Efficient Meetings

Agendas

The meeting is only as good as the agenda. Practice identifying the key issues, objectives and, more importantly, the hidden agenda. Learn vocabulary for prioritizing, sequencing, reformulating and staying positive.

A good chair person not only keeps the meeting on target but also ensures that everyone contributes and follows the flow.
Learn vocabulary for staying on track; reformulating skills to create cohesion; active listening for cooperation and strategies for reaching goals.

Stating Opinions

It’s important to be explicit and focused when stating opinions. Learn cultural differences to see how you can restructure your ideas to better match the Anglophone style of communicating.  Learn different communication techniques for creating positive responses. Learn vocabulary for being more explicit and direct.

This is often the hardest to do in a foreign language. Practice language skills for supporting your ideas and building arguments that work. Learn vocabulary for calibrating your ideas.

Often conflicts need to be overcome in order to reach agreement and a feeling of “win-win”.  Practice  language tricks for avoiding conflict and creating team cooperation.

Practice active listening  communication techniques to improve dialogue and understanding

Ideas need to be sifted, selected and combined in a way that everyone feels committed.

Learn vocabulary for reformulating and validating ideas.

Learn language for negotiating ideas

So where do we “net out”?

Practice summarizing and providing implications