UNIT 10.Part 1. MAKING MEETINGS EFFECTIVE.
Exercise 1. Read the following comments on business meetings. What do you think about these viewpoints? Put your own viewpoint to the others in the group. You may want to use some of the following language: a) I agree that … d) I’m not sure … b) Don’t you think …? e) Wouldn’t you agree that …? c) It’s obvious that … f) We all know that …
1. «Two or more people getting together for a specific business purpose» extracted from «The Gover Handbok of Management» 2. «The fewer the merrier» extracted from «How to Run a Successful Meeting in Half the Time» 3. «Most meetings are a waste of time.» 4. Every meting should have a purpose and this person is – information-giving or discussion or decision-making.
Exercise 2. What makes a good meeting? Suggest what you think are the characteristics of a successful meeting
1. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 2. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 3. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 4. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 5. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 6. ……………………………………………………………………………………. 7. …………………………………………………………………………………….
Now, compare your answers with the ones given below. Do you find them important, necessary, or possible?
a) good preparation b) good chairing c) not many people d) all views presented e) polite discussion f) consensus of opinion g) clear objective(s) h) good planning of resources and equipment i) social elements if the meeting is with people from outside the company j) refreshments as appropriate
Unit 10 I.Read the text and define whether the author is for or against meetings?
What’s a meeting? In the ideal world, a meeting is a chance for people with shared or developing interests in a common theme to come together to further develop those interests. By the end of the meeting, something should have changed – participants may have agreed on something new, discovered something new or changed their thinking about something. Whatever the purpose of the meeting, it should result in some change, whether immediate or as a result of the meeting. A good meeting is action focused. It’s not simply a talking shop, but a productive mechanism for making things happen. Just as the best production line streams out high-quality goods as efficiently and effectively as possible, so the best meeting generates focused actions as efficiently and effectively as possible. Effectively – doing the right things Efficiently - doing things right
It has been estimated that11 million meetings take place in the USA Every day and that most professionals attend nearby 62 meetings per month. Research suggests that more than 50 per cent of this meeting time is wasted time. If each meeting is just one hour long, this means that people are spending 31 hours every month in unproductive meetings. Most people meeting regularly say they daydream (91 per cent), miss meetings (96 per cent), or miss parts of meetings (95 per cent). Many (73 per cent) say that they bring other work to meeting s and 39 per cent say that they have fallen asleep during meetings. Whether or not it is reasonable to extrapolate these figures for other nations based on their relative population size, you can see that meetings have received a bad press over years and quite deservedly so. Bad meetings lack purpose and focus and are badly chaired; the agenda is unclear or absent, dominant people use the meeting as a platform for their own political or personal interests and others feel that they have no choice. Meanwhile, business is all about conversations. Whether you are in manufacturing, a service industry, farming, a local or national governmentdepartments, working as a sole trader or are the chief executive officer of a global company, we all ultimately do business by talking to each other. We can hold our conversations one to one or in groups, in small, formal or informal gatherings, in major conferences or through social media. We cannot avoid meetings! (from “Successful meetings” by David Cotton ) Exercise 1. Discussing the reading. Talk about your answers to the following questions? a) What’s your idea about meetings? Are they necessary and important or simply a waste of time? b) What is the purpose of a meeting? c) What should a meeting result in? d) Can you think of any alternatives to meetings?
Exercise 2. Read the text again and answer the questions: 1) What makes a good meeting? 2) What makes a bad meeting? Write down your answers in a table given below:
Good meetings Bad meetings 1………………………….. …………………………… 2 ………………………….. …………………………… 3………………………….. ……………………………. 4………………………….. ……………………………. 5…………………………. …………………………... ……………………………… ……………………………. ……………………………. ……………………………etc.
Text II. Read the following text through quickly to find the answers to the following questions. Remember you do not need to understand every word in order to answer the questions. 1. What is the text about? 2. Which is the best title for this test? Write it down in the place: ‘Title: ….’ a) Reasons to hold a meeting. b) Reasons not to hold a meeting. c) The purpose of holding regular meetings’ d) Making meetings effective. 3. How many reasons not to hold a meeting are mentioned? Name them in order of appearance.
