商务英语课程UnitBusinessMeeting.ppt

,UNIT,商务会议,5,Learning Objectives Chairing a meeting Asking for and giving opinions or suggestions Agreeing or disagreeing Writing a meeting agendas and taking minutes,Business Meetings, Speaking Task, Warm-up Practice, Listening Task, Follow-up Practice,CONTENTS, Writing Task, Reading Task,Warming-up Practice,We need to discuss some questions about what we are going to learn in this unit.,Sure, thatll help us understand better about what we are asked to do.,To make a good meeting which brings people together, facilitates decision making, and assists people in taking responsibility, an agenda comes first. An agenda helps structure the meeting and keep track of what is being discussed. After a meeting, minutes, which are the agreed record of discussion and decision made, are usually required to record permanently the proceedings of a meeting, as well as to provide a basis for action.,1. Business Meetings,2.Read the following tips for meetings,Tips for Successful Meetings a) Know the goal of the meeting. b) Pick an appropriate time. c) Set an agenda. d) Review the agenda before starting the meeting. e) Set a time limit for the meeting so people can plan accordingly. f) Stay focused on one topic, so that there are no side conversations. g) Record resolution on any items discussed h) Solicit comments from all members. i) At the end of the meeting, summarize the decisions that have been made. j) End the meeting on time. Never let a meeting run long. Again, stick to your original plan.,3. Discuss the following questions:,1) Which do you think are the five most important tips? Why? 2) Which of the tips do you disagree with? Why? 3) Can you add more tips as advice for holding meetings? 4) Why do we have meetings? 5) Discuss in pairs or groups whether you like meetings. Why or why not?,Planning and organizing Taking care of details Practicing smart marketing Being a team player Knowing how to manage time Negotiating skillfully Applying a positive attitude Evaluating results Being a perpetual learner Keeping a sense of humor,Ten Secrets of Super Successful Meeting Planners,TIPS FOR LEADING EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MEETINGS,1. Decide whether you really need to call a meeting. Can the issue be resolved by an individual or a conference call? 2. Determine who needs to attend. Try keeping the number of attendees small, as large meetings get unwieldy. Suggest that people attend only the parts of the meeting that involve them. This way you can keep the discussion more focused. 3. Set definite starting and stopping times. 4. Prepare an agenda. Explain the goal of the meeting; if there are many goals, decide which ones command priority, and make this clear. 5. Circulate the agenda in advance to allow attendees to prepare. 6. Assemble visual aids such as charts, handouts or slides.,TIPS FOR LEADING EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MEETINGS,7. Start off the meeting with straightforward, easily resolved issues before heading into thornier ones. 8. Allocate a specific amount of time for each issue. Move through issues, allowing for discussion but discouraging digression or repetition. Use a timer to help monitor the time. 9.Postpone discussion until the end of the meeting if debate on an issue runs overtime. Make sure to cover the other issues on the agenda. 10.Follow up: Circulate copies of the minutes after the meeting to remind everyone of conclusions and action plans.,TIPS FOR LEADING EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MEETINGS,11. Schedule a meeting before lunch, at the end of the day, or immediately before another one to prevent it from becoming too long. 12.Keeping the meeting positive. Try having a 5-minute recognition period where people are given a chance to show recognition to co-workers who have done a good job or worked extra hard on a project. 13. Stand-up meetings. If you are meeting to discuss just a few items or issues, have a stand-up meeting! Participants are more likely to keep on task and reach a consensus on their feet than in a comfortable chair.,Listening Task,In this part you are going to listen to two passages about business meetings. Now listen and try to finish the exercises while listening. Are you ready?,5.1.1 Listen to the passage and answer the following questions.,1) What are meetings? Meetings are communicating with an audience in a format in which more than one individual come together to introduce, review, or decide something. 2) Why have meeting times and places become more complicated? Because new technologies have emerged and become less expensive and more popular. 3) What is now growing quickly? The use of audio and video conferencing over the Internet 4) What do people prepare once a meeting place and meeting time are arranged, and an agenda or the goals of the meeting are set? People prepare what they will need for the meeting, like graphs, or a PowerPoint presentation. 