English for meetings pdf download

Listen again if necessary. Yes, I think we need Could I have some feedback? Label the descriptions of benefits with items a-l. Which package do you find more attractive?

You might need to add prefixes or sufflxes and change the form. Either refer to the role cards in the Partner files or think of your own situation. Partner A File PartnerB File oS, p. Could I just say that I'm inclined to agree with you on that. I'd like to add a point here. Yes, but have you considered Excuse me, can I just come in here? I'm afra id I can't go along with that. Sorry, but may I just clarify a point Sorry, but I really can't agree. Choose the correct words in each sentence, then put the sentences in the right order.

Then complete what they say by matching the two halves of the sentences. Listen again to check your corrections. Canyou reme mber the Words Sophie and Tim use to talk about trends? Enter them below. Then listen again or read the transcript to check. Say them or write them out in full. Match the salaries or wages 12 below with the extracts from job adverts a-f. How do these salaries and hourly rates compare to those in your country? Pay previous cllstomer service experience. Ideal candidate must have Thc job invo lves dealing with our own car, hold a full driving licence Now recruiting bus drivers One of the oldest police forces in the country l You will benefit from 4 wceks' with ca.

AI lea sl fivp. Productivity bonus, 40 hours per week, vehicle supplied. Wage was traditionally used for the money paid regularly to a worker usually in cash on a weekly basis and salary for mont hly pay. However wage is still used as an alternative to salary when talking about pay in genera l, e. At a time of strong competition in the recruitment market, it's essential that money is spent on relevant benefits and that they are appreciated by the staff.

There is a move towards more flexible benefits where employees can choose their package, the report stated. A number of initiatives are currently being piloted by companies. One such company recently decided to introduce a new benefits package in stages and then issued all staff with an employee benefits statement, so they Is this being too democratic? As long as budgets could see exactly what they were getting. Now they are not exceeded, what could be better than to are running focus groups on the scheme, before consult with employees on what benefits they introducing fully flexible benefits.

These focus prefer? You could have a more contented and groups allow staff and employers to examine the fu ll motivated workforce at the end of the day. Are new employees ever asked what benefits they would prefer to have?

P1Ui' How much do you know about trade unions? Discuss the following statements with a partner and correct any that you think are false. Do others in the group agree with you? I - Closed shop means a company can engage only employees who I belong to the union. What do you think the following headlines are about?

France hit by massive job protests Finance workers in Denmark Flights disrupted following anxious over bank security industrial action by Spanish air traHic controllers Now read the summaries of the three stories behind the headlines to see if you were right.

A A nationwide strike in France over First Employment Contracts CPE , allowing employers to terminate job contracts for the unders at any time during a 2-year trial period without givin g a reason, caused over 1 million people to take to the streets across France. Large parts of France's transport networks ground to a halt and airport authorities warned of delays and disruption.

B The leader of the finance workers' union has called for national and European actio n to make workplaces more secure. Thousands of bank staff have been victims of bank robberies an average of one a day in Denmark , with many requiring post traumatic stress treatment.

He encouraged unions and employers to work together in a global in iti ative for safer workplaces. Last nigh t Spain's airport authority and the air traffic controllers' union were in what were described as 'tense negotiations'.

Then use them to complete the sentences. Non-union companies in U. Unionize d compan ies have shop stewards or union representatives who have been elected by union members to represent them to management. Which statements in each group below best describes the situation they are discussing? Then use the information in the dialogue to answer the questions.

It looks as if there could be a long and difficult negotiation with the union representing the workers at the British plant. How can companies avoid situations like this? Work with a partner to rank the tips below from 1 being the most important. Can you add any more tips to the list? D Always listen carefully to the other person. D Use simple and D When agreement is reached, summarize clearly and close the deal.

Check your answers with a partner. A successful conclusion for everybody. S The management can't promise anything positive.

Jason writes the following email to the management committee. Complete the gaps with the correct form of the verbs below. Th 7 a substantial fall in sales and provided that there is no industnal action. Best wishes Jason Hughes What types of negotiations have you been involved in? Describe your experiences to your colleagues. While diplomatic language see page 38 and building rapport are both essentia l for keeping the negotiation polite and friend ly, there are also many fixed phrases which can help make finding the right words easier.

Below are some typical phrases for persuading and bargaining. Persuading ft would be to your advantage to.. We can reassure you on that point totally. We might put a better offer on the table, It's the best offer around. You won't find a better provided that you stop the strike. I'd go along with that on condition that you returned to work. Bargaining That seems a good compromise, as long as as We would agree on one condition.

