One of the most common reasons for holding a meeting is to solve a problem. A meeting can be a great place to do this, because it is possible for a variety of people with different experiences and perspectives to work together to identify the problem and come up with possible solutions.

But, while we might have the right people at the meeting, the process is often flawed because one question hasn’t clearly been asked and answered: “What is the problem?” So, in today’s episode we’re going to focus on how to define the problem through discussion and then restate the problem as a challenge. In the second part of this series, we’ll look at how to evaluate and eliminate suggestions and then agree on a plan of action.

We’ll be listening to Kathryn, the head of Human Resources at a medium-sized company, who is meeting with department heads to discuss a problem they’re having with low staff morale across all departments of the company. Morale is a word used to describe a general feeling or mood.

Kathryn wants everyone to consider possible hidden reasons for low morale at the company. We’ll see how she helps participants focus on breaking down the morale problem. As the dialog starts, Kathryn calls everyone to attention and begins the meeting.

Listening Questions:

1) What is the surface problem that Kathryn and the others can see?
2) What does the group decide is the true cause of this problem?
3) What is the challenge that the group faces at the end of the dialog?

*** This lesson is part of our Business English eBook for meetings: Meeting Essentials. Premium members click here to download the complete eBook.

Download: Podcast MP3

As a non-native speaker of English, you might often find yourself in situations like this: You’re sitting in a meeting or a teleconference, and some of the participants are native English speakers. They are speaking with one another very rapidly, and they are using some idiomatic or difficult-to-understand expressions. Someone says something you don’t understand, or perhaps something that is not true or that you disagree strongly with. You should interrupt to ask what they mean, to clarify, to correct – but you just can’t bring yourself to open your mouth. How do you start? How do you interrupt?

That’s the focus of today’s Business English podcast lesson. We’ll be studying useful language and expressions for interrupting and for resisting or stopping interruption.

The listening takes place in an internal meeting at Strand Technologies, a Hong Kong-based OEM of portable electronic devices, mainly MP3 and MP4 players. OEM stands for “original equipment manufacturer.” It refers to companies that manufacture other companies’ products for them. In this internal meeting, all three participants know each other well so the language is more informal and direct. As you listen, pay attention to how they use assertive language to interrupt each other in order to keep the meeting on track and arrive at positive result more quickly.

Listening Questions

1) What does Bill mean when he says they’re facing a “bottleneck?” What is the bottleneck?
2) Why can’t Bill just retrain the engineers he has?
3) What is Mei Lin’s suggestion to speed up the recruitment process?

*** This lesson is part of our Business English eBook for meetings: Meeting Essentials. Premium members click here to download the complete eBook.

Download: Podcast MP3