Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to run an effective brainstorming session.
Have you ever conducted a brainstorming session that simply goes nowhere? A few people throw out some ideas, but most participants seem uninspired or bored? You ask questions, but people don’t answer? Well, today I want to give you some tips for kickstarting the process and getting the juices flowing.
Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to run a brainstorming session or meeting.
Every company uses brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and solve problems. But do all brainstorming sessions generate good ideas? Does everyone leave a brainstorming session feeling like they accomplished something? Well, that often depends on the facilitator. And if you are the one to run the show, there are several things you need to think about.
When you, your team, or your company finish a project, what do you do? Do you rush into the next project and put the last one behind you? Or do you take the time to talk about what you’ve done and try to learn from your mistakes? Let’s think about this another way: do you find that certain problems keep coming up in one project after another? Well, they don’t have to. Not if you take the time to learn, to discuss, and to debrief.
Yes, it’s important to discuss the projects we’ve completed. And in these types of discussions native speakers will use many common and useful expressions. Sometimes we call these useful expressions “collocations.” That’s a fancy way to talk about a natural combination of words. Just think about an expression like “to launch a new product.” We don’t say “start” a new product, or “let out” a new product. The natural collocation is “launch a new product.” As you listen to the dialog, try to pick out some of these expressions and we’ll go through them later in our own debrief.
In the dialog, we’re going to rejoin Dean and Michelle, whose company has just finished a project to expand a manufacturing plant. In our last lesson, they talked about some of the successes and delays in the project. Today, we’ll hear them talk about how to resolve some of the problems they experienced.
Listening Questions
1. What is Dean’s main concern about the problem with City Steel?
2. What was another contributing factor in project delays?
3. What does Dean suggest to Michelle about how to do things better?
Every project has its ups and downs, its successes and its problems. But every company hopes it can get better with each new project, and avoid the problems of previous undertakings. So how can we do that? How can we improve what we can do at the project level?
Well, we talk about it. When a project, an experience, or a venture is complete, we need to discuss what went well and what didn’t go so well. And through this discussion, we learn. We find out why we succeeded in some areas and why we failed in others. Sometimes we call this “debriefing” a project. And the point of this debriefing is to learn how to do a better job the next time around.
In this lesson on discussing the outcome of a project, we’ll learn lots of useful collocations. Collocations can help you sound more natural in English, but what exactly is a collocation? Well, a collocation is a group of words that English speakers often use in combination. Correct collocations sound natural. For example, we say “make a mistake.” But incorrect collocations are sound unnatural. For example, people would find it strange if you said “do a mistake” or “take a mistake.” As you listen to the dialog, try to pick out some of these expressions and we’ll go through them later in our own debrief.
In the dialog, we’re going to hear a conversation between Dean and Michelle. Their company has recently finished a project to expand a production facility, and now they’re talking about how the project went. In other words, they’re debriefing the project.
Listening Questions
1. What were the successes of the project?
2. What were two causes of delays on the project?
3. What does Michelle say she’d like to see in their company?
If you’ve ever had to negotiate anything, whether it’s a salary, a corporate buyout, or a partnership, you’re sure to understand the importance of preparation. You can’t head into the room without first figuring out what you want and what you’re willing to give up. And if you’re doing the negotiation with a team, it’s even more important. Everyone needs to know the plan and the strategy beforehand. Otherwise you’ll be looking at each other and wondering “well, what should we do now?”
Before a strategic negotiation, your team needs to establish its position. But what does that involve? How do we do that? In today’s lesson, we’ll look at some useful techniques for this situation. We’ll cover summarizing key benefits, anticipating obstacles, and suggesting ways around obstacles. We’ll also learn how to decide on an initial position and propose a negotiating strategy.
In our last lesson, we heard Mike, the VP of Asian sales for an American autoparts company called Sigma. He pitched the idea for a partnership to a former colleague who now works for a Japanese company called NVP.
In today’s dialog, we’ll hear Mike meeting with Grant, Sigma’s Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Sales, and Tess, who looks after the business development and legal departments. Together, they’re trying to work out an initial position before heading into the negotiation with NVP.
Listening Questions
1. Why does Mike mention NVP’s huge volume, huge network, and strong foothold in SE Asia?
2. What does Mike suggest as a way around the China problem?
3. Which idea does the team agree to save for later in the negotiation?
