Telephone Bank Worksheet 7

Upper Intermediate Facilitating a conference call

Lead-in Telephone skills

1 Discuss the questions in pairs. 5 TelBank_UI_7.1 Listen to the conference call again.
1 How often do you participate in conference calls (either by For each function (1–8), tick the phrase Kaylie says.
phone or video)? Sometimes she says both.
2 In your experience, what things can go wrong in a 1 Making small talk
conference call? a How are things over in (Warsaw)?
3 What advice would you give to someone organising and b How are you, (Tanya)?
facilitating a conference call? 2 Introducing people
a Why don’t we start by introducing ourselves briefly?
2 Work in pairs. Decide if these tips for facilitating a
conference call are for before (B), during (D) or after b 
Can we take a moment first to say who we are and
(A) the call. what we do?
1 Introduce everyone or ask everyone to introduce 3 Checking people have the tools/documents they need.
themselves. a Does everyone have a copy of the report?
2 Have some small talk at the start while you wait for b Can I just check you all got a copy of the agenda?
everyone to join the call. 4 Setting/Reminding people of the goal of the call
3 Check everyone’s time zones when planning the call. a 
So, what I’d like to do today is (have a kind of
4 Send a follow-up email, summarising the call and any brainstorm).
action points. b 
The aim of this call is for us to look at (ways of
5 Remind people of the goal of the meeting. increasing sales).
6 Assign clear roles (e.g. who will take minutes). 5 Assigning roles
7 Set an agenda and send it out to everyone. a (Gina), would you be able to take the minutes?
8 Check everyone can use the conference call platform. b 
(Stuart), if you could keep an eye on the tech, that
9 Identify yourself when speaking (especially if you’re audio would be great.
only). 6 Encouraging people to contribute / stop people from
10 Check the progress of any action points from the call. dominating
11 Have a plan B in case of problems with technology. a What’s your view on this, (Stuart)?
12 Make sure everyone contributes. b 
Thanks (Tanya), but I’d like to hear what others have to
say on this, too.
13 Stop more active participants from ‘dominating’ the
conversation. 7 Summarising
14 End the call by summarising the meeting and organising a Right, let’s go over what we’ve agreed.
any necessary follow-up meetings. b So, to sum up what we’ve got so far.
8 Ending the meeting
Listening a Thanks very much for coming, everyone.

3 TelBank_UI_7.1 Listen to a video conference call b Looking forward to seeing you again.
with an international sales team and answer the
questions. 6 Match the phrases (a–h) with the functions (1–8) in
Exercise 5.
1 Who is facilitating the call?
a Are you all able to access the spreadsheet I’ve
2 How many people are in the call?
shared with you?   
3 What roles are assigned to Gina and Stuart?
b (Margaret), do you have anything to add on this?   
4 What is the goal of the meeting?
c How are your family doing?   

4 TelBank_UI_7.1 Put these things in the order they d It was great to speak to you all today. Can we set
do them. Listen again and check. a date for the next meeting?   

a Kaylie reminds people of the goal of the meeting.    e Let me introduce Howard. He’s responsible for
the website.   
b Kaylie makes some small talk.   
f If I can just remind you of what I’m hoping we can
c Kaylie encourages people to contribute.   
achieve today.   
d Kaylie summarises what they’ve agreed.   
g OK, so here’s what we have so far.   
e Kaylie checks everyone has a copy of the agenda.   
h (Jon), would you mind recording the meeting today?   
f Kaylie assigns roles for the meeting.   
g Everyone introduces themselves.   
h They organise a follow-up meeting.   

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Telephone Bank Worksheet 7
Upper Intermediate Facilitating a conference call

7 Work in pairs. Imagine you are facilitating a 9 Roleplay the conference call.
conference call. What could you say in each of these
situations? Use the phrases in Exercises 5 and 6 to 10 Repeat the call using these situations so that
help you. everyone has a chance to be facilitator.
1 You’re waiting for everyone to arrive in the call. Make
small talk with someone already there. Situation 2

2 You want to check everyone has received a copy of your You all work for a multinational company which
presentations slides, which you shared this morning. makes crisps. The company has had a good year and
the top level of management is looking into ways in
3 You want to remind everyone of the goal of the call.
which they can improve the working environment
4 One of the participants (James) is dominating the in their offices around the world. Have a call to
conversation. brainstorm ways in which they can do this.
5 You want to summarise where you are in the call so far.
6 You want to end the meeting and set a date for the next
Situation 3
one.
You all work for an international mobile phone
company. You have been asked to come up with new
Speaking ways of marketing and advertising your phones. Have
8A Work in groups of three or four. You are going a conference call to discuss ways in which you can do
to practise facilitating a conference call. Read this.
the situation and decide who is going to be the
facilitator.

Situation 1
You all work for an international car company,
specialising in high-end, luxury cars. Sales have been
falling over the last quarter worldwide, so you’re
going to have a call to brainstorm ways in which you
can boost sales.

B Read your role card and plan what you’re going to

say.

Facilitator
You need to do the following things in the conference
call. Think about how you’ll do each one and which
phrases from Exercises 5 and 6 you will use.
• Welcome people as they join the call, and make
small talk with people there, until everyone arrives.
• When everyone is there, ask them to introduce
themselves.
• Check everyone has a copy of the latest sales
figures.
• Remind everyone of the goal of the call.
• Assign roles for the call.
• Make sure everyone contributes.
• Summarise what you’ve agreed.
• End the meeting and ask about setting a date for
the next one.

Everyone else
• Think of ideas to help increase sales.
• Decide together who will enter the call in which
order.

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