This second part of a two-part Business English Podcast series on running and participating in a problem-solving meeting.
In the first part of this meeting (see BEP 126), the team spent time answering the question: “What is the problem?” In today’s episode, we’re going to focus on how to brainstorm solutions to a problem through discussion, how to evaluate and eliminate suggestions and then agree a plan of action.
Kathryn, the head of Human Resources at a medium-sized company, is meeting with department heads to discuss a problem they are having with low staff morale. The team has identified the root cause of the problem as the separation of staff across 3 different office locations.
Kathryn wants everyone to critique the ideas that the group has brought forward, in order to eliminate impractical suggestions. We’ll see how she confirms the best solution and how her team suggests points for action. As the dialog starts, Kathryn closes the brainstorming session and sums up the input that has been received.
Listening Questions
1) How many ideas does the group come up with for solving the staff morale problem?
2) Which idea does the group agree is the best one to try?
3) Name one of the action points suggested near the end of the meeting.
*** This lesson is part of our Business English eBook for meetings: Meeting Essentials. Premium members click here to download the complete eBook.
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very useful, very easy to approach, really well done!
Thank you for this lesson, it is good idea for solving problems.
I would like to congratulate you due to this perfect support for foreigners ! By the way happy 2011…
I noticed that there is confusion between Paul and Paula. The narrator refers to Paula while the speaker is clearly male (Paul).
@James, we fixed this in the transcripts a long time ago but the audio is harder to fix. We’ll probably redo the 126-127 debriefs at some point, but for now it’s a minor distraction.