Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 924, Getting Access to Important People.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 924.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website, and we do have a website, is ESLPOD.com.
Go there, download a learning guide, and improve your English faster than ever.
This episode is a dialogue about trying to get in touch with, or make contact with, or communicate with, important people.
Let's get started.
That is a really good idea.
Thanks, but there's no way I can get past all of the gatekeepers in this company to get access to the president.
He's the only one who can greenlight a project like this.
Can't you present it to your boss first?
If I bring the idea to my immediate supervisor she'll either take it over or nix it.
What you need to do is to get the ear of one of his advisors and do an end.
Run around the other managers.
I'm not sure how I can do that.
I don't know any of the advisors in the president's inner circle.
We don't exactly travel in the same circles, you know.
Why do you ask?
My cousin works at the same gym where the company president goes to exercise.
Sometimes he likes to play a game of pickup basketball, often one-on-one.
If you got a call from my cousin when he's there, you might be able to get there quickly and be in the right place at the right time.
You mean talk business on the courts?
Sure.
Isn't that how real deals get made?
You might have an idea there Yes, but one piece of advice.
Let him win.
Camille begins our dialogue by saying, that is a really good idea.
Obviously, we are coming in in the middle of a conversation that has already started between Camille and Nathan.
Nathan says thanks, but there's no way I can get past all of the gatekeepers in this company to get access to the president.
Camille and Nathan are obviously talking about trying to communicate with the president of some company.
He says, there's no way it's not possible for me to get past all of the gatekeepers.
A gatekeeper G-A-T-E-K-E-E-P-E-R is someone who works for an important person typically, who controls access to that person, who decides who is going to get to see that person and who will not get to see that person.
We usually think of presidents of companies, or certainly presidents of countries, who have people around them who work for them, who control access to that person, who decide who's going to get to talk to the president and who isn't.
That's what a gatekeeper is.
Nathan is worried he can't get past the gatekeepers.
That is, he can't get around them to communicate directly with the president.
He talks about getting access to the president.
To get access is to be allowed to talk to or communicate with someone.
Nathan says the president is the only way One, the only person who can green light a project like this.
The verb to green light means to say yes to something.
It's a very common expression in business to mean to approve an idea, to say yes to a project.
Why green light?
Well, of course, in a traffic signal, the green light indicates that you can go, that you can move forward.
A red light would mean that you should stop.
A yellow light, at least in the United States, means that you need to be careful, because the light is going to be changing to red soon.
For most people, this means you need to drive really fast.
Well, Nathan... says the president is the only one who can green light a project like this.
Camille says, can't you present it to your boss first?
That is, isn't it possible for you to talk to your boss as the first step?
Nathan says if I bring the idea and we don't know what that idea is To my immediate supervisor, she'll either take it over or nix it.
Your supervisor is your boss, the person who tells you what to do at your job.
Your immediate supervisor is the boss who's just one level above you.
In most companies you may have a boss, and then someone who is their boss, and then someone even higher who's their boss.
Your immediate supervisor is the boss who's closest to you, if you will, the one who is just one level above you.
The idea is that that boss, that supervisor himself has a boss or a supervisor.
Nathan says if he brings the idea he has to his immediate supervisor, she will either take it over or nix it.
To take something over means to fully control something.
To say, okay, I'm going to now do everything related to this project.
It's sort of like stealing it in a way, except that the person who's taking it over may have the right to do that.
May say, okay, well, I'm going to say this is my idea, and I'm going to take it over.
I'm going to act upon it myself.
Nathan says if he gives his idea to his immediate supervisor, she'll either take it over or nix it.
To nix, N-I-X, means to reject, to cancel, to say no to something.
Camille says what you need to do is to get the ear of one of his advisors and do an end.
Run around the other managers.
To get the ear of someone means to get someone to listen to you, to get someone to pay attention to you.
An advisor A-D-V-I-S-O-R is a person who gives advice and recommendations to a more important person a president or a vice president or a boss.
Your advisors are the people that you ask recommendations from.
You ask their opinion about something that's important to you.
