[Music]
welcome to business English pod a great
way to improve your English skills on
the go in the first of our business news
podcasts we'll be listening to an
article on what companies can do to
improve communication at work after
listening to the article well then
explain some of the key vocabulary and
provide further examples of how these
words can be used good communication at
work an important factor in a company's
success is good communication among its
employees the most successful companies
have a network of informal and formal
communication that the management
supports although managers believe they
have given clear instructions often
employees have failed to understand them
when managers give instructions they
should make sure that they have been
understood correctly employees find it
harder to communicate with other
employees who have higher positions in
the company people of the same position
may talk openly to one another about how
things are going but are less honest
with someone higher up in the company
they often filter information and change
the facts to tell the boss what he wants
to hear one way of reducing the distance
between employer and employees is to cut
down the ways in which employees can
show their higher position in the
company in Japanese companies for
example it is usual for all staff to
wear the same uniform many companies
have a common dining area for all staff
the office layout and the distance
between employees can affect how well
they communicate but farther away one
person is from another the less often
they communicate some research has shown
that when the distance is more than 10
meters the chance of communicating at
least once a week is only 8% if someone
is less than 5 meters away the chance of
communicating at least once a week rises
to 25%
therefore the office layout should be
carefully planned open plan offices for
example are designed for quick
an easy communication between staff one
of the most important lessons for all
managers to remember is that
communication is a two-way process they
should always encourage their employees
to ask questions and they should always
try to get feedback from their employees
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today's article was about the importance
of communication in a company and the
things that a company and the employees
can do to ensure good two-way
communication among all players in that
company now we're gonna take a look at
some of the vocabulary and how it is
used in this article yeah okay so the
first word that comes up there is a
factor the factor in the company's
success what they mean by factor there
is is a situation or something that
influences the result of the company's
success so what's another way we could
use that word Jeff so you could say for
example the performance of the economy
could be a factor in the result of an
election okay so that way what you mean
is the economy is gonna influence affect
the outcome it's gonna be one of the
more important influences a major factor
a factor maybe just one of many things
that causes an outcome usually there'll
be more than one factor in play okay
great and then we're talking about
companies having a network of informal
and formal communication
Clayton you were an engineer tell us
what the network yeah network there is a
technical description of a network which
would be a system of parts so a
technical description of a network could
be like a computer network yeah a number
of computers tied together in this case
they're really talking about people hmm
and how people interact are
communicating with each other yeah yeah
and then you know informal and formal is
the style of that communication yeah
yeah they both work the same way but one
has a more defined style of how
communication is supposed to happen hmm
and that is formal yes a formal so in
other words president will communicate
to the vice president's who will
communicate to their managers that's a
formal communication right but I think
one of the things we talked about in
this article is that informal
communication can be important as well
roxanna's when employees talk to each
other yes most companies are not going
to have any special arrangement or
special policy for organizing these
things very good yeah they they it will
just happen and it is not known how it
happens but communication happens
regardless but there can be certain
factors that influence whether informal
communication is more effective or less
effective we talked about things like
seeing arrangements in a company well if
employees are seated close to each other
they're much more likely to have some
kind of informal communication at least
once in a while let's have a look at
some examples how we could use those
talking about Network informal formal
well I think Network I think it's pretty
clear but talking about informal
informal is not formal not rigid for
example hi is an informal way of
greeting people as opposed to hello how
are you is more formal that it would be
a formal way of greeting guy okay great
moving on a little bit they were talking
about how people at the same level or
position in a company talk more openly
so when we say people talk more openly
what do we mean Jeff well it means that
people are more comfortable discussing
certain kinds of issues if you talk to
your boss or to somebody who is higher
up in the company than you are you might
be more careful talking about certain
things you might be less open or less
direct in some of the things that you
say but if you talk to one of your
colleagues somebody at the same level
you're more likely to be direct and
we're open about how you speak okay I
think it open means in this case not
hiding anything
hmm being honest honest and also willing
