BE 627: Mind if We Show You How to Take the Floor in Meetings?

This is the Business English Podcast, episode 627. Mind if we show you how to take the floor in meetings? Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.

For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.

Hello, Lindsay. How are you doing? Good, Aubrey. How's it going with you? Excellent. Question for you. Yes. Do you find it easy to jump in if you have something you need to say during a meeting?

Well, it really depends on the context of the meeting, who's there, what I have to say, but generally not really. I think it's a real art. And we actually made a mini course about this, about how to speak up in meetings recently. Yes, because we have had a lot of

our listeners and students asking, like, this is a skill that is so vital when you work in English, and it's hard enough in your first language, let alone when you are learning a language. So yeah, that course is amazing. And I'm excited to dive in with some phrases today. Yes.

So today we're going to be talking about interrupting during meetings. So we're going to learn three phrases so we can do it politely and naturally. I mean, it really matters. It really matters how well we do this, Aubrey.

If we do this wrong, I find the room kind of goes blank. Everyone looks at you like you're being rude. Yeah. Absolutely. And there are two things that could happen that are both devastating that when you say the wrong thing, or do it wrong or accidentally rude, or if you say nothing at all, and an idea you had that was really vital and valid, never gets shared.

Yeah, are just tragic. Tragic. Absolutely. So we're going to make sure none of those things happen. But first, guys, hit that follow button. Make sure that Business English comes up in your listening queue on a regular basis.

Aubrey, how many episodes a week do we come out with here on Business? Yeah, three new episodes every week. And this is actually part two of a two-part series. So if you missed it, you might not be following.

Be sure to hit follow right here on the Business English Podcast. And stay to the end for details about part one. You can definitely listen to these out of order. Yes, 100%.

All right, Aubrey, where should we start today? Yeah. So the first phrase is, mind if I jump in or mind if I jump in for a second. We'll say both of these.

And these are used a couple of different ways, this phrase, right? It can be if you are offering... to help with something, offering to give something a try that someone else is struggling with, right? I just said this yesterday.

We were at volleyball and someone couldn't get the pole out. And so I'm like, oh, mind if I jump in? It means like, can I try? Can I try to help? But we use it another way at work, which is what, Lindsay?

Yes. Another way at work, which is, Aubrey, can you answer that question? Just to ask to speak in a more formal scenario, right? Exactly. So if you're in a meeting, if you just jump in, interrupt and start talking, ask your question.

In American business culture, this is rude. Even though we are interrupting conversations all the time, we need phrases to ask permission for this. Yes, exactly. So this is direct but polite, right?

I mean, anytime you ask my or do you mind, right? This is really what we're asking. Do you mind or mind if it's direct but polite. Exactly. And so it's interesting.

Just like you said, you can say, do you mind if I jump in for that gets very long, right? So we'll often shorten it to this and just say, mind if. And all of our phrases today start with this. Do you mind if or just mind if.

Yeah. And this is perfect for jumping into business related conversations, whether it's a meeting or someone else who's having a conversation. If it's formal, right? This really is too formal for everyday conversations.

This is perfect for work. Perfect. Yeah, exactly. So we have to know, yeah, I think it would be a little bit too formal if we're talking to friends, for example.

There are other phrases for another day that we can cover. Let's do a little role play, Aubrey. Let's do it. So here I'm talking to Lindsay, my coworker, about a software issue.

I'll start us out. Okay. I can't seem to fix this glitch. I'm not sure what's going on. Hey, mind if I jump in for a second? I was able to fix the same glitch on another app recently.

Okay. Nice. So this is that first meaning where you're offering to help me. I've expressed that I can't fix something. And so you're offering to help.

And then let's do a role play showing the second where we're wanting to ask permission to speak really. You and I are co-workers in a meeting here. Yes. And I'll start us out again.

I'm not sure how to structure the proposal. It feels a bit all over the place. Hey, mind if I jump in for a second? I worked on a similar proposal last quarter.

Absolutely. Go ahead. Okay, nice. These are great ways to do this. Because imagine if I said that, and I'm not like there is an opening here, right? I'm expressing that I'm not sure how to do something.

If you just dive in and say, I worked on a similar proposal and just off you go. Yeah, it not the end of the world, right? Everyone will listen. But to start with this very respectful phrase, where you're asking permission to take the floor is just it really softens the interruption.

