English & Enterprise: Problem-solving

Welcome - English & Enterprise  - Problem-solving 

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rich: We recommend that you listen to this podcast on the Premier Skills English website because that is where we have the transcript, language examples, activities, quizzes and a discussion page to help you understand everything we talk about.

Jack: However, if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can leave answers to our questions in the review section. We do read all the reviews and would love to hear from you. 

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re continuing with our new mini-series of podcasts that focus on enterprise skills. These are skills that will help you with your English at work or in the workplace.

Jack: In our last podcast, we spoke about the language you need when brainstorming a topic.  We looked at phrases we might use to make suggestions such as ‘What about …?’, ‘This might sound crazy but we could try something really different’ and ‘Let’s think out of the box a little’. 

Rich: We also looked at lots of words and phrases connected to business such as ‘income and profit’, ‘undercutting rivals’ and ‘blowing the competition out of the water’.

Jack: If you want to go back and do this lesson you can find it on the Premier Skills English website by clicking skills > listen>podcasts. If you are on Spotify or Apple Podcasts you’ll find it in the playlist, it’s called ‘English & Enterprise: Brainstorming’.

Rich: In this podcast, we are going to talk about solving problems. In the workplace or at work, we often have meetings to discuss different types of work-related problems.

Jack: These meetings might be about problems with a product, problems with customers, or even problems with the boss or colleagues.

Rich: In these meetings, you often need to evaluate the problem, think of possible solutions and make decisions.

Jack: We will focus on some of the words and phrases you need to participate in these types of meetings successfully.

Rich: We will also look at lots of phrases which include the word ‘chance’.

Jack: Later in the podcast, we will have a roleplay for you that continues from last week’s roleplay.

Rich: If you remember, last week we had the idea for a new football tech product -  hair moulds in the shape of famous footballers.

Jack: Well, now there is a problem and we have to come up with some solutions if we want it to be successful.

Rich: After the roleplay, we will have a task for you to do, which is when we ask you to use your English. This week we’re going to give you three work-related problems and think, with the help of other listeners, of some possible solutions.

Jack: And, don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have another football phrase for you to guess.

Football Phrase 1

Jack: But, before we look at all that, let’s look at last week’s football phrase. If you didn’t hear it last week we’ll give you one more chance to guess and give you the correct answer at the end of the show when we give you a new football phrase.

Rich: The phrase was _______. In the past couple of weeks, Huddersfield Town and Fulham have been relegated from the Premier League. They are not staying up, they’re  ________.

Jack:  Well done if you got the right answer last week. A special well done to Liubomyr from Ukraine, Coreuser from Saudi Arabia, Khaldoun 83 and Elghoul from Algeria, Idzingirai from Zimbabwe and TheNext75 from Italy. All of you got the right answer and wrote the correct answer on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: Well done TheNext75 from Italy who said he was very excited to get the right answer to the football phrase for the first time!

Jack: We’ll tell you the answer to this football phrase and we’ll have a new one at the end of the show.

Introduction to Roleplay

Jack You are now going to listen to a roleplay. 

Rich: In the last podcast, you heard two employees of a tech company (me and Jack) come up with a new idea for a football product that they can sell.

Jack: In this roleplay, you are going to hear our boss talking about this product. Following this, you will hear us discussing a problem and thinking of some possible solutions to the problem.

Rich: While you listen, try to answer these two questions: question one: What’s the problem? And question two: What do we decide to do?

Roleplay

Boss: So, thanks for your ideas last week. I loved the hair mould idea. I want to go into production as soon as we can. It’s going to be huge. Let’s hear it for Maria - a big round of applause for her idea.

Jack: Maria?

Rich: The boss’s daughter - Maria. Unbelievable. She’s stolen our idea.

Boss: Maria and I are going to have a few technical meetings right now but she’ll be leading on this. She’ll be in to see you all in a little while. A chip off the old block, hey?

Rich: We need to call a meeting about this. We can’t have her taking all the credit for this.

…

Jack: Right everyone, we really need to do something about this. We can’t have Maria taking the credit for our idea.

Rich: But how do we tell the boss. Is he going to believe us if we tell him straight?

Jack: No chance. He’ll think it’s just sour grapes. Our best bet is to get Maria to admit that it wasn’t her idea.

Rich: Mmm … I’m not sure it would be a smart move to confront her directly. The chances of her admitting it are somewhere between slim and none.

Jack: But we can’t blow this chance - this hair mould idea could make us all millionaires.

Rich: I know. We’d be much better off trying something a bit more indirect.

Jack: I’ve got an idea. If I talk to her in the bathroom there is a fair chance she’ll admit what she’s done. I could try to record her. We’d have a good chance of getting some kind of proof to show the boss.

Rich: I can see it now. You storming into the ladies bathroom with your phone out and demanding the truth. The chances of it working are pretty remote. 

Jack: Hmmm, you have a point. Why don’t I meet her in the car park and have a few ‘words’ with her?

Rich: Don’t even think about violence. That won’t get us anywhere. Chances are we’d find ourselves without a job and behind bars!

Jack: Words I said. I wouldn’t hurt a fly. OK, what about love. I could take her out on a date and …

Rich: With Maria. Rich, clever, beautiful Maria? It’s a million to one chance.

Jack: So, you're telling me there’s a chance!

Rich: No, I’m saying you don’t stand a chance.

Jack: What about embarrassing her? We’ve worked on this idea for months. She doesn’t really know anything about it.

Rich: That’s by far the most sensible thing you’ve come up with. We could get her to talk more about the hair mould idea in front of her dad. She’ll need our help.

