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1. DISAGREEING WITHOUT FALLING OUT 1) INFERRING RELATIONSHIPS AND ATTITUDES  Identifying relationships Understanding the relationship between speakers helps you understand the tone they use when speaking to each other, and the tone you should use when speaking to them. In the following example, the speakers are cordial, as they have a business relationship that they hope to continue. I really appreciate the hard work that all of you at  Blue Sky Inc.  did on this project. Listening for opinions To understand people's opinions, look for expressions that introduce opinions—for example, I can't help but think that . In sophisticated discussions between business professionals, the language will often be indirect, so you will need to listen carefully. I can't help but think that  closing that factory will have a terrible effect here. Listening for attitudes Many discussions will start with a discussion of a specific incident — for example, a compa...

WS. SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS Hashtag -  Trolls -  Tweets -  trending -  Viral -  Many businesses make use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to promote their products or image.  Instagram is an app allowing users to share photos, marked with a hashtag . If the photo is reposted enough times, it's said to be trending , or to have gone viral , a term borrowed from the way a disease spreads. Twitter is also a popular platform for sharing short messages or links, called tweets . The internet, however,  is not always a safe space, and businesses have to be wary of trolls , who post provocative messages with the intention of getting a reaction.  They're encouraging hopeful athletes to post selfies of their fitness regimes, some of which have already gone viral .  Instead of If: Supposing a new buyer makes a higher offer, how will we respond? Supposing one of those people makes it b...

WS. E-COMMERCE Growth opportunities -  Operating costs -  Price points -  Unique selling point -  Affect the bottom line -  to boost sales -  If the social media bubble bursts, many newer companies will go bankrupt . Our customer numbers have fallen, and that affects our bottom line. She will lose a lot of money when the housing market crashes.  I think it's a great idea to use social media, that will lower our operating costs.  But there's a lot of other social media retailers out there, we need to consider our unique selling point.  We can boost sales through upselling. Operating costs are lowered because orders go direct to the factory.  If the value of the luxury market decreases, this will affect our bottom line. Offer a range of price points? Many competitors provide similar services - what's our unique selling point ?  What about growth opportunities ? New markets, new products? ...

F2F. DISCUSSING A WORK OR LIFE PLAN  Instead of If we can use: We can run the meeting with the proviso that a room is available. He'll approve with the proviso that you stay in San Francisco on Sunday night.  It's expected that we go, but provided that you have a good reason for not being there.  Everything should work out well, provided that we__________ What should we do supposing the manager arrives late?  Supposing I went to that instead?  Supposing this negative news starts to trend, we'll need to_________ Supposing we aimed for eight instead?  We can clock off early today, subject to the manager's approval. As always it would be subject to your line manager's approval.  I can be at the restaurant by seven o'clock, although that's subject to change as we sometimes do overtime on Thursdays.   A training workshop will be offered contingent on the number of people interested. At this stage tha...

How to Free Your Innate Creativity Creativity can feel like an accident. Suddenly, out of nowhere a novel idea shows up in conscious thought and we’ve solved that persistent problem. Or, after days of staring at a blank page, words fly off our fingertips and we’ve written that perfect blog post or editorial. Some attribute creativity to brilliance, but we now know just being smart isn’t enough. We are creative when conditions in our minds are just right. When we have access to our intellect, knowledge, and experience, our brains can light up with new idea. We can solve the unsolvable problem and imagine a new reality. Simply put, we need to be in the right emotional state in order to be creative — brain functioning affects creativity and how we feel affects brain functioning. But unfortunately, that’s easier said than done in today’s workplace. Far too many organizations have  cultures that support negativity and cynicism  — and far too many  managers ar...