quality of television broadcasting.

d) Nuclear power.

Practice 4. This task in based on a discussion about investment in public transport. Work in pairs. Choose File card 1A or File card 1B.

File card 1A. Your position in the discussion is basically to support investment in public transport. Do this by referring to:

Ø environmental benefits;

Ø improvements in quality of life;

Ø public transport is cheaper;

Ø cars are heavy consumers of raw materials;

Ø people want improved transport.

In the discussion:

Ø accept some interruptions but make sure you get all;

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Ø your arguments across;

Ø defend your arguments;

Ø be polite but firm;

Ø repeat if necessary.

File card 1B. Your position is to defend the freedom of private car owner-ship. You think:

Ø quality of life depends on freedom of choice;

Ø people want personal space – cars make this possible;

Ø people want to leave and arrive when they want;

Ø public transport is massively expensive, through taxation;

Ø the car industry employs many thousands of people.

In the discussion:

Ø oppose simplistic arguments for the expansion of public;

Ø transport;

Ø interrupt when you think your colleague says something;

Ø simplistic or wrong;

Ø present the arguments above;

Ø be polite, but firm.

Practice 5. Freestyle has developed a new tennis racket called Worldbeater. It is light but gives players increased power and control. It will be launched in the USA. The Marketing Department holds a meeting to discuss a strategy. Read your role card. Then hold a meeting. At the end, the chairperson should summarise your decisions.

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Practice 6. You work in the professional section of a large bank. Discuss how to deal with the problems below. Use expressions from Useful Language to help you.

1. Staff often arrive at work late and leave early.

2. Abuse of the telephone and e-mail systems. Staff often use them for personal matters rather than for company business

3. High staff turnover of front-desk cashiers in all the bank’s branches.

Useful Language

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Practice 7. The head of your department is leaving the company in a month’s time. Your department plans to hold a farewell party. Discuss these questions with other members of the department.

1. When and where will the party be? At work, in a restaurant or at another location?

2. How much should each member of staff contribute towards the cost of the party?

3. What sort of gift should you get? Who will present it?

4. Will there be a speech? If so, who will make it? Should it be serious or humorous? How long will it be?

5. What kind of entertainment will you have at the party?

6. What else do you need to plan?

Useful Language.

Practice 8. Prepare a short talk for the other members of your group. Be prepared to answer any questions when they interrupt.

Student A. Prepare a short talk on an organization that you would like to work for. Make some notes. Think about what the organization do, why you would like to work for them and what you imagine working there would be like.

When you are ready give your talk to the other members of your group. Be prepared to answer any questions that might they might have.

When the others give their talks try to ask a question and interrupt once or twice.

Student B. Prepare a short talk on a company that is successful all over the world. Make some notes. Think about what the company does, why you think they are successful and who their main rivals are.

When you are ready give your talk to the other members of the group. Be prepared to answer any questions that they might have.

When the others give their talks try to ask them a question and interrupt once or twice.

Student C. Prepare a short talk on the kind of company you would like to set up. Make notes. Think about what your company would specialize in, why you want to set up this kind of company and what you would do to make sure it is successful.

When you are ready give your talk to the other members of the group.

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Be prepared to answer any questions that they might have.

When the others give their talks try to ask a question and interrupt once or twice.

Practice 9. You are managers in a mobile company, Speakeasy Ltd., based in San Diego, California. The company wishes to send two executives to set up a branch office overseas. However, the location chosen is politically very unstable and there has been some terrorist activity in the area recently. Hold a meeting to decide:

a) whether to send the two executives to the area;

b) if so, how to reduce the risks to which they will be exposed.

Manager A. You are not in favour of sending the executives to the area. You think the risk is too great. They could be kidnapped, or war could break out at any moment. Both executives are your personal friends and you fear greatly for their safety. If they did go, the company would have to hire an armoured car for them, at great cost. Try to persuade your colleagues to give up the idea of sending them.

