MEETINGS

Meetings are called by managers who get lonely.

Meeting is an essential part of manager’s work. They are held for three main reasons: 1) to carry out training, 2) to transmit information, 3) to solve a problem.

Read the following recommendations and try to follow them in your life.

Before you call the meeting:

· decide if the meeting is the best method of achieving the objective;

· put the objective in writing;

· collect all the information necessary;

· select specific items for discussion;

· anticipate difficulties, awkward members and prepare documents and courses of notion to overcome the difficulties expected;

· prepare the agenda with no more than 5 objectives.

During the meeting:

· state the purpose of the meeting;

· outline the objectives it is hoped to achieve;

· do not impose your views on the group;

· direct discussion toward the objectives;

· develop participation by contrasting different viewpoints;

· watch the clock and note reaction of members who appear to be loosing interest;

· where opinion is divided a vote is to be taken.

After the meeting:

· the secretary of the meeting prepares "minutes";

· minutes must be an accurate account of the substance of the meeting. No opinions, no discussions, no irrelevant talk. They should be brief;

· minutes should follow the agenda of the meeting.

Tips for better meeting.

1. Hold them early in the day and don’t allow phone calls to in­terrupt the proceedings.

2. Pay particular attention to meeting; chairs should not be plastic-covered but fabric-covered and firm.

3. If you know you are going to have a difficult person at the meeting, sit that person on your right or left. If this person is allowed to sit opposite you, the meeting will often be split into two.

4. Get everyone to contribute to the discussion but don't put people on the spot by asking, "What do you think, Jane?"

5. Place your watch on the table in front of you so that people can see you are going to run to time; start on time; finish when you say you will.

6. Avoid letting people know what you think before they have made their views known.

Task V. Work in pairs or in small groups and discuss the following questions. Be ready to present your results to the rest of the class.

1. Think of a meeting you have attended recently:

· How would you have structured them differently?

· Were they a waste of time?

· What would happen if people didn’t hold meetings?

2. Look at the problems given below and decide the best way of dealing with each problem. Which one would be best? Why?

· a one-to-one meeting of two of the people involved;

· a meeting of four or five of the people involved;

· a meeting of about ten of the people involved;

· a meeting of everyone involved;

· one person decides what to do and then informs everyone by phoning or sending a memo?

a. A large, influential customer continuously pays late. Your sales manager and credit controller have politely and repeatedly complained but this hasn’t made any difference. The time has come to decide what to do about it.

b. In a small factory the older workers are ignoring safety rules and encouraging the younger ones to do the same. Some of the rules may be excessively cautious and the older workers’ production rates are very good.

c. In a medium-size factory groups of workers operate as teams. One group has been getting poorer results than the other teams and verbal warnings have had no effect.

d. The firm is having a bad year and it will probably be necessary to make five members of the office staff redundant. The normal policy is “last in – first out”

e. Someone has been leaking information about your firm’s products to your competitors. It may be a member of your staff or one of your preferred suppliers.

f. There is to be a picnic next month and everything has to be planned and organized.

Task VI. Return to Task IV. Match these suggested solutions to the problems in the text. Do you agree with the solutions? Why or why not? Do your solutions differ greatly?

A) Never assume that everyone understands. Make sure that everyone can talk to each other and share information. Resolve any conflicts straight away or you will run into a lot of problems and complications later on.

В) Take time to review how projects have gone in the past. Keep a running list of what worked, what didn't, and how to do it better next time.

С) Spend longer on research and preparation. Make contingency plans, and don't just concentrate on making it to market before your competition. If you get there first but your product is faulty, you'll get nothing but complaints and a bad reputation.

D) Create an accurate forecast. Outline ways to develop better upfront planning of the resources. Make sure you allocate enough funds to each department and keep track of spending.

E) Define 'checkpoints' throughout the project so you stay on track. Monitor everyone's performance and prioritize tasks when there is a problem. Addressing problems quickly will save time later. You can still make the launch date you've set or even finish ahead of schedule.

Task VII. Work with a partner. Have a conversation about one of these situations. Suggest your solutions to the problem.

1. You work in a sector where it is extremely difficult to recruit suitable employees. You are seriously understaffed and demand for the company’s service is huge.

2. You share a small office. One of you constantly has meetings with other

colleagues in the office. It’s very difficult to work while this is happening.

3. You are in the meeting. One of your colleagues presents some facts and figures which you know are completely wrong.

4. One of your colleagues is taking a lot of time off work, officially because of stress, and this is increasing the workload and stress for the other team members.

Task VIII. Read the following dialogues. Try to guess the meaning of the business idioms given in bold. Give their Russian equivalents.

1. A: That agent was a fast talker.

B: Yes. He was shooting a line, if you ask me.

2. A: I've been chatting up the man at the enquiry desk. He's no good.

B: We want someone who can pull some strings for us.

3. A: The Junior Assistant obviously knows the ropes. But would you and he hit it off together?

B: That's just it. He'd be no use as a silent partner; he'd want a share of the action.

4. A: What happened to those ultra-thin communicators your company was plugging?

B: We pulled out after a few months. They never really caught on.

5. A: There's mounting tension among the various parties in the Government.

B: Let's hope it doesn't come to a showdown while we're here.

6. A: I've just been listening to the news on the BBC World Service... the Bank rate's gone up again.

B: Oh no! A credit squeeze now would be a real setback.

7. A: Well, well. I see our friend has been awarded another government contract.

B: He seems to have the knack for impressing the right people.

8. A: First we set up a distribution network. Then we can start prospecting the market...

B: Hold on. Aren't you rather putting the cart before the horse?

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