Improve your discussion skills

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Talk about your answers to these questions:

1. Have you ever been to one of the meetings mentioned above? When was it?

2. Was it a waste of time?

3. What do you enjoy and dislike about meetings?

4. How do you feel about speaking at a small meeting – and at a larger one?

5. Here are twelve opinions about meetings: put a tick (v) beside the ones you

agree with and a cross (x) beside the ones you disagree with.

a) More time is wasted at meetings that in any other business activity ________

b) The purpose of meetings is to decide when the next one will take place ________

c) A meeting is a group of people who can decide nothing alone and

who decide together that nothing can be done. ________

d) It’s better to send everyone a memo about a new procedure than to

to have a meeting about it. ________

e) Meetings help everyone to feel personally involved in decision-making. ________

f) It’s better for the boss to make a decision than to have a meeting. ________

g) The most important person at a meeting is the chairperson. ________

h) The most important piece of paper at a meeting is the agenda ________

i) Most meetings are unnecessary, they are just a way of making people

think they are important. ________

j) It’s better to talk to each person individually than to have a meeting. ________

k) A meeting may be the only chance for the members of a group actually

to see each other face to face. ________

l) Meetings lead to better decisions, because of the exchange of ideas. _________

Part 2. THE LANGUAGE OF MEETINGS

Exercise 1. Read the following word combinations and their explanation.

to arrange	a meeting	organize a meeting
to set up
to fix
to run	a meeting	be in charge of a meting
to chair	a meeting	be in charge of a meting
to attend	a meeting	go to a meeting
to miss	a meeting	not to go to a meeting
to postpone	a meeting	change a meeting to a later time
to put back		change a meeting to a later time
to cancel	a meeting	not have a meeting at all
to bring forward	a meeting	make a meeting earlier than originally decided

Exercise 2. 2Words we need to discuss «Meetings». Read the words and their definitions. (If necessary, do the translation).

1.	agenda	a list of topics to be discussed
2.	the chair	the person in charge of a meeting
3.	to propose	to make a suggestion formally
4.	to attend	to go to a meeting
5.	item	one topic on the list
6.	vote	a method of making a decision
7.	to sent your apologies	to say that you cannot go to a meeting
8.	AOB (any other business)	the last topic on the list
9.	participants	the people at a meeting
10.	to second	to officially support a proposal made by a person in a meeting
11.	minutes	an official record of what was said or decided
12.	action points	what needs to be done after the meeting and by whom
13.	follow up	something that is done in order to complete something
14.	to generate (ideas)	to create (ideas)
15.	issue	a subject that people discuss; a problem that needs to be considered
16.	outcome	the final result of a process, a meeting

Exercise 3. Read the words given below. Match each word with its definition.

1 participants a) person who control a meeting

2 agenda b) a written report of what was said in a meeting

3 postpone c) to have a break in a meeting

4 objective d) change the date of a meeting to a later date

5 minutes e) the purpose or intention of the meeting

6 chair f) list of items to discuss in a meeting

7 adjourn g) people who attend a meeting

Exercise 4. Complete the following sentences with words from the box.

agenda close discussion finish items move on postpone purpose report summarize questions welcome

1. …………………..…. to the meeting.

2. We have three …………………..…. on the …………………..…..

3. The main …………………..…. of the meeting is to reach a decision on the Abacus Project.

4. I’d like to hear John’s …………………..…. and then we can have a …………………..…..

5. I hope we can …………………..…. by 4 o’clock.

6. John, can you …………………..…. your main points?

7. Does anyone have any …………………..….?

8. Let’s …………………..…. to the point.

9. There is not enough time to discuss this. Can we …………………..…. this discussion to a later meeting?

10. I think we should …………………..…. the meeting now, as it’s after 4 o’clock.

Exercise 5. How was the meeting?

Some colleagues are discussing a meeting they have just come out of.

Read the conversation paying attention to the words in bold type. Translate them

into the Russian language.

Anil:	I thought it was very productive.
Juliet:	Well, I thought it was a complete waste of time. I didn’t hear anything I didn’t already know.
Barbara:	I agree with Anil. I felt we had some very useful discussion, and that we reached an agreement that was good for both sides. We certainly covered a lot of ground. It was incredible the number of things we got through.
Juliet:	But there were too many digressions. John was rambling and kept wandering off the point. He just uses meetings as a chance to show off. Just like a lot of men: he just wanted to show how powerful he is and what a good talker he is.
Anil:	But to be fair, the chair really kept things moving: she encouraged people to be brief and to stick to thepoint and we achieved a lot in a short time. Anyway, I learned a lot and I think they listened to what we had to say.

Translation

1. productive ………………………………………………………………….

2. a waste of time ………………………………………………………………..

3. useful discussions …………………………………………………………….

4. a lot of ground ………………………………………………………………..

5. to get through …………………………………………………………………

6. many digressions ……………………………………………………………...

7. to ramble ………………………………………………………………………...

8. to wander off the point ………………………………………………………….

9. to show off ……………………………………………………………………

10. to be fair ……………………………………………………………......, ….

11. to keep things moving………………………………………………………..

12. to stick to the point ………………………………………………………….

Exercise 6. Replace the numbered expressions with the appropriate forms of the verbs from Exercise 1(page 18). In some cases more than one verb is possible.

The meeting of the Tennis Club Committee was (1) organized for 1^st March, but not everyone could (2) go to it, so it was (3 ) delayed until 31^st March. One committee member said that this was too late, so eventually we (4) moved it to March 15. The chairperson (5) was in charge of it very efficiently, and we decided on some new membership rules. Only one committee member (6) did not go to the meeting.