English for Meetings | Meeting English | Business English Pod

Skills 360 – Teleconferences (Part 2)

Business English, Business Skills 360, English for Meetings, Teleconference English / March 8, 2015

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Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on leading and managing a teleconference meeting.

Leading a meeting is rarely easy. You’ve got to manage time, an agenda, and – most importantly – a diverse group of people. Now, what about if the meeting happens by phone, with each person or small group calling in from a different location? Nobody can see each other, and there may be a variety of distractions that you, as the leader, can’t shut out simply by closing the door. Sure, teleconferencing is a marvel of modern technology, but it can be challenging.

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Skills 360 – Teleconferences (Part 1)

Business English, Business Skills 360, English for Meetings, Teleconference English / March 1, 2015

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons in our free Business English App for iPhone & iPad:
Download from the App Store

Welcome back to the Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to participate in a teleconference.

With modern technology, you don’t have to be in the same room to have a meeting with other people. Teleconferencing tools allow us to connect by phone, VOIP, or video from across the country, or around the world. You can even join a meeting from home, your car or on plane at 30,000 feet in the air. Sure, it’s amazing, but teleconferencing brings special challenges, and we have to be mindful of things that real-life meetings don’t require.

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English for Meetings Mobile App

Announcements, English for Meetings, Mobile Learning / October 19, 2014

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Business English Pod brings you English for Meetings – an eCourse app packed with quality English lessons to help you get your English language skills in shape for your next meeting.

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> Practice English as it is used in everyday business situations.
> Study the transcript as you listen – easily sync to the audio using the time codes in the transcripts.
> Test your knowledge of the lesson by completing a progress quiz.
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BEP 255 – English for Meetings: Decision-Making Meetings (3)

Business English, English for Meetings / June 8, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on decision-making meetings in English.

In business, groups need to be able to come together to make good decisions. And with the right group of people who have the right information and the opportunity to discuss it, there’s a good chance that a decision is going to lead to success. There’s a lot riding on every decision-making meeting, and when that decision is made, it’s important that the team move forward together.

Fortunately, there are skills and techniques that we can learn to make group decision-making work well. In today’s lesson, we’ll look at asking for dissenting opinions, agreeing with reservations, and asking for buy-in. We’ll also look at identifying action items and delegating responsibilities stemming from a decision.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin a group of people at an engineering company that has been deciding on a new vendor for tech support. Scott has been leading the meeting, while Anne, David, and Kelly have all been contributing their opinions. The group is about to settle on their final choice.

Listening Questions

1. What does Kelly not like about Alamo?
2. What is one of the actions that Scott mentions must be taken after the meeting?
3. What does Scott ask Kelly to do following the meeting?

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BEP 254 – English for Meetings: Decision-Making Meetings (2)

Business English, English for Meetings / June 1, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on decision-making meetings in English.

Making a group of people agree on an important business decision can seem like a difficult task. And it is. People come to the table with different values, visions, opinions, experiences, and priorities. But these differences also make decisions stronger. If we can get groups to agree, to reach consensus, then our decisions are, on the whole, wiser and better.

So how do we bring a group to consensus on a decision? There are a variety of techniques that we can use. In this lesson we’ll look at eliminating an option, highlighting a final choice, and testing for consensus. We’ll also cover expressing reservations and presenting an alternative.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Scott, Anne, David, and Kelly, who work at an engineering firm that needs to choose a new tech support company. With Scott leading the meeting, the group has been discussing four different options. In our last lesson, the group already eliminated one option, and at the beginning of this lesson, you’ll hear them eliminate one more, bringing the options down to two.

Listening Questions

1. What does Scott say the discussion has focused on?
2. Why does Kelly suggest they choose Brightstar?
3. What two advantages does David mention about Alamo?

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