Practical ideas for the Business English classroom

Part Three – Teaching successful networking

John Hughes
This is the final article of a three-part Business English series by John Hughes.
We often think of successful business networkers as people who enjoy being the centre of
attention. However, effective networking is about using normal conversation to meet new people
and build positive business relationships.
At its core, networking requires a business person to be interested in the other person, to be
positive and to be interesting. Let’s look at these three aspects of networking in terms of the
language your students will require. I’ll share ways to develop each part of the skill with three
classroom activities.
Be interested
It’s important for the other person to know you are interested in what they are saying. That means
using techniques to show you are listening and interested. Clearly, use of body language is crucial
here such as regular eye contact with the other person and nodding your head in agreement. But
the language you use will make a huge difference to how the other person feels. We can teach
phrases to respond such as ‘Really?’, ‘I see’ and ‘That sounds interesting’. However, these
phrases alone are not enough. Work on asking questions which follow on so, for example, you
might build a dialogue like this:
Person A: I’m based in London but I’m working on a new project in California.
Person B: Really? How often do you go out there?
Note that the question following ‘Really?’ is an open question because this will always be more
effective for networking than a closed question. Open questions beginning with what, why, who,
where, when or how draw out a more interesting detailed response. A closed question such as ‘Do
you work here?’ only demands a Yes or No response. One simple exercise to practise this is to
give students a list of closed Yes/No questions that you might ask in a social situation. For
example:
1 Do you work here?
2 Do you do any sport?
3 Can you speak any languages?
Tell students to work in pairs. Student A asks one closed question and Student B answers with a
Yes/No answer. Then Student A has to transform the same question into an open question and
Student B responds with an open answer. So they might produce a four line dialogue like this:
Student A: Do you work here?
Student B: No, I don’t.
Student A: Who do you work for?
Student B: I work for a large multinational company based in Bonn….
By working through the list of closed questions and creating dialogues with open questions, the
exercise demonstrates how useful open questions are for networking and it provides good
speaking practice with revision of question forms.
Be positive
In general, we prefer to do business with positive, friendly people. When we are positive, we tend
to connect with the other person and making connections is what networking is all about. One
activity you can use in class to practise making positive connections is the following. It’s also very
good for practising the past simple and present perfect.
Write the following on the board:
- Companies you’ve worked for
- Subjects you’ve studied
- Places you’ve visited
- Jobs you’ve done
- Recent films/concerts you’ve seen
Students stand in groups of four or five as if they are talking at a conference. You set a time limit
of three to five minutes and explain that the students can talk about any of the topics on the board.
During the conversation, they give themselves a point every time they find they have something in
common with another person. So part of a conversation might go like this:
A I’ve worked for a few companies. My last employer was Microsoft.
B: Really? I’ve worked for Microsoft too. [Receive a point.] When did you work for them?
A: In 1999. I was based in New York.
C: Me too. I worked in New York. [Receive a point.]
The activity is great for fluency and a lot of fun. Students become very competitive to receive
points so this encourages them to make conversation. It also highlights the benefits of being
positive and finding things in common with the other person.
Be interesting
Of the three aspects of networking, the third and final is the one people find strange; after all, can
you really train someone to ‘be interesting’?! In fact, what this means is that to be a successful
networker, you need to give the other person plenty of information about you (i.e. be interesting)
so that they can respond (i.e. be interested). In language terms, it means that introducing yourself
like this isn’t enough: ‘My name’s John. I’m a sales manager.’ Instead, give more information
about you such as: ‘My name’s John and I’m in charge of our sales teams across Central and
Eastern European regions.’ You can give students further practice with ‘being interesting’ by
putting them in pairs. Write a series of topics on the board such as: Job, Location, Company,
Hobbies. Each student takes turns to talk non-stop for one minute about themselves on each
topic. The other student listens and times the minute. Obviously a student wouldn’t normally talk
non-stop for a minute without the other person responding but the aim is for students to practise
saying much more about themselves.

John Hughes has worked in ELT for over 20 years. He has taught students in many parts of
Europe and has managed Business English and ESP departments in Poland and Italy. Nowadays,
he works as a teacher trainer and writer. He regularly speaks at conferences around the world and
writes the blog http://elteachertrainer.com.You can also follow him on Twitter (@johnhugheselt).
For more ideas and exercises on successful networking, take a look at John’s video-based
course, Successful Meetings, co-written with communications expert, Andrew Mallett. This
contains eight units on different aspects of meetings skills including a unit on networking.