Jack: There’s a good chance that will work.

Rich: Great. It’s good to see we’re on the same page here. Now, all we have to do is get her to agree to do a presentation.

Roleplay Questions

Jack: Before we take a look at the language we used in the roleplay, let’s give you the answers to those questions we asked.

Rich: The first question was: What’s the problem? 

Jack: The problem is that the boss’s daughter, Maria has stolen our product idea and we’re not very happy about this.

Rich: And the second question was: What did we decide to do?

Jack: After discussing a few possible solutions that we thought wouldn’t work we decided that the best thing to do would be to make Maria talk about the product in detail in front of her dad.

Rich: Now, let’s look at some of the language we used in the roleplay.

Language Focus

Rich: In the roleplay, you heard me and Jack trying to solve a problem. In the workplace, problem-solving skills are very important.

Jack: Problem-solving skills involve things like creativity, team-building, communicating and decision-making.

Rich: In the roleplay, we thought of a number of possible solutions and then decided what would be the best solution.

Jack: We used lots of phrases that can be useful when making decisions or offering possible solutions to a problem.

Rich: In the roleplay, Jack said ‘Our best bet is to get Maria to admit that it wasn’t her idea.’

Jack: The phrase ‘our best bet …’ is used when we believe that something is the best possible solution. 

Rich: In the roleplay, we liked some possible solutions more than others. One example was when I said ‘We’d be much better off trying something a bit more indirect’.

Jack: If you say that you’d be better off doing something, you are advising someone to do it or expressing the opinion that it would be a good idea.

Rich: We used this in the roleplay to show we are working towards a decision.

Jack: As we were giving possible solutions you may have heard some of the phrases we looked at last week to make suggestions such as, ‘What about …?’ and ‘Why don’t I …?’. These types of phrase are useful when we are trying to solve problems, too. 

Rich: Conditional sentences and modal verbs are also useful when thinking about possible solutions. We said things like, ‘If I talk to her, she might admit what she’s done’ and ‘I could talk to her’.

Jack: As we moved towards the end of the conversation we had to make a decision and we used the phrase ‘by far the most sensible thing to do is …’ 

Rich: We used this phrase to say that this was the best decision. We could say similar phrases like ‘this is the best course of action’ or more simply ‘this is the best thing to do’.

Jack: We followed this up by saying ‘it’s good to see that we’re on the same page’. This is an idiom which means we agree with each other or understand a situation in the same way. This is a useful phrase to confirm that everyone agrees with a decision.

Rich: When we were trying to think of possible solutions we thought of a few ideas that were not good. We used a few expressions to say this.

Jack: Some of these expressions are stronger than others. Rich said ‘I’m not sure it would be a smart move to confront her directly’.

Rich: This phrase means ‘it wouldn’t be a good idea to confront her directly.’ It’s quite polite and not very strong - it’s advice.

Jack: When Rich said ‘Don’t even think about violence’ the advice is much stronger and is more like a warning. 

Rich: There are similar phrases we could use such as ‘Resist the temptation to …’, ‘Put that idea out of your mind’, ‘there’s not much point in …’ and ‘forget the idea of ....’

Jack: If you want to practise these types of phrases a bit more, take a look at the website page where we have some activities for you and a task for you to complete.

Vocabulary

Rich: You may have noticed that we used lots of phrases with the word ‘chance’ in the roleplay.

Jack: All of the phrases we used were connected to the likelihood or chances of one of our possible solutions being successful.

Rich: Some of our ideas had no chance of working or it was a one in a million chance.

Jack: Others had a fair chance of working or a 50-50 chance.

Rich: While others had a good chance of working or at least were in with a chance.

Jack: We have some activities and more explanations of these phrases on the Premier Skills English website. 

Task

Jack: This week’s task is to listen to three work-related problems or dilemmas and say what decision you would make in each situation.

Rich: We want you to use some of the phrases we used in this podcast in your answer and we also want you to reply to other listeners and say if you think their solution is the best decision to make. 

Jack: Here are your three work-related problems. You can also read these on the Premier Skills English website where you can write your answers in the comments section.

Rich: Problem one: You are employed by a large clothing company on a 40-hour per week contract in a city with a very high unemployment rate. Your boss is asking you to work weekends and late nights for no extra pay. You are worried that you will lose your job if you say no. Talk to work colleagues. What should you do?

Jack: Problem two: You are a hard-working tech professional for an international IT company. You’ve been working for the company for five years but have missed out on promotion several times. You feel that each time you were more deserving of promotion. You are concerned the reason is not about your talent but who you are. Talk to friends. What should you do?

Rich: Problem three: You work at a small independent cafe. You are a team of four but one of the team doesn't work very hard. He is always late, eats the food and drink and is rude to customers. The team member is the boss's son. Talk to the rest of the team. What should you do? 

Jack: So, that’s your task this week. Write your answers in the comments section at the bottom of the page on the Premier Skills English website or in the review section on Apple Podcasts.

This week’s football phrase:

Jack: The final section this week is our football phrase. 

Rich: The football phrase this week is * ********** ****. This phrase is used when a referee or more recently VAR decides that a goal should not be given because of a foul or offside. In the Champions League, there was * ********** **** in the last minute which meant Tottenham beat Manchester City.

Jack: Let’s see who can get it right! If you know the answer, write it in the comments section at the bottom of the page. We will announce your name in next week’s podcast if you get it right.

Rich: We also need to give you the answer to the football phrase we set at the beginning of the show. The answer as you may already know was going down.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week. Bye for now and enjoy your football!