Learnship 06 - 2023/09/26
Business Language Coaching - Session 6 - Using Mixed Conditions in Meetings
- practice expressing attitudes towards the past, present and future using a range of conditional forms
- be able to evaluate the first three quarters of your working year
Starting Point
How have you been getting on with your work on conditions? Are you feeling more confident about choosing the right conditional form for the situation?
Business communication - Discussing options
Key expressions:
Setting the context / discussing strategy
- Looking at the situation from a long-term perspective …
- We need to develop a clear strategy to …
- I think we need to look at the bigger picture.
- We have to bear in mind the long-term viability …
Stating / discussing options
- We have a number of options.
- I think our options are quite clear here.
- How would it work if you/we …?
- Basically we don’t have much choice …
- We can either … or we …
- We’re in a really strong position to …
Discussing feasibility / evaluating options
- There’s no point in …-ing, if we don’t/can’t …
- Provided we …, I’m convinced we can …
- I’m not sure that would work.
- Realistically, would we be able to finance this strategy?
- Assuming we decided to …, we could also …
Reaching decisions
- So, the general consensus is that …
- Are there any other points to consider?
- Right. So we’re decided.
Mixed conditions in meetings: what could you say here?
Work with a partner. Take turns to discuss these situations. Use conditionals to talk about past, present or future consequences.
Example: Last year, your company outsourced catering. Now the standard of food in the canteen is lower and the number of employees eating there has halved.
If we hadn’t outsourced catering, we would still have a good canteen.
Your company is making a loss. It needs to cut costs before it goes bankrupt.
If you don’t cut costs, it will go bankrupt.
The government is considering raising interest rates. but they are concerned about the effects on consumer spending.
If the government raised the interest rates, consumer spending would/might go down.
Your department hired a bad manager. Since his arrival, three people have left.
If the department hadn’t hired a bad manager, three people wouldn’t have left.
You chose the wrong career path. You are bored and frustrated with your job.
If you hadn’t chosen the wrong career you would have been happy with your job/you would be happy.
Some staff will be relocated to Berlin (it might be you). You have friends there.
You will be happy if you’re relocated to Berlin
Your annual pay review is coming up. You want to go on holiday to the Caribbean, but you can’t afford it at the moment.
If the annual pay review hd been finished, I would have been able to afford the trip to the Caribbean. / If I got a bonus, I would be able to afford the trip to the Caribbean.
Mixed conditions in meetings: conducting a yearly review
YP fitness studio is having its yearly review meeting. Work with a partner. Talk about what happened and the future plan.
YP fitness studio review meeting
Last year
Past action/inaction and past result
- invest in new equipment -> able to increase membership fee
- failed to develop competitive January special offer -> lost potential customer to competition
Past action/inaction and present results
- failed to address HR crisis and recruit new personal trainers -> only three personal trainers - all overworked, several customers on waiting lists
- developed partnership with local school -> overweight teenagers now following fitness programme
Next year
Suggestions/predictions for next year plus results
- develop new membership packages -> increase number of members
- start more initiatives with teenagers -> improve gym reputation and get new young members
- employee more trainers -> more personal programmes for customers and more profit
- renovate pool area -> improve reputation, increase swimming prices
Vocabulary/Notes
- we went* to
- the tomb(pr)
- bi-weekly, twice a week
- fortnightly, every other week