BE 630: When Should You Let Something Play Out?

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 630. When should you let something play out? 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, Aubrey and Michelle, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

Hello, Michelle. How are you? Hey, Aubrey, I'm doing well. How are you? Excellent question for you. Do you ever play matchmaker with your friends or do you let their dating life play out naturally?

I have played Matchmaker. And I think I've talked about this with Lindsay a little bit. I have played Matchmaker very successfully. How did it go? Well, they're married and they have two girls.

So really well. Amazing. Yeah, really well. They are married, I think, over 10 years now. So I... And I'm always hoping that I can set up more people.

I actually wanted to be... After I did that, I was like, well, I am amazing. I should do this for my whole life. I would love to be a matchmaker. Yes, I really wanted to.

That's like my secret dream. That's interesting. The only times I've tried was at work. So I'm thinking about this here on the Business English Podcast because I do not recommend trying to be a matchmaker with co-workers.

Because if it doesn't work out, it's really awkward for everyone involved. You still have to work together, right? So in your personal life, absolutely. Sometimes it's great.

It works out when it's co-workers. I mean, it's always tricky for co-workers to date anyway. But to try and be a matchmaker among co-workers is usually not going to go well. I'll just say that.

Yes. But this is interesting. This verb, phrasal verb, play out, to let something play out. It came up recently in the Q&A we do. We host a Q&A for students in our courses who are at the personal coach level.

And one of them had heard a politician say that they were playing something out. They wanted to know what that meant. We discussed it and also the difference between saying playing like play it out and let it play out. So that was interesting.

We're going to cover this today because these are great phrases to use at work. You might want to let a project play out, let some kind of plan play out. And it is a little different if you say I'm just going to let that play out. Yeah, yeah.

Um, so this is going to be a really interesting episode today. Um, so should we get started? Should we head into it? Let's do it, but be sure to hit follow on the podcast.

If you're not yet, we have three new episodes every week. You don't want to miss any of them. So wherever you find your podcasts, hit follow business English by all ears English. Perfect.

All right. So, and also be sure to write us a review if you haven't done yet. So, to play something out means you let a decision or situation run its course. So, you continue with the current plan.

You don't intervene, but you just let the outcome unfold before changing anything. So, it's very natural. You're just... You're doing nothing, basically.

Right. If a politician says it, like the student heard, it sounds intentionally vague, right? It could mean they're waiting to see the results, maybe of a new policy. They're waiting to see what develops before making a solid plan or they're gathering more information before making a decision.

Politicians and often people at work will use vague language like this intentionally because they're not sure what's going to happen. They have to stay flexible sometimes.

Yeah, right. Exactly. So yeah, it could be for a variety of reasons that they use that. But we also might say this in business situations. So it could be something like testing a new marketing campaign before changing direction, or maybe even giving a new employee time to settle into a role before assessing them.

What else, Aubrey? Or continuing a pilot program before expanding it or waiting for quarterly sales data before adjusting strategy. A lot of reasons to use this. Like, let's just play it out and then we'll see what happens.

Here's a little role play using this. How is the new app doing? Well, we've only released the pilot version so far. We want it to play out before releasing the full thing.

Yeah. And it's interesting, the construction. Sometimes we say play it out. The direct object is between the phrasal verb, play and out. Sometimes it's before the subject like this.

We want it to play out. It means like we want to see what happens with that. So notice where the direct object goes, right? And then another one, should we tweak our marketing strategy?

Let's play this strategy out for another month before making changes. Yeah. And so there you can see the direct object is between the verb, right? Play this strategy out.

So both work depending on what exactly you're trying to say and how you construct the sentence. Yes. Okay. So what's the difference between playing something out and letting something play out?

So yeah, these have similar meanings, but letting something play out sounds even more passive, right? So if you play something out, a decision has been made, right? You're choosing to continue with this course and see the results.

And you won't be changing anything until after you have those results. So for example, should we cancel the new onboarding process? Not yet. I'd like to play it out through the next hiring cycle and see what happens.

So I'm intentionally choosing to let something happen and then we'll decide later. Whereas if we say let something play out, this is allowing events to unfold naturally. Maybe you've made a plan or maybe you haven't. Maybe you're holding off on making any decisions.

