Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to run a brainstorming session or meeting.
Every company uses brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and solve problems. But do all brainstorming sessions generate good ideas? Does everyone leave a brainstorming session feeling like they accomplished something? Well, that often depends on the facilitator. And if you are the one to run the show, there are several things you need to think about.
Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to defend yourself and your ideas.
One of the tough things in business is that you’re not just dealing with ideas and rational decisions. You’re dealing with people. And people don’t always take a cool and logical approach to things, even if you do. They get emotional about ideas and worked up about disagreement. And you might get that way too. Passion is a good thing, but too much negative emotion is counterproductive. So how can we manage people’s emotions while continuing to defend ourselves?
Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to defend yourself and your ideas in a competitive world.
Some people might think that good ideas will win the day, simply because they’re good ideas. But it’s not that simple. If you’ve got good ideas, you’re going to have to convince people of their value. And you’ll definitely have to defend them against all the people out to criticize or compete with you. It’s a dog eat dog world, as they say, and you want to make sure you’re not the dinner.
Imagine you’re in a meeting. You are expressing your opinion about something, when a colleague across the table interrupts you. He disagrees with what you’re saying, and he’s determined to make his point. What do you do? Do you sit back and smile? Or do you accept the challenge and defend what you’re saying?
This situation plays out every day in every office. Sometimes the discussion remains calm and the people remain diplomatic. But other times the conversation becomes more heated. At a certain point, it doesn’t seem like a conversation any more but an argument. People interrupt each other, they criticize and accuse, they defend themselves, and they become emotional.
Arguments are a normal part of working life. You can’t avoid them, so you’d better be prepared for them. In our last episode, we looked at several techniques for holding your own in an argument. Today we’ll look at several more key skills, including how to defend yourself against an accusation, how to correct someone, and how to dismiss trivial points. We’ll also learn about rephrasing another person’s words in an argument and bringing an argument back to a reasonable place.
We are going to rejoin Paula, Gavin, and Matt, who have been talking about a promotional event put on by their department store. The event wasn’t as successful as they had hoped for and Matt, Gavin and Paula’s boss, wants to figure out the reasons why the event failed. However, Paula and Gavin seem more intent on arguing about who is responsible rather than why the event was a failure.
Listening Questions
1. What does Paula think Gavin could have done to give input on the planning of the event?
2. What does Paula think is not worth discussing?
3. What does Matt want to figure out?
Does everyone in your office always agree all the time? When someone makes a suggestion, does everyone just smile and nod in agreement? When you bring forward an idea, do people just accept it? Well, if you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you are in an extremely unusual workplace. People are people. And people butt heads. They disagree, they argue, and they fight. You can’t get around it. But you can learn to deal with it.
To hold your own, you need to learn how to argue effectively. If you’ve got an opinion, you need to defend it. And if you have a problem with something a colleague has done, you need to let them know. This can make for some difficult discussions and meetings, but this is just a part of life and business.
So how can you argue effectively? Well, you need several skills which we’ll look at today. We’ll learn how to interrupt someone, finish something we’re saying after someone else has interrupted us, and cast doubt on something someone has said. We’ll also learn some useful expressions for backing up an accusation and trying to keep the discussion focused. When an argument breaks out, these are the kinds of skills you need.
In this lesson, we will hear a meeting between three people in the retail business talking about a recent promotional event. Apparently, the event wasn’t a great success. Paula and Gavin disagree about why things didn’t work out, while their boss Matt tries to work out the truth and keep the discussion focused.
Listening Questions
1. What does Gavin think was the general reason for the event’s failure?
2. Why does Gavin mention “the papers and the radio spots”?
3. At the end of the dialog, what does Matt want to do?
