This lesson will help you to be confident in speaking up during conference calls.
Have you done conference calls in English before?
Read the conference call below. You will be all the men: Ken, Tim and Allen. Your teacher will be the women: Monica, Kirsten and Anika. Discuss the language and style used.
Everyone except Ken makes a relatively minor etiquette mistake. Can you spot all the mistakes?
Ken: Hello everyone, this is Ken in New York. Are we all here?
Monica: Hi everyone, I’m with Ken and Tim here in NYC.
Tim: That was Monica.
Monica: Sorry haha! Yea, this is Monica.
Tim: This is Tim here, hello.
Kirsten: Hello, this is Kirsten in the Sao Paulo office.
Allen: Allen here. I’m client-side in Brazil. I'm at the factory.
Anika: Hi, Anika here.
Ken: Okay, thanks for taking the time to meet. So as you know, we just had the first steering committee meeting. I’m sure you all saw the email. It went well, so you can all pat yourselves on the back, especially everyone in Brazil. Good job. The CEO did give us some feedback, though. I want to take the next 30 minutes to make sure we are on the same page. We’re going to go over the email, talk about the feedback and go through the reallocation of resources. So—
Kirsten: Sorry! Kirsten here. Which email?
Ken: It's the one from this morning. It's called, "XYZ steering committee recap".
Kirsten: Oh. Yes. That one. Thanks.
Ken: Let’s look at the request. The CEO is happy with our IoT findings. In fact, he’s so happy, he wants to roll out the process through as much of the factory as possible.
Kirsten: Kirsten again. This... honestly sounds like scope creep to me. What’s happening at the factory exactly?
[long pause]
Tim: Don’t worry, we’re just reallocating resources. It’s all zero-sum for our working hours.
Kirsten: Sorry, Tim, was that? So the scope is completely unchanged? Is that right, Ken?
Ken: Yea, basically. So here's the plan. We are going to take the focus off the supply chain. We're just going to work more deeply on the manufacturing process. That means we can sell the supply chain process down the line.
Anika: Hi, hello, sorry, so um... Anika here... yea, just to be clear, we're going to just focus on IoT at the factories? And also other aspects of human-centered design?
Allen: Yea, Allen here. I was just at the factories this morning. I find this really exciting. It looks like we’re going to be able to roll out more of the human-computer interaction, this is going to be one of the more integrated factories in the world, and we can use it for best-case practices—
Ken: Sorry, let me jump in here, Allen. That’s right, but I want to go through the exact request the CEO made and why he made it...
A. When introducing yourself, pay attention to your tone and pacing—don't speak too fast. Introduce yourself after these people, and use the same flow of information that they use.
- Hi, this is Jim Smith—I'm a team leader in the New York City office.
- Hey, Stan in Seattle here.
- Hello, Jon Scovel here. So, I'm a manager at the London office. My focus is human-centred design, especially bringing design thinking to manufacturing and supply chain.
B. In a conference, it can be a good idea to direct questions at specific people so everyone knows who will speak next. You can put the person's name at the beginning or end of your question. This may seem easy, but it's easy to forget if you aren't used to it. Practice directing questions at specific people.
You want to know:
- If Cindy's team has finished the client interviews.
- If John's team and Cindy's team are on track.
- If John or Emma have any input on the IoT implementation plan.
Read the following situation with your teacher. You will be You, and your teacher will be all the other roles.
Situation: Anne is a senior partner; she is conducting the weekly meeting for a major global project. You are lead in your office.
- You received an email from the client CEO this morning congratulating you on your progress so far, and giving some requests for the next phase.
- Your team's interviews are finished, and you've also already finished analyzing the research. You are on track for the next phase.
Sam—Introduces himself.
Greg—Introduces himself.
You—Introduce yourself.
Anne—Introduces herself and sets the agenda.
Roman—Asks a general question.
Mark—Asks a question that you can help with.
You—Offer help.
Mark—Thanks you, and asks for further detail.
You—Give a little detail.
Sam—Has further input about the detail.
Stanley—Has a general follow-up and seems frustrated.
Anne—Gets the meeting back on track by asking you a specific question.
You—Answer the question.