Professional Oral Communication I: Developing Discussion Skills

Intended learning outcome of this unit. Students should be able to:

Describe the organisational structure of a technical meeting
Identify and evaluate language that can be used to make meetings effective

The Purposes of a Technical Discussion

Both in business and research environments, you are likely to be involved in various technical discussions in different roles. Meetings tend to be conducted at all levels in an organisation, and you may either be involved in them as a participant or could even find yourself managing your own.

Meetings are important in that they can provide a platform for employees to communicate with one another about planning and administrative issues within organisations, and it is thus important to develop an understanding of how different types of meetings are organised and managed. However, it’s also important to remember that some issues that do not necessarily involve all members of your team may often best be discussed on an informal basis, which is generally less time-consuming and thus possibly more productive. In other words, not all decisions to be made require the overhead of setting up a formal meeting.

In a formal meeting, the participants sit down together to work out a solution for a specific task or to plan a project. This is done through the process of exchanging relevant views and information, which initially leads to preliminary solutions and action plans that later need to be implemented and/or refined. To achieve this effectively requires different skills. Douglas McGregor, a Management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management describes effective meetings as having the following characteristics:

An atmosphere without tension or boredom.
The discussion involves all members.
The discussion is relevant to the task.
Members understand team/meeting goals.
Members are committed to the team goals.
Disagreements are aired without ill feeling from members.
Consensus is sought on all decisions.
Criticism is constructive and given freely.
Feelings are expressed, as well as ideas.
Clear assignments are made and agreed.
The chairperson does not dominate.
There is no undue deference to the chairperson.

The list above may not be exhaustive, but represents an interesting starting point for discussion. In small teams, discuss the individual points listed above and decide whether, based on your own cultural experience, you would have come up with a similar list.

The Usual Procedures of a Meeting

Some basic understanding about the usual procedures necessary for arranging and managing a meeting is necessary before we start talking about the language features. The table below shows what happens during the different stages:

Table 6.1 The Usual Procedures of a Meeting
Stage	What needs to be done by the chairperson	What needs to be done by the participants
Before the meeting	clarify the goals. decide who should participate. arrange the meeting (time, venue, duration) inform participants (about goals, time, venue and duration) gather enough background information for all potential discussions. send any information required by all participants prior to the meeting	review preliminary information provided by the team leader(s)/supervisor(s). possibly request more information to be able to fully understand the background and the requirement(s). be prepared to report on work done, express views, suggestions, concerns, etc., during the meeting.
During the meeting	announce the goals of the meeting and the agenda. guide participants in discussions and making potential decisions. clarify points if necessary. summarise the meeting assign duties or encourage participants to volunteer to take up duties take notes of the discussion, the decisions made, and participants and the duties that they have been assigned/have volunteered to take up, or assign someone to do this task	report on the task and the factors involved propose possible solutions in terms of technology, products, designs or services discuss the solutions and come up with suitable suggestions help to decide on specific actions to take
After the meeting	ensure that the minutes or outcomes of the meeting are written up. disseminate the minutes/outcomes to the participants	keep notes of the meeting carry out tasks as assigned or volunteered in the meeting

Obviously, the exact stages and actions taken will very much depend on the particular project at hand, and sometimes certain decisions may be delayed until further information becomes available.

Getting ready for an initial meeting with a client – an internal pre-meeting

In this section, we will explore what needs to be prepared for an initial meeting with representatives from a client organisation that is looking for a suitable service provider to develop a solution to an existing problem. In such a meeting, the goal for the project team is to gain some understanding of the client’s needs and gather enough information for the next stage of work, which is to decide whether the solution that the client asks for is feasible, and later on to design a solution for the client’s organisation. The goal for the client representatives is to find out whether the consultancy firm can develop the solution their organisation is looking for.

Before meeting the client for the first time, it is important that the project team leader gathers some basic information about the client (e.g., the organisation, the contact person from the organisation, nature of business run by the organisation, a rough idea of the problem that requires a solution, etc.). The information provided in your scenario provides a starting point for a team leader to gather for his/her project team the information needed for the meeting with the representatives from the client organisation. Of course, before meeting with the client, the project team also needs to meet to discuss what exactly may need be done in the first meeting with the client representatives. This will, on the one hand, include identifying questions you need to clarify with the prospective client concerning the project, such as e.g.

