11. Read the article from the magazine ‘The Economist’ about meeting techniques and do the tasks that follow it. Think before you meet

Too many meetings are a waste of time

WHAT do corporate leaders do all day? Much of their time is spent in meetings. No wonder: the rules of team-working are established in meetings, which in turn are the basic building blocks of corporate existence. However, meetings might not always be the best use of the team's time.

Meetings, like teams, do not necessarily achieve what they set out to do. One recent study in America by consultants Synectics found that senior and middle managers spent more than three- quarters of their time in meetings. On average, only 12 per cent of managers thought their meetings were productive. In high- performing companies, that figure rose to 25 per cent and in the lower performers it dropped to 2 per cent

"Despite IT, we all go to more and more of them," reflects Jonathan Day of McKinsey. But there must be a way to таке them work. They can't all be a waste of time. Perhaps team leaders should do everything they can to make sure they organize them properly. Indeed, running meetings well is clearly an art, and a growing number of companies (including Synectics, which modestly claims to run the best meetings in the world) are offering help. Lots of meetings, of course, happen in the corridor or around the coffee machine, and those are probably the most efficient sort, because they tend to be spontaneous, small and quick. Bigger ones are usually more problematic, and team members have to put up with meetings where too little thought goes into the agenda, the location, the people asked to attend and the outcome, say those who try to improve them. That allows unimportant ideas or tedious individuals to hog the floor, with the result that a lot of team mem­bers find it hard to look forward to the next meeting.

Meetings tend to be held either to share information or to solve problems. For the first sort, Roger Neill of Synectics advocates asking all the participants to say at the end what they think they have heard, and correcting their accounts if they are wrong. With problem-solving, the aim ought not to be just brainstorming and coming up with ideas but also paying proper attention to putting solutions into practice. He also thinks it is wise to ask people what they liked about the things they heard; criticism usually comes unasked. Pessimism, scepticism and challenge all cause trouble.

What makes meetings especially important to companies, though, is that this is where teams are moulded. That is why companies must leam how to run them. David Bradford, a professor at Stanford Business School, who specializes in studying teams, argues that meetings often waste huge amounts of time: in one business, the executive team spent three meetings designing business cards. Of course, one person should have done this before the team started working together. The way to get a good decision is to frame the question carefully. If you want to invest in China, do not announce that you are planning to do this, or ask the meeting whether you should. Instead, enlist your colleagues' help by saying: "We want to be in the Chinese market: how do we get there?

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A Answer the questions in writing:

1. Why are corridor and coffee machine meetings often efficient? iboaa

2. What are the two main reasons for holding meetings? ~ >>r Juo

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3. What kind of feedback do people give easily?

4. Why do companies consider meetings to be very important?

5. What happens when meetings are not properly organized?

6. Can teams be moulded in meetings?

7. Some companies organize other team-moulding activities like sports or away days. How do you feel about these activities?

8. What other activities can help to build a team?

В Find in the text the phrasal verbs or idiomatic expressions which

mean	the following:
1.	plan to do
2.	tolerate
3.	dominate the discussion
4.	be excited about
5.	think of to
6.	engage or secure someone’s support

12. Read the information about the tool created by Edward de Bono in his book ‘Six Thinking Hats’. It is a good technique for looking at the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view. ‘Six Thinking Hats’

Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint. This can mean that they underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and do not make essential contingency plans.

Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive, and more emotional people may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally.

If you look at a problem with the 'Six Thinking Hats' technique, then you will solve it using all approaches. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity and good contingency planning.

You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own. In meetings it has the benefit of blacking the confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. Each 'Thinking Hat' is a different style of thinking.

White Hat:

With this thinking hat you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in

your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data.

Red Hat:

’Wearing’ the red hat, you look at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think how other people will react emotionally. Try to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.

Black Hat:

Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of the decision. Look at it cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them under­prepared for difficulties.

Yellow Hat:

The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.

Green Hat:

The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas.

Blue Hat:

The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking, etc.

A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different professionals (e.g. doctors, architects, sales directors, etc.) or different customers.

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Example:

The directors of a property company are looking at whether they should construct a new office building. The economy is doing well, and the amount of vacant office space is reducing sharply. As part of their decision they decide to use the 6 Thinking Hats technique during a planning meeting.

Looking at the problem with the White Hat, they analyze the data they have. They examine the trend in vacant office space, which shows a sharp reduction. They anticipate that by the time the office block would be completed, that there will be a severe shortage of office space. Current government projections show steady economic growth for at least the construction period.

With Red Hat thinking, some of the directors think the proposed building looks quite ugly. While it would be highly cost-effective, they worry that people would not like to work in it.

When they think with the Black Hat, they worry that government projections may be wrong. The economy may be about to enter a 'cyclical downturn', in which case the office building may be empty for a long time. If the building is not attractive, then companies will choose to work in another better-looking building at the same rent.

With the Yellow Hat, however, if the economy holds up and their projections are correct, the company stands to make a great deal of money. If they are lucky, maybe they could sell the building before the next downturn, or rent to tenants on" long-term leases that will last through any recession.

With Green Hat thinking they consider whether they should change the design to make the building more pleasant. Perhaps they could build prestige offices that people would want to rent in any economic climate. Alternatively, maybe they should invest the money in the short term to buy up property at a low cost when a recession comes.

The Blue Hat has been used by the meeting's Chair to move between the different thinking styles. He or she may have needed to keep other members of the team from switching styles, or from criticizing other peoples' points.

The advantages of ‘Six Thinking Hats’ technique:

• It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions.

• It opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision making. ^u'

It helps persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative

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• Plans developed using this technique will be sounder and more resilient than would otherwise be the case.

• It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes.

• It helps you spot good reasons not to follow a course of action before you have committed to it.

Can you think of any disadvantages of ‘Six Thinking Hats’ technique?

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LANGUAGE FOCUS

In the English languages there are rules that many people don't follow. It jr doesn't make the rules unnecessary, but rather implies that people who J neglect them don't speak good English. < >

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Functions of modal verbs a

obligation

necessity

certainty

ability

possibility

lack of necessity

offers

suggestions

requests

logical assumptions

permission

prohibition

advice

criticism

You must stop when the traffic light is red.

I must sign the contract.

He can’t have stayed late at the office.

I can’t ski now but I could ski when I was young. He could/may/might finish his work by 5.00 p.m. He needn’t have got a taxi. I didn’t have to buy it. Shall/can I get you anything from the supermarket?

• What shall we do tonight? - We can/could go to the cinema

Could/would you help me with this exercise?

He must have been on holiday.

It’s 6 a.m. The 5.30. plane should have left by now.

Could/can/may/might I open the window, please? You mustn ’t be late for work tomorrow morning. You ought to/should revise for your test.

He ought to/should have told her the truth.