5) What are the challenges that modern meeting technologies need to solve? Businesses now often have to make strategy and plan and take action quickly. So the people involved have to come together in some form, review the situation, and make a decision. More and more, these people are in different places, and may even speak different languages.,Depending on your job, you may be involved in meetings once a week or several times a day. Many work teams, for example, function by meeting together formally and informally to discuss workplace issues. Organisations use meetings to help co-ordinate activities involving a number of people or work groups. Meetings are used to negotiate sales, investigate problems, plan events, set up business arrangements, develop new procedures and so on. Meetings offer many benefits to an organisation and its members. A well-run meeting encourages co-ordination people can keep up-to-date with developments and changes, which means better planning and co-operation between sections. Meetings can give people an opportunity to share ideas and help develop team spirit. Other benefits of well-managed meetings include greater organisational consensus resulting from collaboration, and more effective problem solving. Different situations require different kinds of meetings. Depending on the problem to be solved, the type of business to be transacted and the nature of the group and leadership style, you might choose: committee meetings; conferences; informal decision-making sessions; conventions; general staff meetings; formal board meetings; meetings to give instructions and training sessions.,5.1.2. Listen to the passage and fill in the missing information in the blanks according to the information you hear.,Speaking Task,In this part you are going to read two dialogues in pairs and then you will be asked to answer some questions about what you have read.,5.2.1 Dialogue Read the dialogue and then answer the following questions.,1) Whats the purpose for this meeting? The purpose is to resolve a few problems which have been caused by the recent merger of their two companies. 2) What are included in the agenda? Financial control, production planning and personnel. 3) Whats the agreed solution to the problem of financial control? To form a working party for both American and Spanish financial management. 4) Why did they skip production planning? Because there were nobody from the production department present at the meeting. 5）What do the Spanish employees feel about the merger of the two companies according to the dialogue? Many Spanish employees are worried and upset about the rapid changes. 6) Do you think this meeting is effective in solving the problems? Why or why not? ( Open),5.2.2 Dialogue,1) What is the first item on the agenda？ A discussion of managements proposals on flexitime. 2) What do the people in Garcias department feel about the flexible time? They feel more flexible hours would make it difficult to cover for each other. 3) Did Carla agree with Garcia about the flexible time? Why? No, she didnt. He thought that there should be flexible days. 4) What was Tinas main point? The core times thats the basic hours that would not be flexible. 5) What did Carla propose? Carla proposed flexible days. But there should be a standard for every department to follow. 6) Do you think flexible working hours will be introduced in this company after the meeting? Why or why not? (Open),Reading Task,1. What made you most frustrated about meetings? 2. When do you think a meeting is necessary? Was the last meeting you attended necessary? Why or why not? 3. Are meetings always successful? If not, what hinders us from reaching our objective in a meeting? 4. How can we solve a problem through a meeting? 5. Is it necessary to keep track of the process of meetings? Why or why not?,PRE-READING QUESTIONS FOR PAIR WORK,Answer the following questions:,1) Why is a written agenda used for a meeting? A written agenda is used as a way of organizing a meeting. 2) What kind of meetings can be avoided and how? When you are simply making some announcements. In such cases, memos or emails can do the job better than meetings. 3) What are the five components of problem solving? They are problem solving orientation, defining the problem, generating solutions (brainstorming), choosing a solution and do and review. 4) How can “people factors” affect the outcome of a meeting? How can we keep them in control? There are people in the meeting that have no interest in solving the problem at hand. Of course this is a huge problem and the meeting should not proceed until everyone has a problem-solving attitude. 5) How can we keep track of the process of the meeting? We can have a tracking sheet for conducting meetings which may consist four elements announcements, problem solving components, bonding stuff and power struggle stuff. 6) What are the advantages of keeping track of how the meetings are held? You can review how the performance went, and pay attention to areas where you might improve.,In this part you are going to learn how to write meeting agendas and take minutes.,Writing Task,Structure of Agenda, welcome any special visitors apologies for absence special event confirmation of minutes of the previous meeting business arising out of minutes correspondence sent and received reports adjourned business general business any other business close of meeting,Sample agenda,AGENDA Bolton Enterprises Marketing Committee Meeting to be held in the Committee Room at Head Office Wednesday, 8 December 2005 10:00 am-12:30 pm Chairperson: Sue Silverton 1. Apologies: Mike Smith 2. Confirmation of Agenda (5mins) 3. Confirmation of Minutes of 25 October 2005 (5mins) 4. Business Arising from Minutes of 25 October 