What are the financial arrangements for the project?
What is the general scope of the project? large scale? medium scale? small scale?
What is the approximate time frame?
How can you gain access to potentially restricted information?
etc.

On the other hand, you also need to tray and anticipate any potential questions the client may have for you, in order to be able to perpare suitable answers in advance. These questions may e.g. be related to:

How, given your current understanding of the project, do you propose to carry it out?
What kind of particular expertise would your team members bring into the project?
etc.

In the following sections, we’ll first explore some useful phrases and techniques for managing the first internal discussion and the later meeting(s) with the client. You’ll later get to use these expressions in simulating your own meetings in the form of role plays.

Language used in the formal technical discussion

Expressing Support/Agreeing

Here’s a sample dialogue of the kind you’ll often encounter in a meeting. The people in this example are discussing features of a new mobile phone prototype for elderly citizens in Hong Kong. Study the example and decide which response may be best for Kelly to make. What makes the one you have chosen better than the others? Are there any examples you you think may not be appropriate? If so, try to justify your answer.

Maggie	I think we should incorporate a large screen and big buttons into our prototype so that the elderly can see better what is displayed and have less of a chance of making input mistakes.
Kelly

While you may have been taught previously (most likely in secondary school) that you should not be using option one only (i.e. Yes, I agree with you.) when showing agreement, there is actually nothing wrong with this response. It really depends on the context and situation what exactly is most appropriate. Sometimes, it’s perfectly OK to use simple responses if you just want to show your agreement without elaborating. The reason why many teachers and textbooks in Hong Kong teach otherwise is probably just to encourage students to speak more and use complete(ly) ‘grammatical’ sentences. This, however, is based on a misconception of what natural spoken language is actually like, and may simply make your responses sound ‘artificial’. Spoken language is quite different from written language, though, and its ‘sentences’ often start with conjunctions like and or but, or are highly elliptical, so that many direct responses only consist of single words or short phrases that frequently don’t even contain any verbs.

Here are some further short sample phrases you can use when expressing support or agreement. Remember, these are only some prototypical examples:

Maggie	I think we should incorporate a large screen and big buttons into our prototype so that the elderly can see better what is displayed and have less of a chance of making input mistakes.
Kelly	As indicated by the findings from our questionnaire, a bigger screen and larger buttons are among the features most wanted by the elderly citizens. And they also think there should be a dedicated emergency button, which I think we can put in our design, too.
Maggie

Expressing Disagreement

Of course, people can’t always agree with each other in a meeting. It’s always important to make your position in a debate clear, while being polite to people if you disagree with them.

Study the following exchanges. Which option do you think is the most appropriate when showing disagreement? Again, try to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each of the options provided.

Maggie	I think we should incorporate a large screen and big buttons into our prototype so that the elderly can see better what is displayed and have less of a chance of making input mistakes.
Kelly

Here are some more sample phrases for expressing disagreement:

Maggie	I think we should incorporate a large screen and big buttons into our prototype so that the elderly can see better what is displayed and have less of a chance of making input mistakes.
Kelly

Turn-taking

The organisation of taking turns in talking is an important part of any meeting. The skills of turn-taking include a set of techniques with which different speakers in a conversation determine and influence when to speak and when to listen. In this section, we are going to introduce expressions which you can use to perform different turn-taking functions, but you also have to bear in mind that due to the spontaneous nature of a conversation, it is natural to have overlaps in a dialogue (i.e. when two or more speakers speak at the same time). In fact, what you see in many textbooks teaching turn taking skills are hardly what really happens in the real world.

Some examples provided in this section are adapted from Goodale (1987).

Interrupting

It is acceptable to interrupt someone when it is made at the right moment. Generally, you can interrupt during a pause in what the speaker is saying. For example, it is possible to interrupt when a speaker hesitates or when he/she is switching subjects.

Jason	...and that would be the first thing I wanted to mention today.
Tom (Ex. 1)	, there’s something else that I observed during my research regarding the point that you’ve just mentioned.
Tom (Ex. 2)	, but there is this other important thing that we still have to consider regarding this issue.
Tom (Ex. 3)
Tom (Ex. 3)

Coming back to a Point after an Interruption

Interruptions often happen when the point(s) previously raised need(s) clarifications. When the interruption finishes, the original speaker may return to what he or she was saying by using these expressions:

Jason	... and that would be the first thing I wanted to talk about today.
Tom	Could I say something about... [gives his comment]
Jason	Thank you Tom.

