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lingua house
Innovation in Learning

A A BUSINESS SITUATIONS

Chairing meetings
Lesson code: PLZ4-I4QC-7SGB UPPER INTERMEDIATE +

1 Warm-up
Who is the chairperson of a meeting? What are his/her main roles?

2 Qualities and skills of a chairperson

Match the adjectives on the left with their opposites:

1. calm a. biased
2. impartial b. discouraging
3. open-minded c. disorganised
4. well-organised d. forgetful
5. attentive e. intolerant
6. encouraging f. passive
7. self-disciplined g. temperamental
8. domineering h. uncontrolled

Now look at the following roles of a chairperson. In pairs, put `Do' or `Don't' next to each sentence and
match each sentence to a suitable adjective above.

Talk the most at the meeting.

Strive for consensus.
Allow one or two people to dominate the meeting.
Encourage people to contribute to the discussions.
Force people to contribute to the discussions.
Keep calm.
Lose your temper.
Forget what was said earlier.
Make all the decisions.
Try to allow everyone to make a contribution.
Cut people out of discussions if you don't agree with their opinions.
LE

1/4
AB

You can review this worksheet online at www.linguahouse.com/ex

Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI

O
c
Linguahouse.com OC
P H OT
 TM
Chairing meetings lingua house
Innovation in Learning

A A A A BUSINESS SITUATIONS

3 Chairing a meeting
The managers of Global Training Solutions are holding a meeting to discuss advertising ideas for their
language school business. Listen and choose the best answer for each of the questions.

1. What is Helen's proposal?

a. a billboard campaign focussing on the school
b. a billboard campaign focussing on the students
c. a billboard campaign focussing on the teachers

2. What is Lorenzo's opinion?

a. He thinks it's risky.
b. He thinks it's a good idea.
c. He thinks it will create a strong impact.

3. What is Helen's reaction?

a. She totally agrees with Lorenzo.
b. She acknowledges Lorenzo's concern.
c. She totally disagrees with Lorenzo.

4. Why does the chairperson cut off Mark?

a. His opinion was not related to the topic of the discussion.
b. He was taking too long to explain his idea.
c. His idea had already been discussed.

5. Why does Mark favour the idea he suggested in the previous semester?
a. He thinks it will be successful.
b. He thinks it is original.
c. He thinks it will create a strong impact.

6. Why does Anne think this is not an original idea?

a. She thinks it is boring.
b. All schools are using the idea.
c. The school's main competitor launched a similar campaign.

7. What does the chairperson do at the end of the discussion?

a. He summarises the discussion.
b. He takes a vote.
c. He closes the meeting.
LE

2/4
AB

You can review this worksheet online at www.linguahouse.com/ex

Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI

O
c
Linguahouse.com OC
P H OT
 TM
Chairing meetings lingua house
Innovation in Learning

A A A A BUSINESS SITUATIONS

Listen again and tick the chairperson's functions in this particular meeting.

Welcoming the participants ✷ Opening the meeting ✷

Establishing the agenda ✷ Inviting contributions ✷
Managing time ✷ Sticking to the agenda ✷
Organising voting ✷ Dealing with conflicts ✷
Summarising the points of view ✷ Closing the meeting ✷

4 Useful expressions
Look at the following expressions from the meeting. Complete them and match them to the appropriate
functions in the previous exercise:

1. T for c everybody.
2. A you all k , the p of this m is t ...
3. OK, l get s then, s we?
4. Helen, w you like t get us off the m ?
5. W anyone l to c ?
6. L get s other i . Mark?
7. L try not t d t much.
8. We w c back t t at the next meeting.
9. A t on that?
10. OK, we're a b s on t so let's w this up.
11. We'll t av on the two propositions.
12. A those in f of Helen's idea?
13. Now, o to the n item o the agenda.

Look at the following expressions and match them to the functions in Exercise 3.

As you all know, we're here today to discuss last month's sales figures.
Mario, what's your position?

Let's try and speed things up a bit.

All right, everybody just calm down.
We'll have to finish off here.
OK, we're getting side-tracked here.

OK, just to sum things up so far. Basically, ...

LE

3/4
AB

You can review this worksheet online at www.linguahouse.com/ex

Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI

O
c
Linguahouse.com OC
P H OT
 TM
Chairing meetings lingua house
Innovation in Learning

A A A A BUSINESS SITUATIONS

5 Role play
Get into small groups of 3 or 4 and assign a chairperson. Choose an agenda/topic from the list below
and hold a short meeting. Then assign a different chair, choose another agenda and repeat the exercise
until everyone has been in the chairperson's role.

1. Your office is going to be relocated. Discuss potential locations.

2. Ideas for the end-of-year office party.
3. Your team is responsible for marketing. Set your marketing budget and discuss how to spend it.
4. How to improve your company's sales.
5. A topic of your choice.

LE

4/4
AB

You can review this worksheet online at www.linguahouse.com/ex

Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.
PI

O
c
Linguahouse.com OC
P H OT