ENGLISH FOR MEETINGS

1. INTERRUPTIONS

1.1. Chair - interrupting - OK. Thank you, Bob. You've made your point.

1.2. Chair - stopping an interruption - Please, let him finish.

1.3. Participants - interrupting - Excuse me, may I interrupt?

1.4. Participants - stopping an interruption - If I could just finish.

1.5. Why did you interrupt? - I'd like to point out...

1.6. Referring to other options - Peter, you said that...

1.7. Changing the focus of the discussion - We need to go into this in more depth/ detail.

1.8. Commenting on an interruption - That's a good point.

1.9. Chair - exploiting an interruption - OK. Perhaps we should talk more about...

2. ASKING QUESTIONS

2.1. You need clarification - What exactly do you mean by...?

2.2. You need to hear a second time - I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

2.3. You are listening - So you're worried about...

2.4. Open questions - Could you tell me...?

2.5. Closed questions - Do you plan to...?

2.6. Leading questions - Shouldn't we discuss...?

2.7. Factual questions - When will we begin production?

3. MAKING DECISIONS

3.1. More discussion - I still feel we need to discuss... a little more.

3.2. Referring to time - We're running out of time.

3.3. Closing the discussion - I think we've discussed everything.

3.4. Focusing - I really would like a decision on this

3.5. Establishing consensus - Can we agree to...?

3.6. Voting - The proposal is rejected.

3.7. Confirming - So, we are going to....

3.8. Deferring - We need more information on...

3.9. Moving on - Let's go on to...

4. PROBLEM-SOLVING MEETINGS

4.1. What is the problem? -We are facing problem with...

4.2. Cause - The problem was caused by...

4.3. Solving problems - action plan verbs - to add - to refuse

4.4. Future problems? - I don't anticipate any problems with...

5. GOLDEN RULES

5.1. CHAIRING

5.1.1. DO - begin by reviewing objectives

5.1.2. DON'T - allow over-elaboration or irrelevance

5.2. PARTICIPATING

5.2.1. DO -read the agenda before and bring supporting documentation

5.2.2. DON'T - leave meetings to make 'important' phone calls

6. OPENING A MEETING

6.1. STARTING

6.2. Welcoming and introducing - Welcome, everybody.

6.3. Apologies for absence - I'm afraid that... cannot be with us today because...

6.4. Defining the objective - Our objective today is to...

6.5. Introducing the agenda - Is there any other business?

6.6. The minutes - Tim, could you take the minutes?

6.7. Process and roles - I suggest we go around table first.

6.8. Length of meeting - I would like to finish by three o' clock.

6.9. Let's begin - So, the first item on the agenda is...

7. CONTROLLING

7.1. Active listening: responding to motivate - Right

7.2. Active listening: reformulating to clarify - In other words,...

7.3. Moving off the point - Could i digress for a minute.

7.4. Keeping to the agenda - I think we are digressing. Can we come back to the main question?

7.5. Referring forward - We'll come to that later.

7.6. Referring back - As we said earlier,...

7.7. Postponing - Shall we skip this item?

7.8. Length of meeting - We're pretty short of time.

7.9. Confirming a decision - OK. So we have decided to...

7.10. Closing and moving on - I think that's everything on that.

8. CLOSING A MEETING

8.1. Completing the agenda - OK. That's everything on the agenda.

8.2. Summarizing - We discussed... items.

8.3. Delaying decisions - We'll leave this until a later date .

8.4. Everything is clear - OK. Is that clear?

8.5. Final questions - Can i check just one thing?

8.6. Confirm new responsibilities - So, what's the next step?

8.7. Next meeting - Can we set a time for our next meeting?

8.8. Closing a meeting - OK. We can finish there.

9. CROSS-CULTURAL TIPS

9.1. Preparation (Some cultures..) - are happy with telephone meetings in preference to personal contact

9.2. Structure (Some cultures...) - expect to work systematically on am agenda.

9.3. Roles (Some cultures...) - see the chair as controller and decision-make rather than facilitator.

9.4. Language an communication (Some cultures...) - find idiomatic language difficult. Keep it short and simple.

9.5. Time (Some cultures..) - respect punctuality.

9.6. Decision-making - prefer logic imagination

9.7. Non-verbal aspects - expect a formal dress code.