If you agree to Unless your members return to normal working If you threathen us, we'll withdraw the offer. The first sentence has been done for you. Choose a few situations below - or think of your own - and try to persuade your partner to accept your position.

Be prepared to bargain. You feel that one candidate is dearly the best but the manager prefers another person. The rule is a maximum of two weeks at a time. The staff are not happy about this.

First look at the Useful Language on page Then use the role cards in the Partner Files or think up your own situation to negotiate with your partner.

File 06, p. What was the reaction of your staff? Read the following extracts and discuss with the rest of the group. Ongmally the cham gave assurances that the move would not lead to widespread job losses.

Workers welcomed the news as there had been widespread rumours that the plant would be closed. ThiS will lead to a loss of jobs. Despite a protest march in September; workers were urged by their employers not to take strike action as it would not be 'in the interests of the employees, customers and the company'.

Exactly how much of a comm itment should an employer have to its staff? Across 1 what you write to an unsuccessful candidate You are visiting one of your officer at the Italian subsidiary of Green man European branches and are meeting with Partner B, International Books, wh ich is located in Tu rin. Yo u who is a manager there, to discuss recruiting a new are currently looki ng for somebody for t he positi on marketing manager.

Note that the in various countries and cover a much wider area job re quires someone with fl uent Italian spoken t han an advert in the paper. Also, they can and written but you are prepared to pay for Italian conduct in itial interv iews and thus save you time.

Today is Monday, 28 August. Call Jenny Mills, Personnel Assistant, in London to arrange a You are a recruitment office r in a large HR convenient date and time for an interview this week department and are getting read y fo r your first or next.

Look at your diary and your notes before app raisa l interview wi t h yo ur boss - the personne l making the phone call. You Meeting Nights ift lopm ,alTl sta rted off well in the job and were ve ry hap py - it's z - ,pm a cha llenging post with lots of contact with other 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 branches.

Partner Files A I 61 Although you like your job, lat ely you have been Unit 6, Exercise 13 File 06 th inki ng about look ing for a new pos ition. The reason is that one of your co lleagues Johnson has You r company has decided t o make fiv e IT st aff been making things unp leasant for you for the last redundant, as t he wh ole IT departm ent is bein g months. You fee l in a difficult are meeti ng wi t h a mem ber of th e works co uncil to position and have even been to a docto r fo r stress- get t heir agreeme nt, which you need in ord er to go re lated problems.

Prepare fo r th e meeting by com pleti ng t he not es below. You might also want t o Prepare what you want to say, then take part in the think of som e ot her arguments. You expect this to appraisal interview with your superior. Then swa p roles and do t he inte rview again.

You have per day in-house IT cover not 15 hrs as at agreed to cha ir t he meeting, so fi rst you nee d to use these notes to prepa re the agenda. Start the meeting by introducing the agenda and then discuss with your colleagues the various be nefits that have been recomme nded. Try to agree on the next steps. You th ink you need to go slowly on this - you wo n't be able to make a decision today. Perhaps yo u nee d to first ask the staff what benefits packages they would li ke to have, meet again, t hen make a proposa l to the Board.

A personnel officer from your the position of bookkeeper at the Ita li an subsidiary head office Partner A is visiting you to discuss of Greenman International Books, which is located recruitment for the job of marketing manager at in Turin. Greenman are looking for somebody with your branch office.

Recruitment good enough. You need to take your seven-year-old suggestions. Try to agree on how you should recruit child to school each day so can't start before for this job.

The afternoon is no problem as your partner collects your child from school. London office of Mobile plus SA. You are responsible for arranging and carrying out interviews for the new call centre positions. The Unit 4, Exercise 10 File 04 best candidate so far for the position of team leader You are the personnel officer responsible for the is Melanie Smith, who is going to call you to recruitment section of a large HR department and arrange an interview.

Use your notes and this are about to carry out an appraisal interview with extract from your calendar to deal with the phone one of your recruitment officers who has completed call and to make an appointment for an interview a year's service.

After th e interview, Interview Assess Oepl me; Iin9 2 ,tl1 Sep? Wflat was wron9? You have agreed to take the minutes in this second meeting.

You have two children aged two benefits package for your company. So far Childcare issues are fine but you don't have chi ldren only one man has taken paternity leave in your and would prefer to have some sort of reward company and there are a number of female incentives profit sharing, performance-related pay, colleagues who are under extreme stress because free shares in the company?

