3-Meeting to discuss an article

I.

Communication difficulties and misunderstandings.

The speaker The listener

jargon is distracted or not paying attention

What are some possible ways to overcome these communication difficulties and clear up
misunderstandings?

II. Donna Johnson, Assistant Editor of Lifestyle magazine, wants to meet Susan Lam, a
journalist, to discuss Susan’s feature article.
Editorial guidelines
This editorial and style policy provides editors and journalists with guidance on how to develop content for
Lifestyle magazine.
Our goals
Lifestyle is a digital magazine. The magazine includes a mix of shorter items, interviews, product reviews
and issue-oriented features. Our purpose is to inform the reader about and entertain the reader with
contemporary issues of general interest, as well as trends in society. Content should address the interests or
concerns of our target readers. It should be informative and entertaining, provide insights on subjects, be
broad or unspecialised and of interest to lay people.
Write for the Web

 Content should be written in a style that will engage our target audience.
 It should be visually attractive with two to four images per article.
 It could include additional embedded content, e.g. a graphic, a video or links of interest.
 Navigation to related texts within the magazine should be quick and simple.
 It should attract user-generated content (UGC) through forums and reader comments.
Write for our readers

 Our target audience are both male and female Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) and generation Z
(born mid- to late- 1990s).
 The demographic profile of the readership is young professionals.
 Our readership is international. People around the world have access to the magazine online.
Extract from Susan’s pitch

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My working title is Plastic Panic. The topic of my proposed feature article is the impact plastic and plastic
packaging is having on our lives. The angle I want to take is to include some key data about the current
situation. Then briefly mention efforts to deal with the issue of plastic pollution at different levels:
consumers, business and government. This information can be presented as ‘quick facts’ boxes in the
article. I’ll ask the question, ‘What would it mean to go without plastic on a daily basis?’ by trying to do it
myself for a month.

III. Follow-up email. What has Donna misunderstood about Susan’s proposed article? What
should Susan do?
Hi Susan,
Just to follow up on your pitch for a feature. I particularly liked what you said about finding out about how
someone manages to live without plastic. Have you got a good source to interview yet? Remember we don’t
pay our sources for content.
Can we meet tomorrow around 10 a.m. for a chat? Just want to discuss how things are developing.

IV.
1. How successfully did both women clear up misunderstandings?
2. What might have happened if they had not done this?

How appropriate would their approach be in situations where you work or study? Were they both
sufficiently polite in your view?

V.
a) There are approximately 5m/ 25m/ 100m meetings per day in the USA.
b) 1%/ 5%/ 15% of an organisation’s time is spent on meetings.
c) We spend up to 4/ 8/ 12 hours per week preparing for status update meetings.
d) Upper management spends 25%/ 50%/ 75% of its time in meetings.
e) 43%/ 67%/ 89% of all meetings were seen as failures by executives.
f) Unproductive meetings cost the global economy $1bn/ $13bn/ $37bn per year.
g) 27%/ 56%/ 92% of those surveyed confessed to multitasking in meetings.
h) 10%/ 25%/ 69% admitted to checking emails during meetings.
i) 45%/ 65%/ 80% of communication is body language, impossible to see on the phone.
j) People are less likely to multitask on video calls compared to voice calls – true or false?

VI.
1. Which statistics do you think are most surprising and/or worrying?
2. To what extent do you agree with the idea that virtual meetings are more difficult than face-to-face
meetings? Why?
3. What can you do before, during and after a virtual meeting to make people engage with your
messages as effectively as possible, particularly with people you do not know very well?

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 VII. Paula Jenkins is the Product Development Manager of WinGreen, a manufacturer of high
security windows and doors. She has organised a conference call with Head of International
Sales, Tammy Hass, based in Chicago, and Head of European Sales, Frank Beils, based near
Paris.

1. What news does Paula formally announce to the sales team?

2. According to Paula, what is one advantage of this new situation?
3. What concerns does Tammy raise?
4. How does Paula decide to deal with these concerns?

VIII.
1. How has Paula prepared for the meeting?
2. Early in the meeting, Paula says to Tammy that ‘This is important, yes?’ What is Paula referring
to?
3. Paula explains a new product development process in which BioGrad provides consultancy at two
key milestones. What are these two milestones? What does she say is very important about these
milestones?
4. What does Frank request at the end of the meeting and why?

