The shape of an account
Six lines of a workplace account, out of order. Put them into the order that gets harder rather than easier.
- I brought it up with Priya on the Thursday morning and did not lead with the apology.
- I knew on the Tuesday that we were not going to make it.
- Eleven minutes, after four days of me not asking.
- What had held things up was a sign-off that nobody had chased.
- She signed it off in eleven minutes.
- I put off saying so until the Thursday, which is the part I would do differently.
Somebody describing how they handled it
Four days of not asking
I knew on the Tuesday that we were not going to make it, and I put off saying so until the Thursday, which is the part I would do differently.
What had held things up was not the work. It was that the sign-off had not come through and nobody had chased it, because everybody assumed somebody else had. I found that out by accident, on a call about something else.
So I brought it up with Priya on the Thursday morning. I did not lead with the apology — I have learned that if you open with sorry, the conversation turns into one about how you feel rather than about what happens next. I said: it is going to slip by about a week, here is why, here is what I have already done, and here is the one thing I need from you.
She signed it off in eleven minutes. Eleven minutes, after four days of me not asking.
What I took from it is small and portable. When I catch myself working out how to say something, that is the signal that I have already left it too long. The working-out is the delay.
Three questions about how the account is built.
1. Why does the speaker refuse to open with an apology?
2. What is the structure of what they actually said to Priya?
3. What does the lesson at the end identify as the signal?
Four moves for raising something
The conversation had four parts, in this order: what is going to happen · why · what you have already done · the one thing you need from them.
The third part is what makes the fourth answerable.
Eight phrases. Match each to the move it makes.
Two minutes of assembly
Seven gaps. Choose what somebody would actually say.
I wanted to before it goes any further. The delivery is going to by about a week. What was the sign-off, which nobody had . I have already the two alternatives and a third supplier. The one thing I need from you is ten minutes to the revised plan.
Five sentences of the kind that appear when somebody is raising something difficult.
1. I wish to inform you that the delivery will be delayed. — to your own manager
2. I have ruled out it already.
3. Nobody had chased up it.
4. Can we go over it the revised plan?
5. I apologise profusely for this situation. — you have already said what you will do
Raise it, take it, then report it
How the twenty-six minutes run. Four minutes alone, twelve in pairs — six each way — eight for the reporting back, two to move.
Stage 1 · Alone · 4 minutes
Choose a scenario: a deadline you are going to miss; a colleague whose handovers keep failing; extra work you need to turn down; a decision made above you that will not work.
Four minutes of notes, in the four moves.
- What is going to happen, with a number in it.
- Why — as a fact, not a defence, and without naming anybody unnecessarily.
- What you have already done. This is the part people leave out and it is the part that changes the answer.
- The one thing you need. One. If you have three, choose.
Stage 2 · Pairs · 6 minutes each
Have the conversation. One of you raises it; the other is the manager or colleague, and does not make it easy.
Six minutes each. The listener’s job is to be reasonable and slightly unhelpful.
- Manager: ask what have you already tried? and what do you need from me, specifically?
- Manager: do not solve it. Offer one thing and see whether it is enough.
- Speaker: do not open with an apology, and do not let the conversation become about how you feel.
- Both: mark every phrasal verb the other person uses. You will need the list in stage 3.
Stage 3 · Reporting back · 8 minutes
Four minutes each. Tell a third person — or the pair beside you — what was agreed.
A narrative account, in the past, of a conversation you have just had.
- Report what was said with the verbs from Unit 26: she agreed to…, I pointed out that…, he wouldn’t commit to…
- Use at least six phrasal verbs from Lesson 3, and get the pronouns in the right places.
- Say what you would do differently, in one sentence, at the end.
- The listener asks one question: what did you actually get?
What came back under load
Two questions.
1. In stage 3, what happened to the phrasal verbs?
2. What does that tell you?
Four moves, one request
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Why not open with an apology?
2. What makes the request answerable?
Next. Why the substitution keeps coming back — and the two habits that make six of these verbs yours rather than fifty of them familiar.