11 Team building and giving/receiving feedback KEY ᭿ Task 1 1. prone to 2. provocation 3. painstaking, conscientious 4. manipulative 5. offloads 6. averts 7. incidentals 8. discerning 9. dwells on ᭿ Task 2 1 An ideal team should have 2 a healthy balance of all 3 – nine team roles. 4 – Strong teams normally have 5 a coordinator, 6 a plant, 7 a monitor evaluator and one or more implementers, 8 – teamworkers, resource investigators or completer finishers. 9 A shaper should be 10 an alternative to 11 a coordinator rather than having both in the same team. In practice, 12 the ideal is rarely 13 the case and it can be helpful for 14 a team to know which of 15 the team roles are either overrepresented or underrepresented and to understand 16 – individuals’ secondary roles. 17 – Team roles tend to develop and mature and may even change with 18 – experience and conscious attention. If 19 a role is absent from 20 the team, then it is often filled by someone who may not have recognized this role as 21 a dominant one. 22 The team should share their team roles to increase 23 – understanding and enable 24 – mutual expectations to be met. ᭿ Task 3 Carola is a coordinator and her allowable weakness is offloading work. Emily is a teamworker and her allowable weakness is being indecisive. ᭿ Task 4 Suggested answer Dear Carola, I understand that you are under enormous work pressure, as we all are, but you did agree to arrange the location of the conference next month. You are the person with the most experience in this area and so I would be grateful if you could sort this out asap. We are all working on this as a team and please rest assured that Emily will be taking responsibility for the equipment as usual. Thank you very much for your help and we are all looking forward to a very successful event. ᭿ Task 5 Suggested answer Dear Emily Further to your email correspondence with Carola, she will be responsible for deciding on the location. Further, we all agreed that you would be responsible for sorting out the equipment, so as soon as you hear from Carola where the conference will take place, could you get in touch with the centre and let them know what we need? We should all remember that we are part of the same team and have to pull together. Thank you very much for your help and we are all looking forward to a successful event. ᭿ Task 6 1. OK I hear what you’re saying; and anyhow, it’s the first time something like this has happened so I don’t think I need worry too much about it 2. in any case, what you said isn’t quite true; the projector did actually work 3. but I had very little time to organize everything; I could have got things together much better 4. if you’d told me about the meeting a month in advance instead of a week 5. it’s just that not all the participants could work it properly; it really isn’t my fault if they got lost; I also really can’t be held responsible for the weather ᭿ Task 7 1. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me 2. I know that things weren’t perfect 3. what I’d really like to know is what suggestions you’ve got that would ensure that 4. it’s always a learning curve for me to get feedback on an event 5. I’d like to know what I can do to make it better next time ᭿ Task 8 It’s unclear – what does “bugging” really mean? What exactly has happened “to drive them mad?” Who are “we?” There are also no constructive suggestions for improvement. It’s impolite, disrespectful, and unprofessional. ᭿ Task 9 It presents factual information, uses “I,” and invites a dialogue. Team building and giving/receiving feedback KEY 201 ᭿ Task 10 Suggested answer That report you wrote yesterday was really good. The introduction and summary were particularly clear and you kept to the point all the way through. It was very well-written and concise. Thank you. ᭿ Task 11 Suggested answer To: HR Dept. From: Anne X, PA to Bill Y CEO Date: 31/08/20XX Subject: Courses on team-building and feedback Mr Y has decided to run courses on the above as a matter of priority as the company is expanding fast. Could you contact some external training consultants to find out: ᭤ Length of courses offered ᭤ Course contents ᭤ Fees charged ᭤ Client references Please also draw up a list of possible participants. I would be grateful if you could get back to me asap. Anne X 202 Team building and giving/receiving feedback KEY 12 Deadlines and reminders KEY ᭿ Task 1 1. worked out entails draft 2. standards reckon 3. offload completed 4. calling in meet 5. slack hitches ᭿ Task 2 1. up and running 2. teething troubles 3. hectic 4. draft 5. extent 6. break down into manageable chunks 7. milestone ᭿ Task 3 Suggested answers 1. Hi Jeanette, I was expecting to find the itinerary for Nicolas and Johanna on my desk this morning so that I could then finalise all the arrangements for their trip with them this morning. Have there been any problems? 2. Marc, you do know that the delegates’ conference packs have to be got ready today, don’t you? 3. Margot, I seem to be running low on headed paper. Shouldn’t we have got our new stock of stationery by now? 4. Hi Paul, have you managed to draw up next year’s holiday planner yet? I was hoping to have a look at it this afternoon. ᭿ Task 4 Suggested email Dear Simon I’m checking on what’s happened to your draft of the advertisement. I haven’t received anything from you yet and the deadline was yesterday. I have to have it ASAP because I need to go through it and then get it off to the magazine by close of work today in order for it to appear in next week’s magazine. Please let me know if there are any problems so that they can be sorted out. Otherwise, please let me have the draft by 2pm today at the very latest. Best wishes Peter ᭿ Task 5 Suggested letter Dear Mr Tricard Invoice No YT 7832 Please let me first assure you that the above invoice has now been paid. Your bank statement should show $6,843.58 credited to your account Sept 15th. I must apologize for the delay which was due to the introduction of new finance software. However, I am pleased to be able to inform you that the system is now fully up and running and we have ironed out any glitches. All future invoices will be paid on the due date. I regret that you have been inconvenienced in this way but, hopefully, this will be the first and last time that it happens. Yours sincerely Jan Belmont ᭿ Task 6 Suggested second reminder Dear Mr. Desai I am writing concerning our order, No. PP 3528/c which we placed April 10 th . The agreed delivery date was June 5 th . The brochures had not arrived by June 8 th and we sent you a reminder. The goods have still not arrived and we have received no explanation for the delay from you. The brochures are needed for the trade fair in Hanover in July. If we do not receive the order in time, it will cause serious problems for us at the fair. I would appreciate your immediate reply to this letter and a guarantee that the brochures will be with us by the end of June. Yours sincerely Nicky Tellekamp ᭿ Task 7 The correct conditional forms are in bold. If this sounds familiar to you, you are almost certainly stressed out. Stress is constantly with us. What happens to you when you’re under a lot of stress? Your heart races, your breathing gets faster, your blood circulation and metabolism speed up. Your 204 Deadlines and reminders KEY . rest assured that Emily will be taking responsibility for the equipment as usual. Thank you very much for your help and we are all looking forward to a very successful event. ᭿ Task 5 Suggested. we need? We should all remember that we are part of the same team and have to pull together. Thank you very much for your help and we are all looking forward to a successful event. ᭿ Task 6 1 just that not all the participants could work it properly; it really isn’t my fault if they got lost; I also really can’t be held responsible for the weather ᭿ Task 7 1. Thanks for taking the time