Prepare some suggestions for childcare issues to Decide what recommendations you would like to present at the meeting and try to agree with your make exactly, and be ready to present your colleagues on the next steps. Hopefully, you and your colleagues can agree on a proposal today, so you Unit 6, Exercise 13 File 06 can make recommendations to management this week. You have offered to write the email to You are a member of the works council.

You have a management and you are going on a two-week negotiation meeting with a senior member of HR holiday in three days.

As far as you know, the five employees are being made redundant without good reason it seems the company want to outsource the jobs to an IT consulting company and you've heard the company isn't being very generous with its leaving package compensation. Check your notes before going into the negotiation and try to add one or two other points to negotiate. We need some assurances this will not continue. Ne9otiate a hi9her one!

What will the money saved be used for? Who will benefit? Person specification 7 True desi rab le skills 8 True practical req uirements 9 False : The merger is not given as the reason for p revi a us expe rie nce the job sea rch. S True 2 Agree and disagree: A photo is still expe cted in some count ri es bu t it is not considered 4 1 reports to 4 car ryi ng out app rop riate in the U.

It is optional. An HR person can get a very 2 build 6 identify good idea of an applicant's age by looking at the 3 react to 7 ensu re details of thei r educatio n and experience. An swer key I 65 5 Disagree: in t he U. The applica nt is 3 career history l ast job fi rst th en fu lly informed before the interview and 4 key skills better prepared for the questions that will be 5 ed uca tion asked.

Additionally, applicants have a cha nce to 6 training decide before an interview if they are suitable for or rea lly interested in the pOS ition. Team Leader. The style of the ad is also informal 7 False: She has to ca ll the London office to and has a cha llengi ng feel to it.

You will be notified of the results in writing. Employment status trial period page 22 fi xed-term contract 14 suggested answers te mpo rary employment 1 Could you tell me about your relationship with probationary period your present supervisor? Absence 2 Could you outline one or two staff problems you annual leave have had and how you dealt wi th them?

Could you resignation give some examples? It is also in the reduced t he number of heart attacks in the U. Output 6 Motivating staff a 7. Antonio to have cu ltura l training b peop le died in accidents at work during Peter to have leadership trai ning and As soon as they clarify the situation, t hey 7 I think you and I need to im prove our should ensure that there aren't any other co mmunication They should also check 8 Fina lly, on a personal no te, Peter, how is your that their eq ual opportunity policies generally w ife settling in?

The orde r of se ntences: e - c - f - b - d - a In the UK most job advertisements contain this type 1 0 lC 2f 3d 4b Sa 6e of statement to create a good impression and to show that the companies support diversity. As you Jackie Good morning, David.

How was your weekend? Too short though! Ca n we just have a t hat. I know that it's your responsibility, but jenny Co uld yo u outline some of the problems you've I'd like to be up to date on what's happening.

We're look ing for to one or two negative relationships in t he someone with 2- 5 years' generalist HR group. Don't forget we can move around different sections to ga in more took on a lot of employees wit h the merger in experience. Then I thought I'd comp laint? It's one jackie OK. What about an ad in the Spanish HR trade of our specific responsib ilities.

They have a monthly magazine, don't Otherwise my staff are inst ruct ed to telilhe they? I'll possible. If I'm not the re, then another team look into it though. It's important that Francisco Mela ni e? Menendez is involved. As the general manager, Melanie I particula rly enjoy dea lin g w ith custome rs. I am good at it. Well, David, I can see you've got lenny Why do want to leave your prese nt job?

Just keep me posted, please. Melanie Part of the call centre is being t ransferred t o David No problem. My partner has a Jackie Oh, sorry, I've got to run. I have a meeting about good job in this area and we have two ch ildren at disciplinary procedures in about five minutes. I don't really wan t t o move at t hi s ti me, Oh, and by the way, I'll be back in t he office although my co mpany did ask me if I wo uld like again on Thursday, so perhaps we can talk again to relocate.

Tha nk yo u. So, could you tell me about your 3 experience as a team leader in your present job? Speaker 1 Melanie Yes, I've been with my present company for five It is not relevant to ask someone's age. You ca n wo rk it 4 years. I started as a member of the call centre out roug hly from t heir CV and, anyway, t he important t hin g and was promoted to a team leader two years is whether or not they have the ability to do t he job, not ago.

I'm one of eight team leaders and we cover how old t hey are. Transcripts I 71 Speaker 2 June Yes, of course. One will be sent with the offer Yes, I totally agree and older people have a lot of letter.

