Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on finishing a meeting in English. We’ll learn how to summarize action points and wrap up the meeting.

A well-run meeting can be productive and useful. But a poorly run meeting can leave everyone feeling like their time has been wasted. And one of the big differences between good and bad meetings is how they end.

A good meeting doesn’t slowly run out of energy. Instead, there’s a clear ending to it. And people come out of the meeting with a strong sense of purpose and a clear idea of what they need to do. Without a sense of purpose, people might feel like the meeting generated a lot of discussion but nothing more.

Giving a strong finish to a meeting isn’t actually that hard to do. First off, you need to be clear that the meeting is about to end. That gives people a chance to collect their thoughts. Next, you can summarize the action points and assign tasks. You may also want to emphasize how important they are to give some extra motivation. Then you can wrap up the meeting with some closing thoughts.

In today’s dialog, we’ll join a meeting at a bank. The team has been discussing some recent issues and future plans. You will hear Lisa provide a strong finish to the meeting with James, Bryan, Charles, and Cecilia.

Listening Questions

1. What question does Lisa ask the group before stating the action items?
2. What does Lisa emphasize about James planned action?
3. What does Lisa say to officially end the meeting?

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 81c – Meeting English: Action Points and Wrapping Up first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s English for meetings lesson on how to deal with interruptions during a meeting.

Meetings are a very important part of work life. They are where decisions are made, relationships are built, and work is coordinated. When meetings go smoothly, they can feel very productive. But meetings can easily become messy and unfocused.

In many cases, people compete for time and attention during meetings. They interrupt each other to give new ideas, disagree, or try to get their way. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is a critical skill if you want to participate fully in a meeting.

Interrupting people is easier if you learn some useful phrases. You can also learn language to help you stop an interruption and finish what you were saying. In some cases, you might need to concede someone else’s point, either partly or fully. When we concede a point, we are saying “okay, you’re right.” Sometimes that’s the key to moving on after an interruption.

In today’s dialog, we’ll join a meeting at a manufacturing company. Bill is the production manager and Mei Lin and Sam work in HR. They are discussing staffing and recruiting for a new production line. Bill is keen to hire new staff, but Sam and Mei Lin want to explore alternative approaches so there’s a lot of disagreement and interrupting during the meeting.

Listening Questions

1. What does Bill say is the purpose of the meeting?
2. What is one of the expressions Mei Lin uses to interrupt Bill when he’s speaking?
3. What does Bill say to get back to what he was trying to say after being interrupted?

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 68c – English for Meetings: Dealing with Interruptions first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Welcome back to Business English Pod for the second part of our look at managing conflict with subcontractors. In this lesson we’re going to focus on dealing with scope creep, cost disputes and conflicting priorities.

When things go sideways with contractors, it’s rarely because of one big mistake. It’s usually a thousand small disagreements that pile up. Different expectations, unclear goals, or shifting priorities can spoil what’s supposed to be a healthy collaboration. Learning to manage these conflicts will help you keep projects on track and maintain trust.

When problems come up, smart project managers don’t avoid the hard conversations. Instead, they face things head-on. This requires good communication skills, and fortunately, these skills can be learned.

Some of the things you might face are conflicts over the scope of a project or resources. And don’t be surprised if you disagree on money, or costs. Learning to face these issues directly is one thing. But you also need to learn the art of compromise and seek constructive solutions.

In today’s dialog, we’ll join a telephone conversation between a project manager named Celia and a subcontractor named Raj. Celia works for a software development company that has hired Raj’s team to build a payment gateway module for a new banking app.

Listening Questions

1. What piece of work do Celia and Raj disagree about, in terms of whether its part of the project scope?
2. What compromise does Celia suggest on the issue of costs?
3. At the end of the dialog, what solution does Celia state that she wants to see to prevent further problems?

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 419 – English for Projects: Managing Conflict with Contractors 2 first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.