You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
When you think of projects, what comes to mind?
You might think of something quite complicated and extensive, like the new office project we'll be hearing about today.
But in fact, most of the tasks we do in business are part of a project.
Even something as simple as writing a proposal is a project in itself.
First you collect data, then you analyse and evaluate the data before writing a draft.
Finally you edit the draft proposal and present a final version to the decision makers.
So knowing how to refer to different elements of a project and describe them with interesting collocations is important for practically everyone involved in business today.
Following on from our two video podcasts on basic vocabulary for project management, today we're going to listen in to a briefing by Kerry, the manager of a direct marketing company, and Martina, a member of her staff.
We'll be focusing on collocations useful for describing a project and its execution.
While you listen try to answer the following listening questions.
The answers will be posted in a few days on our website at wwwbusinessenglishpodcom.
Listening Questions 1
What does Kerry want Martina to do for the company?
2.
How much time will Martina have to complete this project?
3.
What does Kerry promise to do to make Martina's work easier?
Thanks for coming in early this morning, Martina.
I know you have a lot on your plate already.
No problem.
I usually come in around this time anyway.
As you know, we're planning a new processing facility in Omaha.
We're starting from scratch out there and Omaha will be mission critical for our expansion plans.
Yeah, it's going to be tough to execute given the time constraints.
Uh-huh.
And I'd like you to head up the project.
Great.
What's the time frame for setting up the office?
Short.
We need to be ready to start handling orders by October 1st.
That gives us just over five months from start to finish.
So we don't have much margin for error.
No, we don't.
I'm prepared to allocate whatever resources are necessary to get this done, but I expect you to handle the detailed planning.
You'll need to establish clear milestones for each stage of the project to make sure it stays on track.
What do you see as the main bottlenecks for completing the project on time?
Well, getting office space is the first priority.
There's not much we can do until the lease is signed.
And we'll need to define the scope of this project very clearly to avoid mission creep.
We need a location that's appropriate for our business, and we need to build a team that's ready to handle orders from day one.
All of our stakeholders are counting on us to pull this off our investors, our customers and the rest of the team.
I hope you don't expect me to do all this on my own.
Well, as I said, we'll be supporting you in every way possible.
I'll need to sign off on the really major decisions, but the rest will be up to you.
Okay.
I hope you'll help me manage expectations among the rest of the team.
They need to understand this means more work for them too.
Sure.
I'll let our support staff know that they should be prepared to pitch in with any help you might need.
Well, in that case, I think this sounds feasible.
That's probably why Kerry, her boss, has chosen her to manage a complicated project opening a new office for the company in a remote city.
Kerry knows that Martina is pretty busy already.
So she says I know you have a lot on your plate already.
To have a lot on your plate means to have a lot of tasks or responsibilities that have to be completed at the same time.
We can also talk about having too much on our plate, which means having more work than you can deal with.
Here's a couple of ways to use these expressions.
Jimmy has just been promoted to area manager, so he's got a lot on his plate these days.
I wish I could help process these invoices, but I've already got too much on my plate this afternoon.
But Kerry still expects Martina to handle a very challenging new task opening an office in Omaha where the company currently has no presence.
Listen to how she describes the project.
We're starting from scratch out there and Omaha will be mission critical for our expansion plans.
In English, the idiom from scratch means from nothing or from the very beginning.
So Kerry is saying that the project of setting up the new office hasn't even begun yet.
This collocation is also used to talk about cooking.
A dish that's made from scratch is one that uses fresh ingredients instead of prepared or frozen ones.
Let's try some variations of this expression.
Baking a cake from scratch takes more work than using a cake mix from a box, but you'll find it usually tastes better.
Our server crashed a few weeks ago and we've had to rebuild our customer database from scratch.
When Kerry says the Omaha office is mission critical, she means that it's essential to the success of the company or to a particular mission or project of the company.
Let's try using this term in some other ways.
Our customer relations management software is a mission-critical system.
We have several mission-critical employees absent today, so I think the staff meeting should be postponed.
Martina's a little worried about taking on the Omaha project, and here she explains why.
Yeah, it's going to be tough to execute given the time constraints.
Time constraints are limits placed on a task due to a lack of available time.
In this case, there's a firm deadline of October 1st for starting work at the new office, which means the set-up process needs to happen fast.
Here are some other ways to use this term.
Our entire team is scheduled to go on a company retreat on Wednesday, so there are time constraints on compiling last week's sales figures.
The time constraints on this venture seem very tight, and I think we may need to reduce the scope of the project.
So this is a difficult job, but Kerry thinks Martina can handle it.
And I'd like you to head up the project.
When Kerry asks Martina to head up the project in Omaha, she means that she wants her to serve as the head or leader of the project team.
This is a very common phrasal verb used to describe the duties of a project manager or group leader.
Here are a couple of examples of how this expression is used.
Janet will be heading up the new research division.
We need a marketing specialist to head up our corporate rebranding efforts.
One thing that worries Martina is that because of the project's tight schedule , there will be very little room for her to make mistakes.
So we don't have much margin for error.
The word margin usually means an extra amount of time, money or material.
For example, the margins of a book are the blank spaces along the edges of each page.
In project management.
A margin is normally extra time or money built into a project's budget to allow for unexpected problems.
The collocation margin for error is closely related to this usage.
It means the amount of room that a person or business has to make some mistakes without getting into serious trouble.