Plus they are often Chiara We'll be taking up references with your previous better employees than their younger colleagues - they're and present employer. I know in France you more reliable and take less time off work. Which is I'm afraid I can't agree with you on that. Older people are why we'll make the offer of employment 'subject 6 not as flexible, they expect higher salaries and they get to satisfactory reference'.

Marion Yes, I understand, I've given details of my Companies want younger employees who can bring in referees on the application form. My present fresh ideas and are not so expensive! I'll tell them to Speaker 4 expect a letter from you. You can't run a company efficiently with young, Chiara Well thanks, Marion. I hope you'll be joining us 7 inexperienced people. You need to retain older managers soon and look forward to welcoming you to the to train the younger ones and you have to organize department.

Maybe you'd like to meet some of effective succession planning in a company. There should the team over a bite of lunch? We'll all be going be capacity for a broad age range and diverse experience to the canteen in around 15 minutes.

Marion That sounds nice, thanks. We'll get the offer letter, contract, and 8 I think laws on age discrimination are wrong. Why should handbook in the post within the next 24 hours.

Only the Could you please let us know if you want to companies know which people are right - or wrong - for accept the job offer by the beginning of next the job. The government shouldn't tell us how to run our week? Marion Right.

Thank you both very much. I feel very positive about everything. Of course, they'll also be Natasha: Shop floor team leader described in the contract of employment and the You know, I only started here four months ago but I'm 10 company handbook, as well as in the offer letter.

Gerry, the shop floor Chiara Some employment procedures are different from supervisor, is always correcting me, always telling me that those in France, Marion, but there is generally things are done differently here and he's so negative. He more flexibility here, I think. Please ask about never gives any real help. And my team is also against me.

I just don't know how much longer I can cope, I don't feel June So, let's start with your hours. Normal working in control of the situation. I have put lunches. I'm afraid we don't operate flexitime yet 11 together a team of marketing staff from all our different and there may be overtime during busy periods. The Marion I see. Several members have already asked to flexible working arrangements for our employees, leave the project.

Marion OK. Could you tell me what happens if I am ill? Janet: Departmental manager June We pay for the first 12 weeks of sickness and I need help with a problem employee. He's making a lot of 12 operate a company 'Permanent Health Insurance' mistakes and is argumentative with colleagues. What's scheme which continues to pay you after that. Several clients early as possible on the first day to tell us and have also recently complained about his attitude.

Holger: Project manager Marion Yes, that's clear. Could you tell me something I've been here seven years and I desperately need some about the holiday allowance? I'm now coordinating an after two years' service. You must clear dates first international project and it's embarraSSing that I know with your department head, of course.

My boss tells me we're too Marion I have a week's holiday booked in two months' busy for training courses, but it's essential that I'm totally time - will you honour this? Can you talk to my Chiara I'm sure that won't be a problem as it's only a boss? We can discuss it in detail later. Marion Great. Is that the final decision? Look at the questions in the bubble and use the words given to make them more polite. What you ask 1 M av 1 ask if there are any other options? They are based on th e la te s t study.

When preparing your presentation, always try to make a list of questions you expect to be asked. Some of the most common questions will be something like: What has to be done? How long does it take? How much does it cost? Is there a deadline? What are the alternatives? Do we get support? Who will be responsible? What can go wrong? First think of a topic you both know well e. Work separately to write four or five questions about the topic.

Then use the flow chart to practise asking and answering your questions. A1 Ask a question Yes. Listen to the following excerpts from four different presentations and say in which one the presenter: a p o s tp o n e s a n sw e rin g th e q u e s tio n. UNIT 6 A ny q u estions? OK, I was just moving on to the timing of the merger and If you don't mind, I'll deal with this question later in my presentation.

Can we get back to that a bit later? Would you mind waiting with your questions until the question and answer session at the end? After answering questions, especially those that require a longer answer, it is sometimes necessary to remind the audience what you were talking about before the interruption. Before we continue, let me briefly summarize the points we were discussing. So, back to what I was saying about This not only gives you time to think, it also allows you to make sure you have understood the question.

With a large or noisy audience, it allows the other participants to hear the question again and finally, it gives you the chance to change the tone of the question, e. You can use the following phrases and the techniques in the table below to reformulate questions: I see.

