Lesson 15: Introduction to meeting and negotiation

Part 1: Intro to meeting

Before a meeting, one should always be prepared. A successful meeting has no surprises. With proper preparation and careful organization, a meeting can run smoothly. The most typical complaint about meetings is that they run too long. Meetings that run longer than necessary can be very costly to a company or business. Setting goals and time limits, keeping to the agenda, and knowing how to refocus, are key components of an effective meeting.

There are a lot of ways of starting a meeting. How you start a meeting is depended on the situation and the type of meeting that is being held.


Six Steps to begin a Meeting:

1. Getting everybody attention
2. Greeting, welcoming and thank you
3. Introduce any new colleagues if there are any
4. Explaining the objectives
5. Looking at the agenda
6. Asking someone to start


Part 2: Getting everybody attention

Before you start a meeting, you need to get everyone’s attention to make sure that they know that a meeting is about to start:

· Is everybody here?
· Is everyone here?
· Can I get everyone’s attention?
· Can we get started?
· Let’s get down to business.
· Let’s get started shall we?
· I think it’s about time we get started.
· If we are all here, let's get started / start the meeting / start
· O.K. everyone, we need to get this show on the road. (informal)


Part3: Greeting, welcoming and thank you

Be sure to thank everyone who attends the meeting. Start off with a greeting with ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ or ‘hello’.

· I sorry that I have to call this meeting in such short notice
· It’s good to see you all here
· Thank you all for coming
· I’m glad to see you all here (I know it’s a long way for some of you to come)
· I really appreciate you all being here on time and ready to start (to work)

Part 4: Introducing new colleagues

If someone is new to a meeting, please introduce them and ask them to give a short introduction about themselves

· Please join me in welcoming __________________.
· We're pleased to welcome ___________________.
· I'd like to extend a warm welcome to _____________________.
· It's a pleasure to welcome ______________.
· I'd like to introduce ___________________.
· Would you like to say a few words about yourself?
· Everybody say hello to ________________.
· He/she is visiting us from ____________________.

If someone is absent, point out at this time.

· I'm afraid ________________can't be with us today. She is in _____________________.
· Unfortunately, _________________will not be with us today because he ___________________.
· I have received apologies for absence from__________________, who is in _____________________.

Part 5: Explaining the objectives

Then, you will explain the objective of the meeting (the purpose of the meeting)

· We're here today to ...
· I'd like to make sure that we ...
· Our main aim today is to ...
· I've called this meeting in order to ...
· The main objective of this meeting is to…
· The reason we are meeting today is to deal with…..
· The primary purpose of this meeting is to work out ways …..
· The main problem we are facing is ……..
· The main thing I would like to accomplish today is to…..

Strong use of words in partnership

· To face
· Cope with
· Deal with
· Define problems and challenges
· To work out
· Start a discussion

Part 6: Looking at the agenda

Usually before looking at the agenda, it is best to take some time to quickly go through the important notes of the last meeting to see if there are any other questions that needs to be discussed.

· To begin with I'd like to quickly go through the minutes (notes) of our last meeting.
· First, let's go over the report from the last meeting, which was held on ______________________.
· Here are the minutes (notes) from our last meeting, which was on ___________________.


At the same time, you can also ask about the recent movements or developments.

· __________________, can you tell us how the XYZ project is progressing?
· _______________, how is the XYZ project coming along?
· ___________________, have you completed the report on the ____________________?
· Has everyone received a copy of the report on ________________________?


These steps can be omitted depending on the situation.


Moving forward with the agenda:

· So, if there is nothing else we need to discuss, let's move on to today's agenda.
· Shall we get down to business?
· Is there any other Business?
· If there are no further developments, I'd like to move on to today's topic.


Introducing the agenda:

· Have you all received a copy of the agenda?
· There are X items on the agenda. First, ... second, ... third, ... lastly, ...
· Let’s take a quick look at the agenda….
· As you can see there are X points in today’s agenda.
· I have divided up the meeting today into ______parts.
· Shall we take the points in this order?
· If you don't mind, I'd like to go in order today.
· skip item 1 and move on to item 3
· I suggest we take item 2 last.


Part 7: Before starting an agenda

Before going into the agendas, it is important to have all the work, such as taking notes, leading points, etc., in a meeting distribute to different people.

· _____________________has agreed to take the minutes.
· _________________, would you mind taking the minutes?
· _______________ has kindly agreed to give us a report on ...
· _____________________will lead point 1, _______________point 2, and _____________________point 3.
· _______________________, would you mind taking notes today?


Also, outline the rules of the meeting:

· We will first hear a short report on each point first, followed by a discussion of ...
· I suggest we go round the table first.
· Let's make sure we finish by __________.
· I'd suggest we ...
· There will be ___________minutes for each item.
· We'll have to keep each item to __________ minutes. Otherwise we'll never get through.


Part 8: Introducing the first item in an agenda

· So, let's start with ...
· I'd suggest we start with...
· Why don't we start with...
· So, the first item on the agenda is
· _________________, would you like to kick off?
· Shall we start with ...
· __________________,would you like to introduce this item?
· Let’s move on to the first point on the agenda. ____________please kick off.
· Can you start by ________________?


Listening activity: listen and answer the followings:

The listening takes place in the Singapore offices of Daneline, an international shipping company. Martin, the GM, is chairing a meeting with Sandra, David and Sam to discuss a budget shortfall. Shortfall means their budget has fallen short of expectations. In other words, they don’t have enough money, so they need to make some cuts. To chair a meeting is to lead the meeting. We can say that Martin is the chairperson.

1) What is the amount of the budget shortfall?
2) Why doesn’t Sandra have a copy of the agenda?
3) How many possible cuts are under discussion?
4) What is the first item on the agenda?


Sample Dialogue: leading a meeting

Imagine you are the chairman of the meeting, how would you start?
What would you say?

Remember the six steps to a meeting.

· Getting everyone attention
· Greeting, welcoming, and thank you
· Introducing new colleagues (Mr. John Smith from the BioHealth Technology) in America
· Explain the objectives (talk about the trends of latest biotechnology).


In this case, I would only ask you for these four items










Role Play:

Leaving a message on voicemail
Leaving a message with secretary
Leading a meeting

Idiom of lesson 14:
Take minutes
Circulate the agenda
Call a meeting to order