Keeping the floor

Sometimes we may want to finish a point before letting another member in the group interrupt. Here are some sample expressions to achieve this purpose.

Jason	... and that would be the first thing I wanted to talk about today.
Tom	I have a question here.
Jason	Sorry Tom.

Time Management

One of the challenges when holding a meeting is staying within the time limits. It is generally the responsibility of the chairperson to ensure that time limits are observed by each individual member. Here are some expressions that can be used to keep the meeting flowing at the appropriate pace.

Scenario	Jason has been debating with others whether the team should develop a feature phone for the elderly. They have been debating for 15 minutes already and cannot reach a consensus. Time is running short and Peter, the chairman of the meeting, needs to stop the debate and move on to the next item on the agenda.
Jason	... and really, as we can see from what’s happening on the Japanese market, these phones are not really popular. That’s why I’ve been stressing that we should not only develop a feature phone which can cater only for the elderly market.
Peter

Regaining Focus

Another important task for a chairperson is to keep the discussion relevant to the original agenda. In a meeting, it is easy to get off topic when you have a number of people involved. Here are some expressions to keep the meeting centred on the items as they appear on the agenda.

Scenario	The team needs to come up with the basic features to be included in the prototype, but somehow got distracted and is talking about the material and cosmetic details instead
Amanda	... and really, as we can see from what’s happening on the Japanese market, these phones are not really popular. That’s why I’ve been stressing that we should not only develop a feature phone which can cater only for the elderly market.
Peter

Making Decisions

During a meeting, it’s not always possible to reach a consensus between team members. This is when certain issues may need to be put to a vote. Most votes occur during meetings. Votes can be open, where people raise their hands in favour of or against the issue. The results of such open votes are transparent and can be seen immediately. However, there are situations when open votes do not work. For instance, when deciding who should be elected to take on a certain role. In this case, to make sure the voting is fair and voters will not be influenced by others’ decisions, the votes should be private or closed. In private votes, attendees fill out ballots and place them in a box to be counted. The results may not be counted until after the meeting. Here are some specific expressions used when opening the voting:

Scenario	The team needs to make a decision on the screen size design of phones for the elderly, and the chairperson, Peter, has decided to put this to an open vote.
Peter	Well, I think we’ve heard enough reasons for different screen sizes from Amanda and Maggie.
Members	[Those who agree with Amanda’s motion raise their hands]
Peter	All in favour of Maggie’s proposal?
Members	[Those who agree with Maggie’s proposal raise their hands]

Assigning Duties

At the end of a meeting, it is quite common to assign different tasks/duties to different group members so that they can head off and work individually/in small groups to help finish the project. When duties are assigned to individuals and small groups, we can make sure the items discussed will be taken care of and acted upon. To minimise conflicts and increase efficiency, it is advisable to divide work equitably among team members. Depending on the nature of the meeting setup, different expressions maybe used.

Scenario	When the chairperson has the power to assign duties
Chairperson	Michael,
Michael

Scenario	When there is a flat power structure in a group
Chairperson	Now we have a list of items that we need to act on, based on our discussion just now.
Member 1	I think I can take the first one.
Member 2	Can I take ___________ there? I’d rather prefer not to work on ___________ because...
Member 3	Very well, I’ll work on it then. I don’t really have any preference.

Your team is getting together to decide on the relevant questions concerning your project for the first official meeting. Before you begin, designate a team leader who is then expected to chair the meeting and encourage every member to contribute ideas. During the meeting, try to look at the project closely from both perspectives, your team’s, as well as the client’s, and come up with a suitable series of questions for your particular project scenario. These questions should later allow one of the other groups to act as your client, so they need to be clear enough for the other time, who have not specialised in your topic, to understand the most relevant aspects of the client’s needs.
Apart from identifying questions, you should also try to assign some preliminary roles to each member of the team. This will help you to present your team and the individual competences of the team members to the client.