2005 (10mins) 4.1 Plan for launch of SD line (Sue) 5. Agenda items 5.1 Marketing budget for 2006 (30mins) ( Mary) 5.2 Recognition of achievements in sales (15mins) (Richard) 5.3 Market survey data (15mins) John) 6. Reports (30mins) 6.1 Sales (Edward) 6.2New product development (Harry) 6.3 Market research (Zhou) 6.4 Promotion (Richard) 7. Any other Business (15mins) 8. Forward Agenda (10mins) 9. Next Meeting,Minute TakingBefore the Meeting, Choose your tool: Decide how you will take notes, i.e. pen and paper, laptop computer, or tape recorder. Make sure your tool of choice is in working order and have a backup just in case. Use the meeting agenda to formulate an outline.,Minute TakingDuring the Meeting, Pass around an attendance sheet. Get a list of committee members and make sure you know who is who. Note the time the meeting begins. Dont try to write down every single comment - just the main ideas. Write down motions, who made them, and the results of votes, if any; no need to write down who seconded a motion. Make note of any motions to be voted on at future meetings. Note the ending time of the meeting., Type up the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting, while everything is still fresh in your mind. Include the name of organization, name of committee, type of meeting (daily, weekly, monthly, annual, or special), and purpose of meeting. Include the time the meeting began and ended. Proofread the minutes before submitting them.,Minute TakingAfter the Meeting,Sample set of minutes,MINUTES BOLTON ENTERPRISES SAFTY COMMITTEE 6 DECEMBER 2005 Present K. White, D. Thomas, P. Johnson, D. Adams, M. Wang Apologies S. Kelty, Y. London 1 The minutes of the meeting held on 13 October Minutes of the previous meeting were accepted. Moved D. Thomas, seconded P. Johnson The motion relating to item 3, R.C.D. installation had been omitted this will be corrected in the official record. 2 Business arising a) R.C.D installation M Wang will contact the supplier and arrange for a compliance certificate to be issued by 15 December. b) Emergency procedures dispatch store D Thomas will draft a new set of procedures and circulate them to committee members for comment by 8 December. P Johnson reported that has been completed, inspected and approved; however, a certificate of compliance still needs to be issued. The legal implications of not having certificate were addresses. It was agreed this was a matter of high priority. 3 Emergency control tea It was agreed that a formal allocation of funds for emergency-control team training will be made in the 2006 budget. Moved D Adams, seconded M Wang D Adams will present a detailed training plan and recommended budget allocation to the next meeting. The committee noted the report on training for emergency-control team members. It was agreed that a budget allocation would be made for this activity in the 20006 budget. 4 Next meeting The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, 18 January 2006 in the conference room.,Minutes Pro Forma,Checklist for Minutes,Checklist Minute Taker Complete this checklist after a meeting to identify any gaps. I HAVE: TICK IF COMPLETED positioned myself so that I can hear all participants _ written clearly and succinctly _ used tact in describing personal opinions _ referred to agenda when keeping minutes _ noted name, place, time and date of meeting _ recorded attendance _ recorded apologies _ recorded confirmation of minutes _ taken notes on key points of discussion _ accurately recorded motions _ checked with the chairperson for exact wording _ listed names of mover and seconder of motions _ recorded all decisions _ prepared an action list _ distributed the minutes _,Write an English agenda and the minutes of the business meetings based on the information of the conversation one or two in Part II. You may use the minutes pro forma shown above for taking minutes. After you have finished, work in pairs or groups to discuss your work. Please check your minutes with Checklist provided above.,Writing Practice,Follow-up Practice,Practice makes perfect,We will practice what we have learnt in this unit.,Yes, lets do it!,1. Questions and Answers What would you say?,1. You are the chairperson. You think it is time to start the meeting. _. 2. You tell the participants the purpose of the meeting. _. 3. Introduce the first item on the agenda. _. 4. Someone interrupts. Control the interruption. _. 5. You make a good point at a meeting and want to make sure everyone agrees with you. _. 6. You are in the chair and you want to go on to the next topic without a formal vote. _. 7. Mr. Coleman made a point you agreed with a few minutes ago. Refer back to this before you give your own views. _. 8. Mr. Smith made a really stupid point just now. Make it clear that you disagree, without being rude and provoking an argument. _. 9. You ask Mrs. Collins her opinion about the introduction of flexible working hours. _. 10. You have covered everything on the agenda at the meeting and you want to close the meeting. _,2. Here are twelve opinions about meeting: put a tick ( ) beside the ones you agree with and a cross ( x ) beside the ones you disagree with. When you finish, work with your partner. Take it in turns to ask each others opinions and try to give reasons for your opinions.,1. More time is wasted at meetings than in any other