Title: …………………………………………………………………
Let’s think about some good reasons not to hold a meeting and get these out of the way, so that we look positively at good reasons to meet and how those reasons can be translated into productive effort. Actually it doesn’t matter on which day of the week the meeting is held. The regular monthly, weekly or daily meeting suffers from the very reason it was initiated – its regularity. The first time a team decides to meet regularly, there is relative enthusiasm. People see the point. It’s a chance to get together as a team, talk about things of mutual interest and share information which may be useful to others. It doesn’t take long for meeting to turn stale and for people to start attending out of a sense of duty or fear of reprisals. People go over the same old ground, jokes are repeated and the same people use it as a platform for their own intentions whether or not these are relevant to the subject of the meeting. Regular meetings tend to reflect short-term thinking. The danger in focusing on the short-term is that you miss longer term trends and read too much into glitches or exceptional situations. It’s important, of course, to rectify immediate problems, but it’s more important to assess how an organization is performing over a long period. The sole purpose of the “blame fest” seems to be to point fingers at any hint of underperformance. If you think in the short term, you’re more likely to find fault with individuals based on a single error or on a single week in which they appeared to underperform. The blame fest is a power play for the person who runs the meeting and is desperately embarrassing for participants who may wonder. “Will it be my turn this time?” While teams often perform well for limited periods under pressure, they do not perform well out of fear, and blame fests simply make people frightened. Perhaps meetings are not a great forum for information sharing. We have excellent electronic tools for just this. Often, organizations hold meetings to share information because they think their employees do not read important e-mailed information. If a piece of information is relevant to someone’s job and they either do not read or do not act on it, then that becomes a management issue rather than a reason to hold meetings. One example of useful information-sharing software is Lotus Notes, which is designed to allow teams to share information using “databases” which are really information-sharing. In organizations where Notes is well used, teams are kept completely up to date on everything their members are doing. They do not need to meet to share this knowledge – they already have it, whether they are working in the same location or are geographically spread.
Exercise 1.Read the text carefully, looking up anything you do not understand. Use a dictionary to find out the meaning of every unknown word. My list of unknown words. translation 1)………………………………………………………. 2)……………………………………………………….. 3) ………………………………………………………. 4)……………………………………………………….. 5)………………………………………………………. 6)……………………………………………………….. 7) ………………………………………………………. 8)……………………………………………………….. 9)………………………………………………………………… 10)………………………………………………………………… 11)………………………………………………………………… 12)………………………………………………………………… 13)………………………………………………………………… 14)………………………………………………………………… 15)…………………………………………………………………. 16)………………………………………………………………….. 17)………………………………………………………………….. 18)………………………………………………………………….. 19)………………………………………………………………….. 20)………………………………………………………………….. 21)…………………………………………………………………… 22) …………………………………………………………………. 23) …………………………………………………………………. 24 ………………………………………………………………….. 25)…………………………………………………………………. . Check your vocabulary Exercise 2. Translate the following words and word combination into the Russian language. 1) good reasons …………………………………………………………. 2) hold a meeting …………………………………………………………… 3) to get something out of the way …………………………………………. 4) productive effort ……………………………………………………….. 5) it doesn’t matter …………………………………………………………… 6) to initiate …………………………………………………………………. 7) get together ……………………………………………………………….. 8) see the point ………………………………………………………………… 9) mutual interest ………………………………………………………………. 10)share information ………………………………………………………….. 11) to take long ………………………………………………………………… 12) to turn stale …………………………………………………………………. 13) to attend out of a sense of duty …………………………………………….. 14) fear of reprisals ……………………………………………………………. 15) to go over the same ground ………………………………………………. 16) intentions ………………………………………………………………….. 17) reflect short term thinking ………………………………………………. 18) to miss new trends ………………………………………………………… 19) to assess …………………………………………………………………….. 20) the sole purpose …………………………………………………………….. 21) the blame fest ……………………………………………………………… 22) to point fingers at somebody ……………………………………………… 23) to find fault ……………………………………………………………….. 24) underperform ……………………………………………………………... … 25) run a meeting…………………………………………………………….. 26) to make people frightened ………………………………………………… 27) information sharing ……………………………………………………….. 28) information-sharing software ……………………………………………… 29) to share the knowledge ……………………………………………………. 30) teams are kept up to day ………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………. Exercise 3. Check your understanding. Answer the following questions: 1. Why should we talk about reasons for not holding a meeting? 2. Is it important to choose the right date or day for a meeting? 3. What does the regular monthly, weekly or daily meeting suffer from? 4. When does a team express the enthusiasm? 5. What are the reasons for the team’s enthusiasm? 6. Is it good to hold regular meetings? Why? Why not? 7. What happens with people regularly attending meetings for long? 8. What do we mean by “short-term” thinking”? 9. What do regular meetings tend to reflect? 10. What is the danger in focusing on the short term? 11. Which is more important for a company: to assess its performance over a shorter or longer period? 12. What does “blame fest” mean”? 13. What is the purpose of the “blame fest”? 14. How do blame fests make people feel? 15. Why do people think that meetings are not a great forum for information sharing? 16. What do you know about Lotus Notes? 17. What are the bad reasons to hold a meeting?
