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Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod for today's lesson on finishing a meeting.
We'll learn how to summarize action points and wrap up the meeting.
Before we get started, a quick reminder that a PDF transcript for this lesson, along with hundreds of others, is available on the BEP website.
Premium members can also access extra resources for every lesson.
A well-run meeting can be productive and useful, but a poorly run meeting can leave everyone feeling like their time has been wasted, and one of the big differences between good and bad meetings is how they end.
A good meeting doesn't slowly run out of energy.
Instead, there's a clear ending to it and people come out of the meeting with a strong sense of purpose and a clear idea of what they need to do.
Without a sense of purpose.
People might feel like the meeting generated a lot of discussion, but nothing more.
Giving a strong finish to a meeting isn't actually that hard to do.
First off, you need to be clear that the meeting is about to end.
That gives people a chance to collect their thoughts.
Next, you can summarize the action points and assign tasks.
You may also want to emphasize how important they are to give some extra motivation.
Then you can wrap up the meeting with some closing thoughts.
In today's dialogue, we'll join a meeting at a bank.
The team has been discussing some recent issues and future plans.
You will hear Lisa provide a strong finish to the meeting with James, Brian, Charles, and Cecilia.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
1.
What question does Lisa ask the group before stating the action items?
2.
What does Lisa emphasize about James' planned action?
3.
What does Lisa say to officially end the meeting?
All right.
I think that just about covers everything we wanted to get to today.
Is there any other business?
No.
No?
All right.
Let's just go through the action points to finish off.
Quick question.
When exactly is our next round of meetings going to be?
Let's see how things go.
I expect we'll be ready to look at the results by the middle of next month.
Thanks.
Sure.
Okay Brian, your team is going to conduct a risk analysis of our new revolving credit products and send me a report by next Friday.
Yep.
Great.
Cecilia and Charles, you're meeting with Telos next week to discuss the possibilities for cooperation.
Right.
And you'll be writing a proposal based on that meeting.
And giving it to you for your comments.
Good.
Finally, James, your team is going to look into the issue of non-performing short-term loans.
Uh-huh.
It's extremely important that we get to the bottom of this.
I understand.
Good.
Well, I think that just about wraps it up.
Any final questions?
No.
No.
Great.
That's all for today.
Everyone get busy.
We've got the best team.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and techniques Lisa used to end the meeting.
All right.
I think that just about covers everything we wanted to get to today.
Is there any other business?
No.
No?
All right.
Let's just go through the action points to finish off.
Lisa is letting people know that the meeting is about to end.
This gives people a chance to mention any other business or other issues before they actually finish.
This will help prevent people from feeling the meeting was incomplete or they didn't get a chance to bring up things they wanted to talk about.
You'll notice that Lisa signals the end when they've covered or talked about everything they wanted to.
Sometimes a meeting runs out of time and sometimes you can end a meeting when you finish the agenda.
People always love it when a meeting finishes early.
Let's try some more ways to signal the end of a meeting.
How about we hold it there for now?
Any questions before we wrap up?
All good points, but we'll have to end it here.
We're getting short on time, so let's look at some action points.
Okay, I think that's about everything we wanted to get through today.
So does anyone have any other business before Lisa summarizes the action points?
Let's listen.
Quick question.
When exactly is our next round of meetings going to be?
Let's see how things go.
I expect we'll be ready to look at the results by the middle of next month.
Thanks.
Sure.
Okay Brian, your team is going to conduct a risk analysis of our new revolving credit products and send me a report by next Friday.
As you can hear, James has one quick question, which Lisa deals with clearly and quickly.
There's no long discussion, just a simple statement about when she expects to be ready for the next round or series of meetings.
After dealing with the question, Lisa can go on to talk about action points.
Action points are basically the things that people have to do after the meeting.
Lisa states Brian's action point clearly and directly.
His job is to analyze risks in one of their financial products and write a report.
Stating action points clearly and directly is a great way to help people end with a sense of purpose.
Let's run through some more ways of doing this.
Frank, you're going to follow up on that order and report back to me.
Okay, so Sandra, you're going to talk to finance about this next week.
Alright, our next step will be to review the document for any more errors.
So, you're going to talk to Anne first, and then get back to me.
As we can hear, Lisa has some more action points for the group.
Let's listen.
Yep.
Great.
Cecilia and Charles, you're meeting with Telos next week to discuss the possibilities for cooperation.
Right.
And you'll be writing a proposal based on that meeting.
And giving it to you for your comments.
Good.
Finally, James, your team is going to look into the issue of non-performing short-term loans.
It's extremely important that we get to the bottom of this.
The danger with meetings is that people use them to avoid doing work.
But it's clear for this team that meetings are about making decisions and agreeing on new work activities.
Lisa has stated the action points, but she wants to go one step further and emphasize how important they are.
That's why she says it's extremely important to get to the bottom of the loans issue.
As a manager or team leader, this kind of emphasis can help ensure accountability.
Basically, you need to make sure people do what they'll say they'll do.
What are some other ways of emphasizing action points to enhance accountability?
Let's practice some more examples.
It's critical that we solve this problem.
These things really need to get done before the next meeting.
It's of the utmost importance we all follow through on this.
Alright, let's finish off by hearing how Lisa finally ends the meeting.
I understand.
Good.
Well, I think that just about wraps it up.
Any final questions?
No.
No.
Great.
That's all for today.
Everyone get busy.
We've got the best team... If something wraps up, it comes to an end.
Lisa is wrapping this meeting up by asking one last time if there are any questions, then stating clearly that they're finished.
Asking if there are any final questions is a good idea, because you want everyone to be clear about what has been decided and what they will do.
Hearing no questions, Lisa says simply, that's all for today.
If you're confident that everyone is clear about action points and there are no questions, then a simple statement like this is enough.
Let's try some other ways to call a meeting to a close.
That's it for today, folks.
Thanks, everyone.
I think that about covers it.
That's a wrap.
Thanks for coming, everyone.
Okay, we'll end it here for today.
Let's get busy.
As we heard, Lisa is a very skilled facilitator, and these skills allow her to make a very strong finish to the meeting.
She's been clear and direct, made space for comments and questions and reminded everyone of what they need to do following the meeting.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are leading a team meeting.
At the end of the meeting.
You want to finish strong by stating action points and calling it to a close.
You'll hear a cue from one of the team members.
Then, I'll give you a suggestion for what you can say in response.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Well, that's all I wanted to say on that.
Start by signaling the end of the meeting by suggesting holding it there and looking at action points.
Answer.
Great, so let's hold it there and look at action points.
Okay, and note it here that I'm going to review the budget.
Acknowledge and state that Kelly is going to talk to marketing next week.
Answer.
Yes, and Kelly is going to talk to marketing next week.
Super.
And Kelly, can you just let me know once you've done that?
Now emphasize that it's critical that everyone follows through on this.
Answer.
Right.
And I just want to emphasize how critical it is that we follow through on this.
Got it.
I'm keen to get this whole issue behind us.
Now wrap up by saying that covers it for today and thank people for coming.
Answer.
Okay, so that covers it for today.
Thanks for coming, everyone.
We've reached the end of this lesson on how to finish a meeting.
We've looked at signaling the end of the meeting and stating action points.
We've also covered how to emphasize the importance of actions and call the meeting to a close.
For more practice.
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Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