Meeting with your client – understanding the problem and parameters

When a client approaches a consultancy firm for services, initial contacts are normally made via the phone, email or other channels. When the contacts are established and both parties find that there is a potential for doing business, meetings will be held at either the client’s office or the consultancy firm to exchange information in order to further investigate the possibility of pursuing the business. That is, the client will decide whether the consultancy firm is capable of developing the solution, and the consultancy firm will decide whether the solution (project) is feasible given the requirements of the client and resources available in the consultancy firm.

In this section, you will learn how to run the first of such initial meetings. The normal structure (procedure) in the first meeting is:

Socialising (by carrying out smalltalk).
Team members or team leaders introduce each other/the mebers of each ream, and exchange name cards.
Goals are stated by the leader of the project team or the client’s team (depending on who initiated the meeting).
Seeking and/or clarifying information from both parties.
Discussing the possibility of carrying out the project.
A(ny) O(ther) B(usiness).
Calling for another meeting (if both parties agree that the project is worth carrying out).

Language Used in the First Meeting

During a technical discussion, you will need to perform various speech acts such as expressing agreement, disagreement, asking for, as well as giving, your own opinions. While you may have no problem expressing the above in your mother tongue, some sample phrases may be useful to get your ideas across in English.

Starting a meeting/discussion

Below is an example of how a leader might start a meeting. Study the transcript and discuss in pairs what the leader is trying to do.

Team leader

Good morning. If I could have everyone’s attention please, I think we are ready to start. Let me say a few words about our format today. We’re going to have an open discussion, going through a series of questions that we have listed in the agenda. And I hope we can finish this in half an hour. We are very lucky to have with us a distinguished group of experts today, so let me start by introducing our panel this morning. I’m X, from XY Engineering. Starting from my left, we have...

In general, a chairperson may use different expressions to perform the following functions when starting a meeting:

Welcoming participants
Stating the purpose
Outlining the agenda
Calling on a speaker

Complete the introduction of a meeting with the phrases provided.

we should have everybody here. , we’ve got a lot to get through this morning. with a presentation by Peter giving us the background information of the situation, we’ll split up into small groups of three or four and brainstorm some ideas. , we as a large group to hear the main points. , we the finalised list of actions. Okay, let’s get started.

Seeking and Clarifying Information

Seeking and clarifying information is an important skill when you meet you client for the first time trying to figure out their needs and requirements. Before going to the meeting, you would normally have a general picture of what sort of details do you need in order to accept the job and carry on with the project.

Seeking clarification
Clarifying Information

Drawing tentative conclusions/Making tentative decisions

In most initial meetings, no definite conclusions are arrived at or decisions made. Anything said is likely to be tentative, including the conclusions drawn from information sought and the decisions made. This is to provide room for making changes in case unforeseen problems or obstacles come up in future discussions. The following expressions serve these two functions.

Drawing tentative conclusions
Making tentative decisions

Ending the meeting

I think we should end there. Right, let me just summarise the key points...
We seem to have covered everything now, so I’d like to go over the decisions we’ve taken...
We’ll be in touch again.
Well gentlemen/folks/ladies, it’s been a pleasure to see you today and I’m looking forward to our next meeting.
Thanks for a very useful meeting... We’ll be in touch again soon.
Right, everyone, I’ll ask X to arrange another meeting with you sometime next week. How about that?

Break your project team into two pairs. One pair will play the consultancy team and the other pair the client that your project team will be serving. One person in each group will play the team leader. Imagine that you’re meeting up for the first time to explore the possibility of carrying out your project. Start by carrying out some smalltalk. Then leader of each team should introduce him-/herself and the team, and then all members may exchange their name cards. After that, the chairperson will call on members from the client’s team to brief the project team about the problem that they are facing by using the expressions you learnt earlier.

Your project team and another one will take turns to simulate two meetings in front of the class. In one of the meetings, you’ll be playing the project team, while the other team will be playing your client. In the other meeting, the roles will be reversed.

When playing the role of the project team, you’re expected to go through the information- or clarification-seeking questions that you and your team have identified earlier. When playing the role of the client team, you’re supposed to provide information about the problem that your organisation wants the project team to solve, but also to try and find out what qualifies the project team to carry out your particular project.

The meeting has been initiated by the project team and takes place at the client’s organisation. Try to apply the expressions that you have learned so far in this unit.

References

Goodale, M. (1987). The Language of Meetings. Hove: LTP.