What makes a good meeting?
B) Language
C) Assignments
1. Preparation
Have the participants been informed of: date, place, time, agenda,
objectives, specific preparation, documentation, and specific roles?
Do the participants have clear objectives and do they share the same
expectations?
3. Procedure
Has the procedure
(formal chairing, informal brainstorming, information-giving, problem-solving,
decision-making) been agreed?
Has the agenda
been agreed and understood?
Are the limits
clear (duration, finish time, date and time of next meeting)?
4. Roles
Are the roles
clearly understood? Chairperson (voorzitter); Minute-taker (notulant);
Participants (deelnemers)
5. Communication
Do all the
participants get a chance to contribute?
Do the
participants understand each other?
Is there a clear
outcome to the meeting?
Is there a clear
direction to the meeting?
Is there a
positive atmosphere?
1. Here are some words and expressions you can use for
discussing and evaluating meetings.
What do we
call it?
A meeting
A conference A get-together A discussion A chat
How do we
organize it?
To call a meeting
To set up a meeting
Who
participates?
Chairman/woman
Participant Delegate
(afgevaardigde) Colleague
|
What’s the atmosphere like? Positive Friendly Co-operative
(meewerkend) Uncooperative Negative Unfriendly Hostile
(vijandig) Competitive
(concurrerend) What do we
do?
Discuss Brainstorm
Negotiate
(onderhandelen)
Propose
(voorstellen) Recommend (aanbevelen) Decide (beslissen) Postpone (uitstellen)
What do we
talk about?
Items Issues
Points Matters
Topics Subjects
|
What’s the
output?
Minutes
(notulen) Reports
(verslagen) Action
Proceedings A decision A
recommendation/ aanbeveling) What do we think of it all? Fruitful Useful Productive Stimulating Helpful Positive Interesting Pointless Fruitless Useless Unproductive Boring A waste of time |
2. Where do we start? Here are some
words and expressions you can use to open a meeting.
- Let’s get down to business. - OK, shall we make a start?
- We’d better start (we kunnen maar beter beginnen). - Right, let’s begin.
We’re very pleased to welcome…
It’s a pleasure to welcome…
I’d particularly like to welcome … (ik wil in ‘t bijzonder … van
harte welkom heten)
I’d like to start by welcoming
I’d like to introduce…
We’re here today to…
Our aim is to…
I’ve called this meeting in order to…
The purpose of this meeting is to…
By the end of this meeting, we need to…
I suggest we go round the table first.
I’d like to hear what you all think before we make a
decision.
As you’ll see from the agenda…
Have you all seen a copy of the agenda?
I suggest we take this item first/next/last.
There are three items on the agenda.
Is there any other business?
This should take about two hours.
The meeting is due to finish at…
We’re short of time, so can I ask you to be brief?
I’d like to keep each item to ten minutes, otherwise
we’ll never get through.
I would like to finish by four o’ clock.
…, could you take the minutes?
… has kindly agreed to give us a report on…
… is going to take us through…
…, I wondered if you’d like to tell us something
about…?
Making a proposal
I’d like to know if you’d be prepared to …
Rejecting a proposal
I’m afraid I can’t
3. Where are we going? Here are some
words and expressions to link items and ideas.
Right, I think that covers the first item. Let’s move on to the next item…
Shall we leave that item? The next
item on the agenda is…
If nobody has anything else to add. Now we come to the question of…
Moving off the point Referring forward
This might be a good point to mention… We’ll come to that later
It’s not on the agenda, but… That point is
coming up in a moment
By the way,
Can we just deal with…? As we said earlier,
Let’s just deal with…
Shall we skip the next item?
I suggest we take that up at another meeting.
4. Your view counts
Here are some words and
expressions you can use for interrupting, commenting and resuming
(vergadering
voortzetten/
hervatten).
Interrupting
( in de rede vallen)
Excuse me, may I interrupt?
Just a moment…
Can I say something here?
…, sorry, (using someone’s name is a
good way to get their attention)
Commenting
(van commentaar voorzien) Considering alternatives
Yes, that’s interesting. Have you considered…
Yes, that’s a good point.
What about…
Yes, I see what you mean. There’s
another way of looking at this.
Emphasizing (benadrukken) Referring
I’d like to point out… You said…
Let me emphasize…
Somebody mentioned…
You
know, what you said about…
Finishing
what you want to say
Just let me finish.
I’ll come to that in a moment.
I haven’t finished what I was
saying.
No, wait a moment…
May I just finish?