IX. Read the tips for the four communication principles to create effective meetings. Match the
extracts from the recording with each of the ten tips.

a) Does this make sense, Tammy?

b) Can we just go through the main parts of the document?
c) Thank you very much for joining the meeting today. I really appreciate it.
d) I understand and respect your concerns about the situation.
e) This is not a revolution.
f) In fact, we discussed this in detail with BioGrad over a few months to address such concerns.
g) If you look at page 15, you’ll see that there’s a lot of information about the new partnership.
h) We simply want to provide transparency for auditing purposes.
i) I clearly need to slow down and talk this through carefully.
j) What this means, which is very relevant for you, because of the concerns you have expressed, is
that we still control things.

Principle 1: Engaging positively with other participants

1. Create an open and engaged climate with a warm welcome.
2. Confirm your intention to communicate carefully.
3. Express respect for others’ perspectives to keep people open to your ides.
Principle 2: Establishing process and context
4. Negotiate the agenda and meeting process so people stay involved.

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 5. Provide background information to help people understand your message.
6. Direct people clearly to important information provided in a text or a slide.
Principle 3: Focusing on others’ concerns and understanding
7. Engage people to listen by saying how the topic is relevant for them.
8. Invite comments or offer clarification to participants to support understanding.
Principle 4: Ensuring clarity
9. Say what you are not saying in order to prevent misinterpretation.
10. Use short and focused messages which don’t overwhelm listeners with too much detail.

X.
1. What other tips could you add for each of the four principles?
2. What other principles might help to create effective meetings? Can you suggest any tips and useful
language for these principles?
3. What do you think can make it challenging to apply these principles in meetings? How could you
overcome these challenges?

MINUTES
XI. Sections of a formal meeting.

Agenda items (numbered)

AOB (Any other business)
Apologies for absence
Approval of previous minutes
Date and time of next meeting
Matters arising (from previous minutes)
Review of agenda
Summary of decisions and action points
Welcome

XII. When someone ‘takes the minutes’ of a meeting, they write notes during the meeting and
afterwards use these to write a short, clear summary which is circulated to attendees and other
interested parties.
1. Which sections of the meeting will not appear in the minutes?
2. What factual information might also appear at the start of the full circulated minutes?
3. Many minutes have action points. What three elements are needed in an action point?

A. Underline any factual information in the full minutes that is not included in the notes.
B. Discuss whether you think the notes/minutes are effective, e.g. if they contain too much or too little
information.

XIII. Useful Language

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 1. Vocabulary. In the Vocabulary box there are three terms specific to project management. What
are they? Explain their meanings.
2. Writing notes during meetings. Find all examples of abbreviations and short forms in the meeting
notes (left). What other words could be shortened?
3. Ellipsis. Find all the examples of ellipses in the meeting notes. What other words could be left out?
4. Writing full minutes. Look at the full minutes (right). What can you say about how to write
minutes (e.g. sentence length, formality, overall style)?
5. Reporting verbs. Look at the examples in the Reporting verbs box. What is the effect of the passive
forms?

Vocabulary
agenda items AOB apologies attendees be in the chair circulate the minutes cost overrun
matters arising milestone scope take the minutes
Writing notes during meetings
Abbreviations (CEO, info, tech, qual, mtg, doc);
short forms (re = regarding, w/ = with, wd = would, hv = have);
symbols (% percent, > greater than)
Ellipsis
Omit short words with no content:
The time of the next meeting is 9 a.m. ~ Time of next mtg 9am
It was agreed that Brad Miller should … ~ Agreed BM should …
Writing full minutes
1 Style is simple and direct with short sentences. Vocabulary and grammar structures are reasonably
formal (more formal than the notes).
2 Fewer examples of ellipses than in the notes.
3 Action points: name (often initials) + to + infinitive (e.g. LD to investigate this and write a short report
…)
From notes to full minutes
Client worried about … ~ The client is concerned about …
Main reason extra lab costs ~ The main reason for this is the extra labour costs.
But have to monitor closely ~ However the situation will have to be monitored closely.
Reporting verbs (passive form in brackets)
The chair suggested that (It was suggested that) the small cost overrun can be absorbed within the profit
margin.
Mr Nakamura argued that (It was argued that) we should look for another supplier, given the quality
issues.