If I understand you correctly, you want to know OK, let me just repeat your question so everybody can hear it. If I could just rephrase your question What would be a better solution? Practise the phrases from this unit using the checklist. Vj 4 If you want to postpone the question, say why politely. Person l For me, the question and answer session is the most difficult part of a presentation.

I don't like it at all. You never know what questions will be asked, so you can't really prepare. I always feel extremely nervous. The problem is you have to say something quickly and don't have the time to think of a clever reply. Person 2 If you ask me, most questions aren't really questions at all. It seems as if a lot of people ask questions not because they want to get an answer but because they want to show the other participants how clever they are or how funny or whatever.

I think some people just want to show off or be the centre of attention. My experience is that they usually say something positive about a presentation before they start asking questions. I think that's a very good thing because the questioner shows some respect for the presenter and also helps create a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere during the question period.

Person 4 I think it's important to try and predict all the questions you might be asked. Before a presentation I always make a list of questions I expect people to ask. Then I think about possible answers and practise them. Of course you can't anticipate all the questions but at least you don't need to worry about the ones you have thought about.

I feel much more comfortable this way. Person 5 You need to decide when you want to answer questions. Allowing questions during your talk usually creates a rather informal, seminar-like atmosphere. You can answer questions directly and involve the audience.

On the other hand, answering questions after the presentation gives you more control of your structure and timing. If you want questions after your talk, you can say that your time frame is very tight or the topic is rather complex. Which do you prefer? What other tips can you think of for preparing for the question period?

How often do you present to an English-speaking audience? How different is it from presenting to an audience in your own language? Test yourself! Use the clues to complete the crossword. Across 2 Indicating the start of a ta lk My name is Brian Winston. She's the regional manager; responsible If we don't do something, we will run Of page 7 course we can! Christmas business. As you all know, our topic today is globalization. UNIT 3 page 23 2 This brings us directly to my next question.

According to the study, travel costs have risen 1 briefly summarize 5 final point sharply since Our productivity hit a low in December. Then we reviewed the various partners that page 42 are currently involved in the project and how we can 1 1 To find out whether they can reduce air travel work together most effectively. Finally, I talked costs by using budget airlines and if so, how to about the next steps, i.

This is very important to the success of to outsource the function. You want to know the most effective way to reduce costs. First of all, let your company aware of health and safety issues. How me thank you all for being here today. Would you have a meeting? Take a few moments to think this time of the year is probably the busiest for you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Don Taylor.

Logistics is a centre of competency dedicated to providing you with Did you know that the number of possible ways of the spare parts you need, precisely when you need playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess them. Let me just write that number on automatic shelving system. My talk is particularly the board: billion, million, and thousand. Well, let me tell you. Hello everyone.

Why should a team leader. After all, our products come from certified with my presentation right away. As you can see on the suppliers and we have an excellent track record for screen, our topic today is project documentation. So, why going to look closely at drafting, storing, archiving as bother? For those well as accessing documents in our new SAP system.

As you probably know, my name is Susan match the sketches. It said that chocolate is really a vegetable because we get it from cocoa and sugar, which come from cocoa 4 beans and sugar cane - both plants, i.

Chocolate a health food? The about the way things are presented and how we look at objective is to bring you up to date with the latest them. Image building, ladies and gentlemen, that is our changes which will be introduced on January 1.

See page 25 Answer key on page As cosmetic line. These problems lie chiefly with our main you can see in the first row, we sold 18, cars in bottle supplier, but we are also having trouble with Germany in the first quarter while in the same period distribution.

Our non-EU market and then make some suggestions on how we can deal was still relatively small with sales of about 8, cars. Now if you look at the second quarter, you will see a dramatic change. Here the problem lies travellers in this table. Venice leads the table with an with In environmentally friendly. Since then oil has become much more your attention to three new design features. First, the expensive and so has the euro. Let me show you what refrigerators are more colourful.

Apple started the trend this means for our export business. We think that figures on the board and then we will go on to discuss consumers want more colour in their kitchens, too, and the next point. The second Matterhorn which was launched in August. This system unique design feature is the circular shelving system. Another advantage is that it can also be used easy to reach and nothing gets lost in the back of the for snowboards.

We hope to sell at least 5, of these fridge again. And finally, the new refrigerator has a systems within the next two months. On the next slide compact design. This means that it takes up less floor you will see an illustration of the Matterhorn X These 24 About 1, businesses in the UK were asked if Britain are the sales figures for Europe for the first three should introduce the euro.