You're definitely not taking immediate action right now. So we use this when talking about market uncertainty, customer reactions, team conflicts, maybe organizational changes, lots of things where you don't know the outcome. You don't know how it's going to work out.

Yeah, exactly. So here's a little role play. So the departments aren't agreeing on the proposal. Should we intervene? Let's play it out for a few more days.

They might work it out. And then if we say let it play out. Oh, that was let it play out. I'll say let's let it play out for a few more days. Let's let it play out.

That's kind of strange to say let's let it play out. I would probably instead say like... I think we should let it play out for a few more days. It's interesting how we will avoid bumping words that are similar, though they mean something different, right?

But you could say, I think we should let it play out for a few months and see. They might work it out. Yep, exactly. So the listener also asked, if a boss asked her how her project is going, what would it imply if she said she's playing it out?

So what do you think, Aubrey? So it's interesting. That definitely means she's waiting to see what happens and is not planning to make any changes yet. Maybe she's monitoring the situation.

She doesn't have a plan yet. So it sort of depends on what develops over time before she'll make any decisions. So it could be an awkward response in this situation. It sounds very vague.

A boss wouldn't know much about the project or how it's going if you respond this way. So there's definitely a chance that your boss or supervisor would not take that as an answer. I would say, no, I actually need some details about the plan here.

Yeah, instead, it would be good to be more descriptive. So you could say something like, oh, we're sticking with the current plan while we gather more data, or we haven't decided on our next move yet. We're waiting to see if the market changes or what else, Aubrey? Or we're letting the project develop further before evaluating it.

So this is really interesting how it sort of depends on your role. Leaders will often say this, we're playing it out or we're letting it play out. And it's sort of about, you know, the need to know situation. Whereas a supervisor will expect more details, right?

To just say we're letting it play out often won't be enough detail. Right, exactly. So should we do a role play? Yeah, let's do it. We are co-workers here.

I'll start us out. How's the new training program going? Oh, pretty well. We made a few adjustments last month and now we're playing it out to see the long-term results.

Oh, are you planning any additional changes? No, not right now. Let's wait and see what the employee feedback looks like. That makes sense. What about the concerns from the sales team?

For now, we're going to let that play out. They've only been using the program for two weeks. So you're gathering more information first. Exactly. We'll see what happens and then decide whether any changes are necessary.

Sounds good to me. Yeah, this is great, right? You could definitely use it twice in a conversation. You started with, you know, we've made a few adjustments.

Now we're playing it out to see the long term results means we're waiting to see what happens. Mm hmm. And now and then you said, what about the concerns from the sales team? And I said, for now, we're going to let that play out.

They've only been using it for two weeks. So which this is passive, right? This means we're not doing anything. We're going to let it play out. See what happens.

And then this is interesting. I wanted to point out there's another phrase here. We'll see what happens that you said. And you would not want to say we'll let it play out again here because then it's too repetitive, right?

There are other ways to say this. So this was perfect. We'll see what happens and then decide whether any changes are necessary. Yes, a very good one.

Guys, if you haven't already listened, we did episode 626 of the Business English Podcast that was idioms that help you go with the flow. So maybe you are letting things play out and going with the flow. There are a lot of idioms for that you want to use. Takeaway for today, Aubrey.

Yeah. So these are passive phrases, right? If you're in a leadership role and you don't want to commit to a certain direction or you're just waiting to see what happens, perfect. If not, if you're being asked for an update, you probably wouldn't want to use these because they are very noncommittal.

They're not providing any kind of detail. So use one of these other options instead. Yeah. All right. Well, this has been a lot of fun, Aubrey. I think we're going to head out for today.

Yeah. So we do want to make sure that you guys hit follow. We are going to do a follow-up episode with active phrases you can use, right? To describe when you're actively working on a project and making decisions when you're not just letting it play out.

So be sure to hit follow so you don't miss part two. Awesome. All right. Thank you, Aubrey, for remembering to remind our listeners about that. All right, guys.

Thanks so much. And we'll see you next time. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.

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