There is also a similar technical term, margin of error.
This refers to the amount by which a statistical result, such as a market survey, may vary for the actual true value.
We can use these two expressions in sentences like these.
With such a tight deadline, there's no margin for error on this project.
The research survey has a margin of error of 3%.
As we heard in the first example, margin for error is usually preceded by no, as in no margin for error.
Kerry tries to reassure Martina that she's going to get all the support she needs to complete this project successfully.
I'm prepared to allocate whatever resources are necessary to get this done.
To allocate resources means to assign employees, financial support, supplies or other needed inputs to a task or project.
Allocating resources effectively is one of a project manager's key responsibilities.
Let's listen to a couple of other uses of this collocation.
If we don't allocate enough staff resources to the campaign, we won't be able to meet our deadline.
The company wants to allocate more marketing resources to online advertising, while cutting back on radio and television ads.
Since there's hardly any room for delays, Martina wants to identify the biggest challenges facing this project.
She asks Kerry, What do you see as the main bottlenecks for completing the project on time?
In English, the word bottleneck, which literally means the neck or narrowest part of a bottle, can also be used as a metaphor.
In this case, a bottleneck is the point at which a task or project will proceed most slowly, limiting the speed of overall progress.
We can use this word as follows.
The slow delivery of raw materials became a bottleneck in meeting new orders.
By organizing the workflow better, we can eliminate some bottlenecks in order processing.
Kerry understands Martina's concerns about keeping the project on schedule and she has this to say about avoiding problems with execution.
We'll need to define the scope of this project very clearly to avoid mission creep.
Defining the scope of a project means making it clear what the project will and won't try to accomplish, as well as deciding what resources it will be allowed to use.
Here's another example of how this phrase can be used.
If the scope of this review isn't clearly defined, we may end up wasting a lot of time on minor issues.
We've defined the scope of our marketing campaign as covering print radio and online advertising, but not television.
According to Kerry, defining a project's scope is a good way to avoid mission creep.
This expression refers to a common problem in business and other areas of life.
A project or team may start out with limited goals but gradually expand to include goals that weren't originally planned.
This expression can be used in many fields, as these examples show.
I think the IT department has allowed some mission creep on their project to upgrade the mail server.
Yeah, now they're saying they want to buy new software and even replace our server.
Kerry doesn't just talk about defining the scope of Martina's project.
She also defines Martina's responsibilities and her authority to make decisions.
Here's what she tells her.
When Kerry says she needs to sign off on important decisions, she means that Martina needs to get her approval before making them, even though the decision itself is mostly Martina's responsibility.
This expression can also be used as a noun phrase, so we can talk about getting a sign-off.
Listen to how this phrase works in other contexts.
The general manager doesn't expect to sign off on every hiring decision, only the ones for senior staff positions.
I'll need to get a sign off from my manager to extend the repayment terms on your purchase.
Kerry's already told Martina that she'll support her in setting up the Omaha office, but Martina asks her for a more specific promise.
I hope you'll help me manage expectations among the rest of the team.
Martina is concerned about managing the expectations of the team.
What she means is that her co-workers may not realise that setting up the new office will require an extra effort from them as well.
She hopes Kerry will prepare the team in advance for any requests that she might make, so they won't be surprised or annoyed by the additional work.
The concept of managing expectations applies in other areas as well, as you can see.
How long is it going to take to get our internet service working again?
It could take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours.
Let's try to manage expectations and just say we'll have it fixed by the end of the day.
Kerry responds by reassuring Martina that she's going to prepare the team for some extra duties.
Here's what she says.
I'll let our support staff know that they should be prepared to pitch in with any help you might need.
To pitch in is an informal term meaning to contribute some work to a shared task or a task that belongs mainly to someone else.
Here are two more examples of this expression.
We expect everyone to pitch in and help organize the company Christmas party.
Sarah was pretty busy on Friday, so she asked a few of her colleagues to pitch in with data entry.
Now it's your turn to practice.
We're going to review some of the vocabulary and collocations we've covered in this episode.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a word blanked out or replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence saying the missing word.
For example, if you hear Unexpected costs have left us with almost no for error if more problems occur.
You can say, Unexpected costs have left us with almost no margin for error if more problems occur.
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
The sales team didn't expectations very well.
They promised more than they could deliver.
Answer.
The sales team didn't manage expectations very well.
They promised more than they could deliver.
We've run into a production due to the lack of space on the factory floor.
Answer.
We've run into a production bottleneck due to the lack of space on the factory floor.
Bill called in sick, so I need you to... in and help Jenny finish the report.
Bill called in sick, so I need you to pitch in and help Jenny finish the report.
Reducing debt is critical to the survival of this company.
Answer.
Reducing debt is mission critical to the survival of this company.
Answer.
It's tax season now, so the accounting team has a lot on its plate.
We are scheduled to meet with the clients on Tuesday, so there's a real time constraint on finishing this sales pitch.
Answer.
We are scheduled to meet with the clients on Tuesday, so there's a real time constraint on finishing this sales pitch.
Harold has chosen Kathy to up the development of our new product line.
Answer.
Harold has chosen Kathy to head up the development of our new product line wwwbusinessenglishpodcom.
There you'll find detailed vocabulary explanations, additional practice activities and full transcripts of this and other episodes.
Thanks for listening, and see you next time.
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