BE 645: What’s Your Path Forward? How to Talk About Progress at Work

This is the Business English Podcast, episode 645. What's your path forward? How to talk about progress at work. 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 today? Hello, Aubrey. My voice is a little off today. Apologies to the audience, but I'll be much better in the coming episodes, I'm sure.

Perfect. You sound great. But yeah, I know how that is when you're kind of losing your voice. I got this. It's going to be fine. I'm here. Yes. Yes. What are we getting into today?

I have a question for you. Okay. So this is interesting. What is something that you do in a really unique way, like differently than most people? Okay.

I don't know if this is something I'm proud of or not proud of, but when I eat apples, I really enjoy them. I really like a pink lady. Apples are so good. And I just dig in and I just not on that thing all the way down to the core.

I don't eat the core. I've heard there are people that eat the core, which seems crazy to me. Do you do that? No, you don't eat the seat. Well, so here's my question.

That would be a lot. You take an apple hole and just take a bite and eat it. Cause I feel like that's rare anymore. Most people will like slice it up.

Interesting. Not just for kids, but like everyone. No, I'm 100%. I just wash it all in. And I'll take it like if I walk to a workout, I'll eat an apple on the way on the street, just like eating and walking.

Yeah. This is definitely going to be our poll today, guys. Come answer the poll on Spotify because I want to know if you cut an apple up, if you like slice it up before you eat it or if you just bite into it like Lindsay does. No time for that.

No time. I feel like it's rare that I see anyone just eating an apple. Really? I didn't know this was so out of style. I always rely on you to keep me up to date.

I could be the one that's wrong. It's crazy because this summer, my sister, I was always cutting up apples for the kids, but they refused to eat the peel. I would have to peel the apple and then hand it to them. And it's so much more work.

I'm like, no, these kids need to be eating the peel. This is too much work for me. My kid is not going to get used to anything that's easy street like that. No way.

Yeah. And I'm also curious. I've heard people refer to the peel of an apple. I call it the peel, but I've also heard it called the skin. Do you call it the skin or the peel or both?

I think both, actually. The skin, the peel. But when I heard peel, I thought you meant the label. I'm like, I hope people are not eating the label. No, don't eat the... Don't eat the label.

What's something you do straight? You're like, I eat the little sticker on an apple. Don't eat the sticker. What? That's really funny. Well, this is great.

We got a really interesting question here. I'm excited to dive into it. I just needed to use the word way, right? Do you do something in a unique way?

Do you want to read this question for us, Lindsay? All right. The listener says, Hi, All Ears English team. I'm Anne, a longtime listener of All Ears and Business English.

I've listened to pretty much every episode and I've learned so much from you all. Really appreciate your sharing and teaching. Well, thank you, Anne. We appreciate you as well.

Yes, I love that. And I love she's listening to both podcasts. She's getting such gold here. It's so good. If possible, would you be willing to talk about how to use the word path?

It feels like a very common word, but sometimes I feel uncertain about how to use it. The collocations that go with it and also if it's interchangeable with way, like the path forward, the way forward. Also, if it means the same with as pathway, sorry, pathway, trying not to go too high here today with my voice. I kind of love that when it goes high.

Yeah. I think it's so fun. It's horrible. Would appreciate explanation on how to better use this word. Thank you so much and have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Best, Anne. Good question, Anne. Such a great question. And this is so perfect for the Business English Podcast because at work, we're often talking about the path forward, the way forward, our goals.

We have to think about that, right? Some people in everyday English talk about that a lot, but it's constant at work. Oh, for sure. You need to go into projects having a goal, knowing exactly what you're doing and where you're going.

What do they say? If you don't know where you're going, you can get anywhere. You can end up anywhere. Or what is that expression? Something like that.

I don't know word for word, but any of those work, right? You never know where you'll end up if you don't have the path straight. Exactly. So where should we start today then to help our listener, Anne?

Yeah, this is interesting because you may have, like Anne, wondered why someone said a path forward instead of a way forward doesn't mean the same. So we're going to share the differences between path and way and also when to use pathway here.

Of course, this is common in daily English when you're just talking about a path, like the route that you follow from one place to another. But we do use it more metaphorically as well, like we were saying, to talk about a plan. Yes, for sure. So, yeah.

So in business English, for example, path is metaphorical. Like you said, Aubrey, right? It can refer to a direction, a course, a series of steps that lead to a goal, a path, right? We need to find a path to profitability, right?