Yeah, you're going to come off as probably a little abrasive if you don't add this mind if I piece, probably a little rude. So avoid that, right? What's the next mind if question? So these next two are specifically for asking for permission to speak, right?

This other mind if I jump in, you might hear that when someone's offering to like try a task to like help with an action. But these other two are just that other meaning of asking for permission to speak. And the first one is, mind if I chime in?

Yeah, chime in. This is interesting. The only other time I hear this word is like wind chimes, just the noun, a wind chime, which is something people might put in their porch or I don't know, an area that gets some breeze and the wind causes it to make a noise, right?

Exactly. I bought some of those wind chimes and they get tangled too much. So I now have it in a closet in my house and I'll like bump it every now and then, but it's, they're really difficult to have outside if it's windy. They often just get all tangled.

too windy right you need a breeze not like crazy western wind exactly yeah you get a lot of wind where you live um you know they're in idaho there was in arizona there's not usually unless it's like a monsoon we'll have these monsoon rains and winds where it's crazy or like a haboob where there's like a dust storm where wind pushes the dust from the desert and But normally, like today, not a breeze to be seen. There's usually not a lot of wind. Got it.

Got it. All right. Good stuff. So yeah, let's give some examples here, Aubrey. Yeah. So for example, mind if I chime in? I've actually dealt with this before.

And we're using the phrase actually kind of strategically there. That kind of further humbles us a little bit, right? It's true. It is slightly more direct to say, I've dealt with this before.

Yeah. Like actually you are trying to take away from the fact that you know something someone else doesn't. Yeah. Interesting. That can be offensive to people sometimes, right?

Or mind if I chime in with a quick suggestion? Okay. Okay. Yeah. So this is a very common phrase, right? Chime, like you said, wind chimes, a bell chiming, maybe because of that association with a pleasant noise.

This seems pretty friendly to say, mind if I chime in. Yeah, because it's rare. It just, yeah, it does have something to do with like keeping the social order.

Right. Weigh in is good, too, though. Mind if I weigh in would be our third option. You know, do you mind if I give my opinion on the topic that's being discussed?

Now, this isn't about helping someone fix something. Right. This is about actually saying what you think. Yep. Chiming in and weighing in is just all about asking for permission to speak.

And these are interchangeable, basically. This one is a little more, just the word weigh in, this phrasal verb does sort of add import to what you're about to say, right? You're going to give some kind of opinion or perspective. You would never ask to weigh in and then share something frivolous, right?

Some opinion that doesn't really matter. You know, you wouldn't say, mind if I weigh in about the movie I saw this weekend? No, it's For things that are more important.

Or maybe a decision is trying to be made among the group and, you know, you have something important substantive to share, right? So for example, mind if I weigh in, I have a different perspective would be one example. Or mind if I weigh in on this debate for a second. Exactly.

You are asking permission to speak and you're also implying that you have an opinion that's a little bit weighty, right? Something that would be pretty important. For sure. Yeah.

Okay, Aubrey, in our role play today, we are co-workers in a meeting. What's happening with you? This is a little different. I'm a team lead and you're a senior analyst.

And I'm playing a second person, Janet, a third person in the meeting, because I wanted to be able to use two of these. And in one conversation, one person really wouldn't use a second one. It's interesting how meetings, like you can say one of these and weigh in. And in other words, you're going to keep the floor up.

Or the next time you might just share like it would be strange to use these over and over. Yes, 100%. All right, I'm ready then. All right, I'll start us out.

Okay. We're probably going to miss the deadline unless we either reduce scope or bring in extra help. I've been looking at the workload and it's pretty tight. The client is also expecting the full feature set.

So it's a tricky situation. Mind if I chime in? I think we should look at what features are essential for launch versus what can be pushed to phase two.

That makes sense. If we cut a few non-critical features, we might be able to stay on schedule. Right. Also, we could simplify the reporting module. That's taking up more time than we expected.

Mind if I weigh in? If we simplify it too much, we might lose something the client specifically asked for. We should double check the contract requirements before removing anything. Good point.

We don't want to deliver something that feels incomplete from their perspective. Nice. You can see I wanted to use a second one, but it would have been strange. It's interesting trying to do a role play with a meeting that...

That would need to be more than two people, right? There's only two of us here. Because these phrases are really for a meeting with more people where – because a back and forth conversation, you're just speaking to each other. You're already chiming in.