Manager B. You are very keen to send the executives because b a sales office there would be highly profitable – there is a huge demand for mobile phones in the area. You don’t think the risk is very great. The government controls the area firmly. There have been a few terrorist incidents, but that’s to be expected. The executives can get advice before they go on what precautions to take (for example: deciding where to live, changing routes when they return home, locking their car doors, being alert at all times).

Manager C. You can’t decide whether the executives should go or not. On the one hand, the area has great sales potential and the company would be the first mobile phone operator to set up as office there. Also, at the moment, there is no terrorist activity. On the other hand, there is a real risk because in other areas of the country, executives have died as a result of terrorist activity or war. If they did go, you think they should have a special bodyguard at all times. This would, of course, be very costly.

Useful Language.

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Practice 10. Choose a topic and follow the framework below. Each person should give their viewpoint and speak for about one minute.

Topics:

1. We should boycott tourism to countries which have oppressive regimes.

2. We should ban TV advertising which is aimed specifically at children.

3. If we want to reduce traffic, we should make people pay to drive in the city centre.

4. It isn’t right to claim against a food company because its products are fattening.

5. It is better to buy local products that products imported from other countries.

Framework.

Role A: Present your viewpoint on the topic (you can agree or disagree with the topic).

Role B: Interrupt A (politely) and ask a question or agree and add a new argument or correct something which you thin

Role C: Interrupt B (politely) and put an alternative viewpoint.

Role D: Interrupt C (politely) and ask a question or agree and add a new argument or correct something which you think is wrong.

Practice 11. For each situation below, appoint a different person as leader. Hold a mini meeting and try to reach a decision.

1. You work in an international team which meets once a month. It means travelling between Sweden, Singapore and the USA. Discuss whether it would be better to use video conferencing for meetings.

2. Your team works very well together, but you are not so good at communicating with other people in the company. You need to be better at keeping others informed of what you are doing. You also need to be more aware of what other teams are doing. Hold a meeting to discuss how you can improve the flow of information.

3. You all work for Noll Edge Ltd, a small consulting company. Long-serving Staff have a great deal of expertise and experience. New staff joining Noll Edge have excellent qualifications but don’t know the business or its customers. How can you encourage the experienced staff to share their knowledge with the newcomers?

Practice 12. You are managers of a retail fashion chain called Space, which has clothes stores in most major European cities. You are holding your regular management meeting. Use the Managing Director’s notes below as an agenda for your discussion.

A different person should chair each item.

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Useful Language.

Practice 13. Questions for discussion:

1. What sort of meetings do you go in your organization? Are they useful?

2. What do you think are the most important skills for someone chairing a meeting?

3. How freely can people express their feelings in your organization?

Are people at all levels encouraged to say what they think?

Are new employees asked for their opinions?

4. What are you like in meetings?

Do you often disagree with other people?

Or do you prefer to avoid arguments?

5. Are compromises always possible? In your organization, are decisions based on compromise and consensus or they imposed by the management?

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SKILLS CHECKLIST

Preparation for meetings

The role of the Chair:

1. Start and end on time.

2. Introduce objectives, agenda.

3. Introduce speakers.

4. Define time limits for contributions.

5. Control discussion, hear all views.

6. Summarise discussion at key points.

7. Ensure the key decisions are written down by the secretary.

8. Ensure that conclusions and decisions are clear and understood.

9. Define actions to be taken and individual responsibilities.

Types of meetings:

1. decision-making meeting;

2. information-giving meeting;

3. spontaneous/emergency meeting;

4. routine meeting;

5. internal meeting;

6. customer/client/supplier first meeting or for establishing relationship.

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Structure of decision-making meetings:

1. study/discuss/analyse the situation;

2. define the problem;

3. set an objective;

4. state imperatives and desirables;

5. generate alternatives;

6. establish evaluation criteria;

7. evaluate alternatives;

8. choose among alternatives.

The objective of decision-making meetings:

to get a consensus in a time- and cost-effective manner.

Decision-making meetings should end with DECISIONS.

After the meeting:

1. A memorandum should be sent to all participants summarising the decisions taken and the action required.

2. The memorandum should be sent to any interested individuals who were unable to attend.

3. The Chair should seek feedback on the meetings to try to improve future meetings.