I feel like that could be like a podcast name. Yeah. I would listen to that podcast. It just means we need to figure out the steps. that we can take to become profitable, right?

Exactly. Yeah. But there are these chunks, like Anne mentioned, where, for example, the path forward, this is a common chunk that means the direction or plan we should take from this point onward. For example, we need to agree on a path forward before the end of the meeting.

Love it. And then we also sometimes say the way forward. This basically means the same thing. So the two companies are still trying to determine the best way forward.

Yeah, it's the same thing. Exactly, right? These are very interchangeable. Neither is more informal. We'll use them both at work when we're talking about the plan we need to come up with, right?

Yes. Yes. But then we use this a few other ways too, right? We'll also talk about the path to a goal. For example, like we mentioned there, a path to profitability.

We need to identify a clear path to profitability. Or a path to growth, a path to scale, right? A lot of businesses talk about scaling, meaning reaching more than just one customer, right? We're reaching many customers for the same effort.

That essentially is scale, path to a million dollars in revenue, maybe, for example. Yes, exactly. And this is a slightly more polished chunk or construction than some other things you might say.

Because you could say like, we need to figure out how to scale. That's quite a bit more informal, right? Conversational. Using this chunk, a path to, and then whatever the goal is, is up-leveled a little more.

It sounds a little more professional. Yeah. It might be more likely to be used in a presentation when you already know the answer. You know what that path is.

You've prepared the steps. That's often how we see it. Yeah, you're introducing that idea, right? Let's talk about our path to and then whatever the goal is.

And we also will hear toward here. right? Two, maybe can emphasize the destination toward maybe more movement in that direction. But you will hear like a path toward expansion, for example.

The acquisition could create a path toward international expansion. And these mean the same thing. Okay, good. Love it. Yeah, there's a lot of ways to use this word path.

But let's take a quick break, Aubrey, and we'll come back and talk about the word way and pathway. Okay, good. All right. Let's get into way, Aubrey. Well, way is like a method, an approach, or a solution, right?

It's really broad, the word way. It's very broad. We use it so much in English, right? But as far as this meaning, when we use it at work, we might say, what's the best way to approach this?

And really what you mean is what's the best method? Best method, right? Or we need to find a way forward. As we said before, we need to find a solution.

Maybe you have some kind of crisis at work or someone leaves that was very critical to your company. We need to find a way forward, like a strategy or a plan. I Exactly.

So often these are very interchangeable when it's that meaning, the path forward, the way forward, just being like this route to progress or toward a destination or a goal. Now, way is tricky because like you said, it's so flexible. Yeah. In English, there are a lot of times when we would say way that we wouldn't say path.

So you can't just interchange them directly. But as far as this meaning that we use at work, these can be pretty interchangeable, right? This path suggests a route, a progression toward a destination. And you can interchange those, the way forward or the path forward.

Yeah, that's a good point because outside of this context in business English, we might say, which way should I go? You can't say, which path should I go? You might say, which path should I take? But not quite, right?

Not quite. If you say, which path should I take? You probably mean a physical path, like which way through the park if I say, which path should I take? And which way should I go is much more random.

go that way, go that way, go that way. Exactly. And we also use it like, what's the best way to do this? When we're talking about a method, we would not say what's the best path to do this.

When we're talking about a method, we wouldn't say path. So outside of this organized kind of system or solution, be careful because it does get a lot more chaotic. And another day we could talk about this a bit more, the word way, Aubrey, maybe on the show. There's a lot of ways we use it.

There's one right there. There we go. All right. What else? What else? All right. So we do want to share about pathway. This is used most often about an actual physical pathway, right?

It can mean that it's kind of the same as path. A garden has a narrow pathway. But we do have a similar metaphorical meaning as well. You could say education can provide a pathway to a better career.

And this does sound quite polished. It is sort of quite a formal way to say that. Yeah. Often I've seen this word pathway or pathways used as like a...

A brand name for, I don't know, like rehab services maybe or education services, things like this. I see this term being used a lot in education and that kind of thing. Therapy maybe. Yeah.

And there are some chunks that are very institutional and formal. We'll hear, for example, a pathway to citizenship, a pathway to employment. And that is, it's very structured sounding, right? There are specific steps that you'll be taking on that pathway.

