プロジェクトの進行において良い進捗もあれば、トラブルが発生することもあります。このレッスンでは進捗状況の順調な内容、そして困難な部分について説明する際に有効な様々なワードやフレーズについてフォーカスします。
- How's your project going?
- Have you ever fallen behind schedule? If so, what happened?
This lesson is about reporting good progress (which is somewhat easy) and reporting when things are bad. This is tougher.
Don't spend too long on the introduction. Just get a situation that you can use through this lesson as an example to tie the language into the student's situation.
Read this dialog with your teacher. You will be Ben, a first-year analyst, and they will be Rachael, a principal.
Rachael: Hey, Ben, have you got time for a quick chat?
Ben: Sure, no problem.
Rachael: So, how's everything going with that deck?
Ben: To be honest, I hit a bit of a wall earlier. It was looking good, but then we got that redirect...
Rachael: Right. We got some client feedback on Monday and had to broaden the scope a little.
Ben: Exactly. But I didn't hear about that until late on Tuesday.
Rachael: Oh really?!
Ben: Yea, so that's why I was behind schedule yesterday. But I pulled an all-nighter with Kevin. He's a legend, by the way—he helped out so much. Now, we're pretty much on track.
Rachael: Pretty much?
Ben: Yea, I'm confident we'll be on schedule by the end of the day.
Rachael: Okay, the presentation is tomorrow. I need to see it by the end of the day. Are you sure you'll be ready?
Ben: Absolutely.
Rachael: Ok, Ben. Well done. Keep me updated. Let me know the second you've finished.
Ben: Thanks, Rachael. Will do.
First, summarize the situation. What happened?
Next, discuss these questions:
- How do you think Rachael and Ben are feeling?
- Who is at fault for Ben falling behind schedule?
- What would you do if you were Ben?
Rachael is probably feeling annoyed, so be sure to read some of her lines in an annoyed tone of voice, especially, "Oh really?!"
-
How do you think Rachael and Ben are feeling?
-
Rachael says "Oh really?!" This can be said many, many different ways. She's surely a bit annoyed about the situation. Wasting time because of a lack of communication is a huge problem, and if she is in any kind of leadership role, then she would be held at least partially responsible.
-
Ben seems to be fine. He doesn't sound angry. He's thankful to his colleague Kevin for helping him, and he's focused on the future.
- Who is at fault? Your student may have different takes on this:
- Perhaps Rachael is at fault for not telling Ben.
- Maybe his team didn't give him the message.
- Maybe his team leader was in charge of telling him.
- Perhaps Ben should be checking in more often, so he's at least partially to blame.
- What would you do if you were Ben? Maybe you'd check in more, but Ben seems like a pretty good guy.
A. Giving a longer update usually means you introduce your intentions with a phrase like this:
- Let me bring you up to date on how the project's doing.
- Let me bring you up to speed on the project so far.
-
I'll just fill you in on everything we've been working on.
- I'll just give you an overview of how everything's going.
Can you identify key language in the phrases above and change the language slightly?
B. When things are going well, you can say:
- So far, so good.
- Everything's on track.
- We’ve had to overcome a lot of hurdles.
- It's coming along perfectly.
Can you think of any other phrases?
C. If you have any trouble, you can use some of the following phrases. How serious do you think each phrase is?
- We've had some trouble.
- We've encountered a few issues.
- We hit a snag.
- We hit a wall.
- We're about half a day behind schedule.
Can you think of any other phrases?
Note: This language is important because, in an English office, it's used often.
Again, this course isn't about meeting the basics of communication; it's about building trust and impressing colleagues with your English.
A. The key language from these phrases is this:
- fill you in
- bring you up to date
- bring you up to speed
- just give you an overview
Note: You can change these into questions as well.
B. When things are going well, you can say:
- So far, so good.
- Everything's on track.
- We've had to overcome a lot of hurdles.
- It's coming along perfectly.
Can you think of any other phrases?
- We're on schedule.
- Everything is going well.
- We're killing it!
C. If you have any trouble, you can use some of the following phrases. How serious do you think each phrase is?
- We've had some trouble. [somewhat serious]
- We've encountered a few issues. [mildly serious]
- We hit a snag. [pretty serious]
- We hit a wall. [super serious]
- We're about half a day behind schedule. [could either be super serious or catastrophic, depending on the client's (and your boss's) expectations ]
Can you think of any other phrases?
- We've had a few problems.
- We've had a couple of issues.
- There are a few hurdles that we have to overcome.
A. Discuss with your teacher: What are some potential problems that might cause someone to fall slightly behind schedule? Factors that might cause delays include:
- management decisions from your team leader, principal or partner,
- the client,
- the data, or
- other things.
Now, your teacher will ask you some questions. Use the ideas you've come up with to give short updates.
B. Use language from the previous lesson, the phrases from the Language section, and the ideas from Practice A in the following situations.
Situation 1: You are conducting expert interviews. You've finished 3 of the 4 interviews you'd hoped to do, but one of the experts was unavailable. You called when scheduled but didn't get through, so you sent emails and haven't heard back. The successful interviews have given you some key insights which you've written up in preparation for the internal meeting scheduled to start in a few hours.
Team leader: Would you mind popping over to my office in a few minutes to give me a quick update?
(5 minutes later)
Team leader: Have a seat.
You: [Start with the bad news]
Team leader: Ok, well, that's life, I suppose. Wait until the end of the day for them to get back to you and try again. So, what about the internal meeting?
You: [Give the good news]
Situation 2: Your project's Partner likes to get weekly updates in person from each team member. Stop by her office and tell her how everything's going.
- Client meeting tomorrow: The deck is ready.
- Team leader: Saw it and signed off.
- Data analysis: Some data is missing. The client hasn't sent it yet.
- Problem: A junior staff member offended an executive in the last meeting, and that exec was in charge of sending the data.
Situation 3: Now, think of 3 tasks and 1 problem that you can report from your weekly assignments.