BÀI GIẢNG DẠNG TEXT

Unit 3
Teamworking
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NAME OF THE LESSON ......................................................................... 1
STUDY GUIDE .......................................................................................... 3
Learning objectives ...................................................................................... 3
STUDY CONTENT .................................................................................... 4
Part 1: Study the headline and the lead sentence .................................... 5
Part 2: Outline the organizational structure of the text ……………….5
Part 3: Read the text and complete the tasks .......................................... 5
Part 4: Vocabulary...................................................................................... 6
Part 5:Writing ............................................................................................. 7
KEY POINTS............................................................................................ 11
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND REVIEW .................................. 11
 STUDY GUIDE
Learning objectives
After learning this unit, you should be able to:
Identify the topic and the controlling idea of the reading text.
Understand the organisational structure of the reading text.
Develop a sentence to summarise the reading text.
Find the supporing ideas/or develop sentences to present details
Develop your reactions to information learnt from the reading text.
Engage in discussions on the topic-related issues.
Develop a vocabulary to use in verbal and written presentations of the
topic.
Develop READ-TO-WRITE skills

Study Guide
To achieve the learning objectives, you are required to take responsibility for
your own study by:
Carefully following the instructions.
Completing all the exercises.
Working closely with online dictionaries such as Cambridge, Oxford
lerner’s, Merriam-Webster, Longman, Collins, etc.
Asking for help if needed by posting questions on the forum.
Actively engaging in discussions on the forum.
Using English all the times when thinking, asking questions, reading, and
writing.
 STUDY CONTENT

The stuff teams are made of

Think before you meet

WHAT do corporate leaders do all day? Much of their time is spent in meetings. No
wonder: meetings are, among other things, the cornerstone of teams. The rules of team-
working are established in meetings, which in turn are the basic building blocks of
corporate existence.

But meetings, like teams, do not necessarily achieve what they set out to do. One recent
study in America by Synectics, a consultancy, found that senior and middle managers
spent more than three-quarters of their time in meetings. On average, only 12% of
managers thought their meetings were productive. In high-performing companies that
figure rose to 25% and in the duds - the lower performers it dropped to 2%.

“Despite IT, we all go to more and more of them,” reflects Jonathan Day of McKinsey
rather glumly. But there must be a way to make them work. They can’t all be a waste
of time. Perhaps team leaders should do everything they can to make sure they organise
them properly. Indeed, running meetings well is clearly an art, and a growing number
of companies (including Synectics, which modestly claims to run the best meetings in
the world) are offering help. Lots of meetings, of course, happen in the corridor or
around the coffee machine, and those are probably the most efficient sort, because they
tend to be spontaneous, small and quick. Bigger meetings are usually more problematic.
Often too little thought goes into the agenda, the location, the people asked to attend
and the outcome, say those who try to improve them. That allows unimportant ideas or
tedious individuals to hog the floor, with the result that a lot of team members find it
hard to look forward to the next meeting.
Meetings tend to be held either to share information or to solve problems. For the first
sort, Roger Neill of Synectics advocates asking everyone to say at the end what they
think they have heard, and correcting their accounts if they are wrong. With problem-
solving, the aim should be not just brainstorming but paying proper attention to putting
solutions into practice. He also thinks it is wise to ask people what they liked about the
things they heard; criticism usually comes unasked. Pessimism, scepticism and
challenge all cause trouble.

What makes meetings especially important to companies, though, is that this is where
teams are moulded. David Bradford, a professor at Stanford Business School who
specialises in studying teams, argues that they often waste huge amounts of time: in one
business, the executive team spent three meetings designing business cards. Of course,
one person should have done this before the team started working together. The way to
get a good decision is to frame the question carefully. If you want to invest in China,
do not announce that you are planning to do this, or ask the meeting whether you should.
Instead, enlist your colleagues' help by saying: “We want to be in the Chinese market:
how do we get there?”

Part 1: Study the headline and the lead sentence

a) What information does the headline and the lead sentence offer? What
information can you infer from them?
b) What information does the headline and the lead sentence offer? What
information can you infer from them?

Part 2: Survey the text to outline the organizational structure of the text
Part 3: Read the text and complete the tasks
1. Why does the author think meetings can be a waste of time?
2. Why are corridor and coffee machine meetings often efficient?
3. What are the two main reasons for holding meetings?
4. What kind of feedback do people give easily?
5. Why do companies consider meetings to be very important?
6. What happens when meetings are not properly organised?
Part 4: Vocabulary: Study the sentences and paraphrase.

1. No wonder: meetings are, among other things, the cornerstone of teams. The
rules of team-working are established in meetings, which in turn are the basic
building blocks of corporate existence.
2. Meetings, like teams, do not necessarily achieve what they set out to do.
3. Too many meetings are a waste of time.
4. Often too little thought goes into the agenda, the location, the people asked to
attend and the outcome.
5. Criticism usually comes unasked.
Part 5: Writing: Summary
 The following flowchart outlines the steps in writing a
summary.

Skim
Skim the text, paying special attention to any headings or subheadings.

Highlight
Read the text again more carefully, underlining/ highlighting important
information. Check any unknown words needed to understand the main points.

Note-taking
Make notes of the main points and supporting points (not supporting examples
or details). Remember to use your own words so that you can paraphrase and
avoid plagiarism.

Writing
Write the summary using your notes. Make sure you do not add anything which
does not appear in the original (e.g. your own comments).

Checking
Check the summary to make sure you have covered all the main points. Make
sure you have included a reference to the source.

KEY POINTS
Teamwork, or the ability of a group of people to work well together to
accomplish a common goal, is one of the fundamentals of the world of
work. Professionalism and efficiency are often measured in terms of
how good one is as a team player or how much one contributes to team
spirit. Successful teams accomplish their objectives because they are
committed, respect the various roles within the team and meet their
deadlines. Teams spend a large part of their working lives in meetings.
It is therefore important to make sure that every meeting is positive,
informative and necessary use of the team’s time. The chairperson or
facilitator plays a key role in coordinating the team’s work and
keeping everyone focused at meetings.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND REVIEW

Here are five true/false questions based on the text "Meeting Techniques":

1. True or False: Most managers believe that their meetings are productive.
2. True or False: According to the text, informal meetings that happen in corridors or
around coffee machines are often more efficient than formal meetings.
3. True or False: The primary purpose of meetings is always to solve problems.
4. True or False: The text suggests that careful framing of questions can lead to better
decision-making in meetings.
5. True or False: David Bradford believes that executive teams often use their time
effectively during meetings.