to share more data more information
right we also used the word filter in
this context we talked about how
employees sometimes filter information
when they talk to their bosses or do
people higher up and in Iran that's a
better way of saying lie I don't think
filter really means lie it means not
telling everything right filter picks
some things out and holds others back so
some things we go through the filter and
some things don't not telling the whole
story right so perhaps being very
careful yeah what you say saying certain
things and not saying other things that
you don't think will help you hmm I
think that relates to honest in a way
honest yes is truthful telling true
things if you're not honest
you are telling untrue things you are
lying or you're not telling the whole
truth that way our filter something
that's a it's a fine line some people
say that's not being honest some people
saying that's just not telling
everything well in English we have an
expression you want to tell the truth
and the whole truth is not just to say
things that are truths it should
complete and what you say yeah I guess
everybody has to make their own judgment
on that okay and what about another way
that we could trap to use that phrase
filter ah
well many times the people on TV have to
filter the language to make sure that
the language used can be used for all
ages there are certain words we should
not use at any time but sometimes we do
so we have to filter perhaps at a press
conference or a press officer tend to
filter the information they give to the
media they filter usually all the bad
news to present information about the
company hopefully accurate information
but they'll present it in a way that
makes the company look as good as
possible talking there too
about reducing the distance and so they
can cut down a word phrasal verb really
that means to reduce quite often we say
he needs to cut down on spending pending
yes a lot in many companies constantly
constantly okay and then there was an
interesting thing there they moved on
they were talking about the office
layout and and Jeff as you mentioned how
that can affect communication and there
was a phrase they used to describe the
style of the office the way the office
is organized yeah we talked about we
talked about open planet offices meeting
in office where there are no barriers or
walls between the employees desks some
kinds of companies especially Japanese
companies they tend to prefer open-plan
offices because they think that it
creates a stronger relationship between
employees and maybe encourages more
communication hmm and there's some other
kinds of businesses like newspapers for
example we usually have open plan
offices because they want all of the
employees to communicate as much as
possible there is talking about the
organization of the office the fact that
it's a large room with no walls dividing
it into smaller office right it used to
be when I first started my career that
people had private offices and as
individuals we all like them but the
trend has been to go towards more open
plan offices to improve communication
and this is also a way of reducing the
difference in levels between higher and
lower level employees of the company
usually a private office is something
that only a very senior manager or a
senior employee might have if you have
an open plan office you're reducing
you're cutting down the emphasis on
those differences and it improves
two-way communication which is our final
phrase here right
two-way means it goes both ways we have
many situations where let's say a boss
will give many orders to employees but
doesn't listen one way that would be a
one-way communication it's important for
company's success for people that
higher levels to get information from
the lower levels not just to direct
orders downwards but to get feedback as
well and that's important at all levels
of a company yes you could also say a
negotiation is a two-way discussion both
sides have something to information they
want to share and that information needs
to be listened to by the other side if
you're gonna have a successful
negotiation outcome yeah okay
and lastly Ashley Clayton um the the
final word that I'd like to talk about
today is very popular in the business
world these days perhaps to popular
feedback yeah feedback as an old
aeronautical engineer we used feedback
as a actual technical term to mean the
electrical signal that tells you what
changes there are in the system okay but
so you used to be a very scientific
right nobody used the term in business
but now it's all the rage mm-hmm
it's all very popular in companies to
use the term feedback and really there's
nothing wrong with it all it is is
finding out what is the result of a
change okay
could could you say perhaps it's getting
people's opinions well I think so I know
is in the business setting
what is the opinions about whether some
change you've put in place is good or
bad or what are the results
what say statistical figures or sales up
or sales down are people happier or
they're not all that normally in a
business setting feedback will usually
mean what people are lower levels think
about decisions that are being made at
higher yells that's what gives the
people in management some guidance yeah
about what they're doing and whether
they're doing it correctly enough it's a
form of two-way communication way
communication yeah all right well that's
the end of our feedback for today thank
you all for listening and this is the
first of our business news podcasts we
very much appreciate your ideas and your
feedback so please write to us business
English pod at Mack
that's a business English pod at m.a.c
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