Yeah. Yeah. This means the government maybe has set it up for you and you just need to take those steps. You're not necessarily figuring it out on your own.

Otherwise, it wouldn't really be a pathway. I mean, maybe you're creating your own pathway. Sure. Right. You could create, but like sort of it implies that it's all laid out for you, right?

There are specific things you need to check off the list if you are on a pathway for something like that. Yes. Interesting. Okay. So role play time, Aubrey, dive into it.

Yes. And just one note, this is interesting because these chunks, a way forward and a path forward, we're so used to hearing them collocated that way that if you say a pathway forward, that might sound off because it's just not a common chunk.

That's a good point. If there is a chunk available to you, use the chunk, right? Don't reinvent the wheel. There's no need to. We're giving you the chunks right here.

Okay? Yes. That's how you sound native and natural. When you're using the same chunks that native speakers are used to hearing and saying, then it just sounds right.

You got it. So here, Aubrey, in today's role play, we are coworkers discussing international expansion of our company. Nice. Love that idea. All right.

I'll start us out. I am not sure our current strategy is sustainable. I agree. We need to find a path forward that doesn't put too much pressure on the team.

What about expanding into two new markets instead of five? That could give us a more realistic path to grow. Yes, exactly. And if those markets perform well, we could gradually expand from there.

Right. That would put us on a path toward long-term international growth without taking too much risk. Yeah. So should we agree on this as our way forward?

Yeah, let's start with two markets, measure the results, and then go from there. Well, it makes it sound so clear and easy. It really did sound so simple. I want to work in this company.

Right? It sounds like we were a little stressed out. We're planning on expanding into five markets and we're like, ooh, this is too much. We've bitten off more than we could chew.

I know, I know. All right. Good stuff. I want to point out a little bonus here. I actually improvised on the role plan. I said, without taking too much risk, but I could have said without taking on too much risk, it would mean the same thing.

Right, Aubrey? That's a good point. Yes. This is one of those phrasal verbs, take on, that has the same meaning as take, depending on the context. So both totally work there.

Yes. Love it. All right. Let's break it down. Aubrey, what did we say first? Yeah. So we're talking about this current strategy, maybe not being sustainable.

And so you said, we need to find a path forward that doesn't put too much pressure on the team. So you could say a way forward there, right? But we wouldn't say a pathway forward. Yeah, good point.

And then I said, you said, what about expanding into two new markets? And then I said, that could give us a more realistic path to growth, right? This is that chunk, path to, and then the goal. And you could fill in anything there, right?

You can have a path to any kind of goal that you might have at work. But you wouldn't really say a pathway to growth because that would have to be pre-constructed for you, don't you think? Yeah, that's a good point. Right here, we're sort of coming up with it on the fly.

Like, okay, we need to come up with a path to growth. This is another chunk where we're used to hearing that either to or toward, but we wouldn't use pathway there either. Exactly. And then, Aubrey, what'd you say?

And you said that would put us on a path toward long-term international growth. This is just kind of showing how these are really interchangeable, whether you use the preposition to or toward, you'll hear them both. Neither is really much less formal. They're pretty interchangeable.

Love that. And then finally, I said, should we agree on this as a way forward? And this is a little bit more, I guess, metaphorical, we said, right? A little more metaphorical, like symbolic.

We have our way forward. This is sort of big picture. This feels like, okay, we're going to sum up like, great, we've got our way forward and we both feel like we're on the right trajectory.

So I love this for our listeners in terms of a context that they could use. This would be talking about maybe they just had like a major life milestone, like they turned 45 or something or whatever, or they had like their 10-year work anniversary. This would be where that context might come up where you're talking with your colleagues about your own career for for example, right?

Yeah, I love that. That's true because often it is about companies figuring out their future plans, but it can be on a more personal level too, right? As you are reaching milestones and figuring out your path forward. Love it.

Yeah, exactly. Guys, go to 642 of this Business English podcast, Care to Learn Some Business English, and we will get right into it over there on that episode. Aubrey, any final takeaway in terms of connection? Yeah, I love what you just said there, right?

A lot of these, we can think about it as how we would speak for a company or meet about the future goals of a company, but we can also personalize it as well. A lot of this vocabulary we're going to also use when we're talking about a friend with our own personal goals. Exactly. All right.

Great stuff for today, Aubrey. I will see you back here very soon with a better voice. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. Feel better. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.

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