What are the results of this quarters of this year. We have sold about 21, fully quite interesting. To highlight our success Britain should never join the euro zone. Let me just flip back to it. Ah yes, here So, where do we go from here? So, to sum up You Clear answer there! The next question: indicate each of our main sales areas. The key in the how to proceed? In other words, who would be able to bottom left-hand corner shows you which colour handle the online bookings most efficiently?

The red line, for example, gives through the three different options we investigated us the sales figures for Belgium, the green line is for again: option 1, we take on a part-time employee for this Germany, and so on. So, what is the best solution for blue line here. From a financial point of view our results are absolutely clear: option one. The between and According to the European ideal candidate should either have some Internet Economic Institute, living expenses rose by between experience or have previously worked for a travel agent.

As you can see here, passenger numbers talk. Remember, the sales meeting in Vienna with the fluctuated between 2. Three days later months. They even rose moderately in May, reaching we got an email saying they were going with us after just over 2. In June all. In early July we introduced a we have. And it would strengthen our market position. As So, do we really want to miss this opportunity to get a result, ticket sales started picking up in July.

By the ahead of our competitors? Let me now highlight the most presentation today, we must invest in the new system; important facts about our hay fever medication. The figure rose by about it an eagle. We provide round-the- clock professional customer care.

And, most important, That gives us three months to handle the we customize our products and services to give you production and packaging. So, the next step is th e I manager and our SAP consultant and we can work out mean, three months.

What about our staff the best practice solutions that suit your business. Well, let me answer your question right 37 away. First of a ll What over by Procter and Gamble only a few years ago.

Mr Lee? Due to our new European image? Yes, well, as I said earlier Let me just repeat software first? Actually, there will be a meeting next week away from Bristol due to family commitments. Yes, where that will be decided. D Yes. You spoke about special training courses earlier. It means that the big credit card with you on that. Well, if there are no more companies like Visa and Mastercard use special questions, all that remains for me to do is to wish microchips instead of the usual magnetic strips on you a nice evening!

D Yes, thank you. L J Does it work? I Persuade the audience to do something Importance to audience: What do I want audience to know by the end of talk: Preparing visuals How many visuals will I have?

Are they clear and simple to understand? LJ Do they have effective headlines? Is there as little text as possible? Have I remembered the rule of six?

State your topic. Say why your topic is important for the audience. Describe the structure of your talk the main points and when you will be dealing with them. Say how long the talk will be. Say when you will answer questions.

Say whether there are handouts. P re se n ta tio n tra in e r Main part Briefly state your topic and objective s again. Then introduce your three or two or? P re se n ta tio n tra in e r Conclusion Signal the end of your talk.

TIP Remember how to make effective conclusions: end with Summarize the key points. Explain the significance. Make your final statement. Invite questions. How can I answer them? Use this checklist after too long f.. Communication How was my body language?

Parts of the presentation Introduction Did 1tell the audience the purpose of my talk? Did 1state my main points clearly? Conclusion Did 1summarize the key points? Questions How well did I deal with questions? Welcoming the audience It will take about 20 minutes to cover these issues. First of all, let me thank you all for coming here today.

Please take one and pass them on. Let me just start by introducing myself. Questions Giving your position, function, department, company There will be time for questions after my presentation. Is market research important for brand development? In my presentation I would like to report on Do we really need quality assurance?

According to an article I read recently, Did you know that Stories and anecdotes My talk is particularly relevant to those of us who I remember when I attended a meeting in Paris, At a conference in Madrid, I was once asked the By the end of this talk you will be familiar with Let me tell you what happened to me Suppose you wanted to Or will you sit back and respond to things as they happen? Your strategic posture depends in part on the possible impacts of future events and your choice of strategies.

You need to discuss these impacts in order to choose the best course of action out of several possibilities. For this reason, you will have to ask your team to prioritize, or decide which strategies are most important.

Gwen is based in the US headquarters. What strategy does Daniel suggest for their larger urban stores? What does Natasha suggest instead of making big cuts to their operations? The world today holds so many surprises and so much uncertainty. Mapping out the different scenarios is necessary before you can begin to develop strategies to respond to these possible future situations. In particular, you might be affected by availability bias, where the available information leads you to make predictions with too much certainty.

And throughout, you should watch out for assumptions that might cloud your thinking, or make you think unclearly. What does Natasha predict with certainty? What assumption does Natasha call Daniel out on? On a local level, your business could be dealing with another set of challenges.

So how can we plan for what might happen in the future? One of the approaches that organizations take in uncertain times is scenario planning.