Business English |

The Future Workplace II

Business English |

Continuous Assessment Grading

  • Has your company experienced undergone any major changes during your time there (e.g., new software, restructuring, new policies)?
    • Is change generally managed effectively there, or is it communicated poorly with inadequate training and a  "deal-with-it-yourself" or "just-make-it-work" attitude?
    • Did you feel frustrated or did the changes roll out smoothly? 
    • Did they improve efficiency or create chaos and more problems than solutions?
  • Have you seen any of your colleagues resistant to change or your methods of working? What are their concerns? How could you reassure them?
  • If members in your team introduced AI-driven systems and extra layers of automation in your workflow, would you resist this change?
    • Consister: quality and consistency, job security, efficiency and productivity, decision-making control, creativity.

Warm-up | Work Changes

Warm-up | Working Practices

Warm-up | Working Practices

accommodate        achieve        anticipate         facilitate        generate    

exchange          assess         measure

a _______ targets / objectives

b _______ needs / special requirements / requests

c _______ enthusiasm / ideas / interest

d _______ information / knowledge / points of view

e _______ success / progress / productivity

f _______ change / development / growth

g _______ performance / a situation

h _______ problems / potential difficulties / objections  

Warm-up | Working Practices

accommodate        achieve        anticipate         facilitate        generate    

exchange          assess         measure

a achieve targets / objectives

b accommodate needs / special requirements / requests

c generate enthusiasm / ideas / interest

d exchange information / knowledge / points of view

e measure success / progress / productivity

f facilitate change / development / growth

g assess performance / a situation

h anticipate problems / potential difficulties / objections  

Grammar | Speculating Future Changes

What are the tenses?

How certain is the speaker?

Grammar | Will vs Going to

Will

Going to

Predictions based on experience or "feeling"

We've increased the salary, so I think more people will apply

Predictions based on evidence or ACTUAL feelings

I'm going to get angry in a minute.

Spontaneous plans

You're late? Ok, I'll start without you.

Plans / decisions actually previously made

Sue is attending the conference in May.

Promises / requests / threats

Will you help me?
I promise I'll help you.

Questions about future obligations

When will we need to be ready?

Will tenses for actions in progress, completed or elapsed in Future

We will be working to resolve this issue for the next 2 months.

Advanced Grammar | Certainty

Modals with varying levels of certainty

  • The recession in France might/could/will affect sales across Europe.
     

Will + adverbial

  • The recession in France will perhaps / probably / likely impact pan-European sales.
  • The French AI boom probably won't last beyond next year.
     

Adverbs with "be ... to" / "it's ... that ... will ..."

  • The French elections are unlikely / expected / certain / bound to have a huge impact on trade.
  • It's unlikely expected / probable / certain / bound to that the next French elections will have a huge impact on trade

 

Use adverbs for emphasis / distinction

  • It's highly / quite / incredibly likely that all new workers will be laid off.

Advanced Grammar | Practise

What are your predictions for possible changes in your company or department? Consider:
 

  • The business
  • Budgets
  • The competition
  • Technologies
  • Your working day
  • Relationships with colleagues / your boss
  • You / Your colleagues' role
  • Other ideas.

 

(Use the target language)

Advanced Functional Language | Presentations

A large insurance company is creating a strategy for facing the future and one of its managers has been asked to attend a seminar on the future of working practices.

Advanced Functional Language | Presentations

A large insurance company is creating a strategy for facing the future and one of its managers has been asked to attend a seminar on the future of working practices.

Advanced Functional Language | Presentations

A large insurance company is creating a strategy for facing the future and one of its managers has been asked to attend a seminar on the future of working practices.

Advanced Functional Language | Presentations

A large insurance company is creating a strategy for facing the future and one of its managers has been asked to attend a seminar on the future of working practices.

Functional Language | Presentations

Outlining a structure

  • I've divided my talk up into …

  • First of all, I’ll … After that, I’ll …

  • I’ll conclude with …

Beginning the presentation

  • I’d like to start by saying …

Referring forwards / backwards / sideways

  • I’ll return to … later.

  • As I said earlier, …

  • I’ll say more about … in a moment.

  • Just to digress for a second, …

Signalling the next section

  • OK, moving on …

  • Turning to …

  • This brings me to …

Ensuring understanding of a specialist subject

  • Just to fill you in on some of the background, …

  • By … I mean …

  • Now I don’t know if you are familiar with …?

  • Well, … refers to …

  • This is where …

  • And perhaps here I should explain what I mean by …

  • That’s when …

  • So, for example, …

Ending the presentation

  • And this is my key point.

  • To sum up, …

  • I’ll be happy to take any questions now.

Prepare a quick presentation for changes you expect to see / would like to see in your company.

 

Sketch out the structure. Include:
 

  • background info
  • an outline of the presentation structure
  • explanation of jargon
  • reference to a later point
  • reference to an earlier point
  • links from one section to another
  • a conclusion