Exercise 4. Read the following characteristics for a good (successful) meeting. Do you find them important, necessary, possible or unhelpless? 1. good preparation 2. good chairing 3. not many people 4. all views presented 5. polite discussion 6. consensus of opinion 7. clear objectives 8. good planning of resources and equipment 9. social elements if the meeting is with people from outside the company 10. refreshments as appropriate
Text 1. Allen Case, an engineer, is talking about the characteristics of successful business meetings. He makes five of the eight points below. Read the conversation and identify the correct order of these points: 1. There is a written agenda. 2. Clear objectives – known to everyone. 3. Respect for the time available/time-planning 4. Good chair – effective control. 5. Emotions are kept under control. 6. Good preparation. 7. Everyone gets to say what they need to say.
Question: ‘What do you see as the most important characteristics of a successful meeting?’ I think it’s important that everyone is well prepared. Certainly everyone should prepare for the meeting – which is possible in all cases except emergency meetings where there’s no time for much preparation. A second point is that in every case people should understand the objectives of the meeting. Also, the role of the chair is important. The chair should do a good job, keep control and keep the meeting focused on the objectives. That means the meeting reaches its aims. Question: «And what about the timing of the meeting?» I agree the meeting should keep to the timing – start and finish on time. That’s also important.
Text 2. Read the text and think about three questions based on the text. Write down your questions and be ready to discuss them with your partners in the classroom.
1)……………………………………………………………………. 2) …………………………………………………………………….. 3) …………………………………………………………………….
It is generally agreed that successful meetings make successful companies. However, many professionals complain that meetings are often unproductive and too long. Discussions are regularly dominated by participants with large egos and hours of talking ends without any clear result. Consequently, many companies get help from specialised consultants, who give advice on how to make meetings more effective. Here are some ideas for making a successful meeting. Which do you consider crazy (c) or good (g) for using? 1. singing at meetings; 2. dressing in strange clothes at the meetings; 3. clear aim; 4. active listening to other people’s ideas; 5. be always prepared for the meeting; 6. attach a time limit to each point; 7. having private discussions during the meeting; Unit 10
8. long speaking; 9. giving everyone a chance to put forward their views; 10. using strict rules to keep order.
Now read the suggestions made by a consultant about meetings. Which of the ideas above are discussed in the text?
If a meeting is to be productive, it should have a clear and stated purpose that all the participants know and understand. You should appoint a chairperson who manages and controls the meeting. You must write an agenda, or list of items to be discussed and sent it to all the people concerned. They should prepare for the meeting and come to it with ideas to contribute. You have to attach a time limit to each point, otherwise there is a risk that some of the items will not be dealt with at all. You ought to limit the meeting to 90 minutes. If not, you have to schedule breaks into the agenda. You don’t need to invite all the important staff members to every meeting. But you should send other senior staff members the minutes or summary of what was discussed. The minutes should include a clear summary of the important points – you don’t have to include everything that was said at the meeting. However, you need to include actions decided upon at the meeting. Lastly, the minutes should be sent within twenty-four hours. It is essential to keep the meeting’s results and future actions clear in everyone’s mind.
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