The English of Meetings: 200 Things to Say, and When to Say Them

This is those sentences, in the order the moments arrive. Two hundred of them, in twenty groups of ten.

Every phrase comes with four things: the phrase itself, the moment it belongs to, why it works on a room, and — the part that does the real teaching — the perfectly correct English sentence people say instead, and what it costs them. These are not grammar errors. That is off topic and I think that is a different conversation mean the same thing and land completely differently, and that is almost impossible to notice on your own.

Part One — getting it started. Opening it, arriving late, catching up without making everybody repeat themselves, and the eleven words that save a forty-minute meeting from being about the wrong thing.

Part Two — saying what you think. The order English meetings run on: conclusion first, reasoning second, qualification third. Backing a point with evidence. And hedging honestly, which is a claim about your own certainty and not a weakness.

Part Three — disagreeing. Acknowledge, then differ, then give the reason. Being challenged without losing the room. And what to say when one person is dominating, when somebody is angry, or when nobody will break the silence.

Part Four — steering. Interrupting in English is a mechanical skill, not a matter of confidence: there are four phrases and they work at any level of seniority. Plus moving a discussion on, and bringing in the people who have not spoken.

Part Five — deciding and closing. Naming the decision so it can be agreed. Who is doing that one? By when? What happens if it slips? And the last five minutes, which are the most valuable in the hour and are almost always spent on packing up.

Part Six — the meetings that are not quite meetings. One-to-ones with your manager. Client and supplier meetings. Stand-ups. Workshops. And the conversation in the corridor afterwards, where a surprising number of decisions are actually made.

At the back: one whole meeting from the first sentence to the last, using about thirty of the phrases; twenty phrases for meetings on a screen; the twelve sentences of chairing; what actually goes in the note; and the twenty worth learning first.

200 phrases · 20 worked exchanges · 200 sentences to avoid