Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on discussing solutions to a problem during a teleconference in English.
Have you ever been in a meeting where everyone just wants to complain about a problem? And maybe they criticize every solution that is suggested? Well, if that’s all you do, the problem will never be solved.
Discussing solutions is all about figuring out what might actually work. It’s about finding the best solution, even if it’s not the perfect solution. So you need to learn how to agree with people’s ideas, either strongly, or with conditions. In other words, you might agree but only if something else can happen.
If you’re leading a problem-solving meeting, you’ll likely need to highlight the best solution that comes forward. Even when you have a pretty good solution, you might still want to invite more ideas. And whether you’re leading or participating in the meeting, you might offer to take the lead on implementing a solution. In this lesson, we’ll cover all these skills for discussing solutions.
In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin a teleconference led by Jim. On the line with Jim are Jack, Dan, and Angie. They are discussing how to deal with the issue of paint fumes at a factory. They’re trying to find the best way to solve this problem.
Listening Questions
1. What expression does Angie use to agree strongly with Dan’s idea?
2. What solution does Jim highlight as the best one?
3. What does Dan say he wants to do about the research on different types of paint?
Download: Podcast MP3