5. Keeping to the
point – questioning and clarifying
In order to keep to the point you can ask all sorts of questions:
Open
questions (these
are called open because we don’t know what the answer will be.)
What sort of…?
Could you tell me…?
I’d be interested to know…
Closed
questions
(these are seeking a Yes/No answer)
Do you plan to …?
Is there…?
Did you…?
Are you going to …?
Leading
questions
(these force an answer in a certain direction)
Shouldn’t we …?
There isn’t …, is there?
We’re…, aren’t we?
Probing
questions
(to probe means onderzoeken - these questions are seeking further information)
What exactly do you mean by…?
I’m not sure I really understand…
Could you go into more detail
about…?
Reflective
questions
(These questions show that you have been listening and appreciate (op prijs
stellen) the point that is being made.)
So you’re worried about…?
If I understand you,
6. What’s the idea
– asking and giving opinions
|
Asking
for opinions
What do you think? Peter? (rising intonation) What’s your opinion? Giving
opinions
I think/ feel /believe… In my opinion, we should… In my view…/ My view is… Giving someone
the opportunity to speak We haven’t heard from Ann yet. Can we hear what Fred has to say? Just let Yvonne finish. Commenting
on opinions
That’s a good idea/ an excellent
idea. That’s very interesting. I’m sure we’d all agree with
that. That’s a very good point/ an
important point. |
Relevance of
ideas (zijn ideeën relevant?) We’re missing the point. We’re getting off the point. Let’s get back to the main point. He/She has a good point. Problems of time We’re rather short of time. I’m afraid we’re running out of time. We’ll have to leave that to another time. Asking for
clarification I don’t see what you’re getting at. I not sure what you mean. I’m not sure what you’re saying. It’s not clear what you mean. |
7. Making decisions
– Agreeing and disagreeing and making recommendations
|
Total
disagreement (geheel oneens) I totally disagree. I couldn’t agree less. You must be joking? Wait to be convinced (nog niet helemaal overtuigd) I can see what you’re getting at. There are two sides to the
argument. On the other hand… on the other… I’m not sure/convinced about… I just think we need more time. Total
commitment (volledig toegewijd) I’m a 100% behind you. I entirely agree with you. Responding
neutrally OK
Alright
I see your point.
I understand your concern. Strong
recommendations (aanbevelingen) I strongly recommend… There’s no alternative… I think we have to… Weak
recommendations Perhaps we could consider… Maybe we should think about… |
Limited
agreement (niet helemaal eens) I agree, but… I’m not against it, but… Responding negatively That’s crazy. That would be a disaster. Responding
positively That’s marvelous. That’s great. That’s fine. Neutral recommendations I propose/ suggest/ recommend… Why don’t we...? (Informal) Imposing conditions I’d like to see the figures/ the statistics first Rejecting a proposal I’m afraid I can’t … Accepting
a proposal I think we’d be able to accept … |
8.
What’s next
– summarizing - clarifying –
closing the meeting
|
Completing
the agenda Right, it looks as though we’ve
covered the main point. I think that just about covers
everything. Is there any other business? Is there anything more to discuss? Summarizing Before we close, let me just
summarize the main points. Shall I go over the main points? So, to sum up…/ to recap(itulate) Agreeing
and assigning action (‘t eens worden en actie ondernemen) So, what’s the next step? Ann, could you let us have a
report…? Louis has agreed to look into… So, Merlyn, you’re going to write
up… Basically, I’d like you to… |
Ensuring that everything is clear (zeker zijn dat ‘t voor iedereen
duidelijk is) OK, is that clear? Let me just clarify one thing. Do you all see what I’m getting
at? So, I hope everything is clear. Obviously,…/ Clearly, … Closing
the meeting Let’s stop here. I’m afraid we’ll have to finish
here. I declare the meeting closed.
(Formal) Let’s call it a day. (Informal) |
From:
To:
…; …, …;…; …;
1. Having set breaks from computer work
2. In-company childcare service
3. Non-smoking vote
4. 100% reimbursement for continuing
education
5. Initiate employee complaint department
I would expect this
meeting to last around an hour and a half. Please let me know if you will be
arriving in time for lunch.
Discuss the idea of purchasing some
bankrupt property, a medium size Mall (passage)
3 are for; 3 are against....
Reasons for: Good price for this market.
Reasons against: It has little potential,
as it was not a successful Mall. It also needs much structural work.
Discuss other possibilities....
Details:
Property
size: 2 center of Den Bosch
Function:
Shopping mall, medium sized, 7 shops in total.
Price: fl. 2,500,000 Inventory included