You don't have to ask for this permission, right? Yeah. You're already speaking, right? It's one to one to one to one. Exactly. Whereas you may not be speaking at all, so you want to speak for the first time.

Right, exactly. These phrases are for bigger groups, meetings, where instead of just speaking to one person, there could be a lot of people that might jump in. So you'll use one of these phrases to respectfully ask for the floor to ask for your turn to speak. Thanks for the floor.

I like it. And so what you said first is we're trying to figure out, we're saying we're going to miss the deadline and we're trying to figure out what we can reduce in terms of the workload, right? And I had me say... Some stuff here, because normally, if I just said like one thing and stop, then it would be strange to say, mind if I chime in, right?

It needs to be more like one person is speaking at length, they're presenting information. That's when we use these phrases, when we need to ask permission to interrupt because we're not, you know, normally they would continue.

Yes, yes, 100%. So I said, mind if I chime in, I think we should look at what features are essential for launch. And then you said, Aubrey, with your contribution. Well, and I also wanted to point out here, notice how on Lindsay's part, she says, mind if I chime in, and then she doesn't

wait for me to say, yes, go ahead. And you don't need to, at least in American business culture, that's all it takes is that statement to announce that you're about to speak. We're all in a hurry. No one's waiting for someone to officially give spoken permission.

Maybe there would be a nod or like some kind of facial, you know, body language that would give you that permission. But really, you're just going to say that and then move right to it, right? Or just that people would give you a little space to speak.

And this is important to say in American business culture, that goes, what Aubrey just said, regardless of your seniority in the company. I know in some culture companies, sorry, cultures, um,

Your ability to speak depends more on your seniority in the company, your age, how long you've been there, your position, your hierarchy. Many companies, not all companies, some companies are still pretty top down. But now in the US, many companies are a little more horizontal. In terms of who can speak when and who's listened to.

Right. In US business culture, we care a lot more about the value of the idea. Yeah. Whoever has a good idea, we want it to be shared, but respectfully.

So these phrases are perfect for that, especially if you don't have that seniority, you would definitely want to use one of these before jumping in. Yes. Anything else we want to share about the role play, Aubrey? And then my other, my second persona here, Janet said, mind if I weigh in?

If we simplify it too much, right? And same, I'm not asking, I'm not waiting for permission. I'm just moving right into what I was going to say. But because there's now sort of, you know, other people speaking in a meeting, a conversation between two people, if I haven't spoken yet, it might be strange just to like dive in and throw out an idea.

A phrase like this, makes it so that no people aren't talking over each other as much. And I'm respectfully asking to have permission to speak. And it's important that you're asking respectfully too, because of the content of what you're saying.

You're really pushing back on like our meeting was trending in a certain direction, right? But what you're saying content wise is, hey, we should be careful here.

Right. That's a good point. If you're just, you would never say, mind if I weigh in? I agree. This is a good direction. No, right. These phrases are for when we're either sharing a new perspective or maybe pushing back a little bit, right?

That's a really good point. If you're just agreeing this, you would never use one of these. That's a really important point. So this episode is not just about speaking up in meetings, but it's kind of about disagreeing in meetings a little bit, right?

Or just getting the floor to share something, right? That's really what it's about because you don't need to get the floor in order to agree. People could keep talking and you might even vocally be like, great idea. That sounds great.

You don't need the floor for that, right? But if you are going to share something like this, your opinion, disagreement, then you do need the floor. And these phrases are the best way to get it. Yeah, a really good episode today.

Super important. And of course, in our course, our mini course, Speak Up in Meetings, we go into a lot more depth and the technicalities of what exact phrases to use, exactly what is the right moment when you can insert yourself, right? How to sense that moment when there is that opening. But that requires a little bit more study, Aubrey.

Exactly. That's an amazing course. If you're getting into the Business English course or B2C1, you could add that mini course. Check it out. I love that course.

It's so helpful, especially if you need to participate in meetings in English. Guys, next thing you can do is go check out Business English 626, English idioms that help you go with the flow. Yes. And that was part one of the series.

So with that episode and this one, you have a lot of great phrases for speaking up in meetings and knowing the idioms you can use to do this. Yeah. Great episode today, Aubrey. I'll see you next time.

All right. Awesome. See you guys next time. Okay. Bye-bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.

Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads. Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more. Or tap the link in the show notes.

Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English. Follow the All Ears English podcast now.