To do an END-RUN means to go around or to bypass or to skip someone who normally you would have to talk to and get the approval of, and instead go to someone at a higher level.
So instead of talking to your immediate supervisor, you go directly to the president.
You go all the way around that person.
You do an end run.
You go around the person.
That's what Camille is recommending to Nathan that he needs to do an end.
Run around the other managers in order to get the ear of one of the president's advisors.
Nathan says, I'm not sure how I can do that.
I don't know any of the advisors in the president's inner circle.
The phrase inner circle refers to the closest advisors to an important person, like a president.
The president's or leader's inner circle would be the small group of men and women that he or she or gets advice from talks to in order to find out what should be done next.
That's the inner circle.
Nathan says, we don't exactly travel in the same circles, you know.
The expression to travel in the same circles says, uses the word circle again, but in a different way.
It means a group of people who are at the same social level, who are often friends with each other or who have something in common.
For example, here in Los Angeles, There are some people who know a lot of movie writers and movie directors and movie producers.
I do not travel in those same circles, meaning none of my friends or people I know are movie directors and producers.
That's actually not true.
My old neighbor is a movie producer.
But anyway...
The expression to travel in the same circles means to have the same kinds of friends or to be in the same situation where you would know these people.
That's what Nathan is saying is not the case for him.
He doesn't travel in the same circles as the inner circle, the close advisors of the president.
Camille says, how's your jump shot?
A jump J-U-M-P shot is something you do in the game of basketball, where you jump up in the air and try to throw the ball into the round circle called the basket.
It's an odd question, so Nathan says, why do you ask?
Why are you asking about how I play basketball?
Camille says my cousin works at the same gym, the same gymnasium where the company president goes to exercise.
Sometimes he likes to play a game of pickup basketball.
A pickup game of anything is when you just play with the people who are there.
You don't plan it.
You don't organize your team in advance.
You just go to a place where you think other people will be, for example, playing basketball.
And you make a team right there.
You form your own team.
That would be a pickup game of basketball.
Camille says, sometimes the president likes to play a pickup game of basketball, often one-on-one.
One-on-one is when in basketball there are just two people playing, one person versus another person, and you try to get as many points as you can by throwing the ball through the basketball net.
Camille says if you got a call from my cousin when he's there, in other words, if Camille's cousin called Nathan when the president was at the gym, you might be able to get there quickly and be in the right place at the right time.
The expression the right place at the right time means to be at a certain place at a certain time where you are able to do what you really want to do.
It's almost like having good luck.
To be at the right place at the right time means to be somewhere, and even though you didn't plan it, something good happens to you.
Nathan says, you mean talk business on the courts?
To talk business means to discuss what is happening at your workplace.
The courts here refers to the basketball court, the place where you would play the game of basketball.
Camille says, sure, isn't that how real deals get made?
A deal is an agreement.
Nathan says, you might have an idea there, meaning I think that is a good idea.
Camille says, yes, but one piece of advice, a piece of advice is a recommendation.
Let him win, meaning let the president win.
Allow the president to win.
Don't try to beat him in the game that you are playing of basketball.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
That is a really good idea.
Thanks, but there's no way I can get past all of the gatekeepers in this company to get access to the president.
He's the only one who can greenlight a project like this.
Can't you present it to your boss first?
If I bring the idea to my immediate supervisor, she'll either take it over or nix it.
What you need to do is to get the ear of one of his advisors and do an end.
Run around the other managers.
I'm not sure how I can do that.
I don't know any of the advisors in the president's inner circle.
We don't exactly travel in the same circles, you know.
How's your jump shot?
Why do you ask?
My cousin works at the same gym where the company president goes to exercise.
Sometimes he likes to play a game of pickup basketball, often one-on-one.
If you got a call from my cousin when he's there, you might be able to get there quickly and be in the right place at the right time.
You mean talk business on the courts?
Sure.
Isn't that how real deals get made?
You might have an idea there.
Yes, but one piece of advice, let him win.
She only greenlights the best scripts for learning English.
I speak of our script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
