Business English Presentations- Negotiation Game

Preparing a presentation negotiating game and discussion

Instructions

You and your partner need to give a presentation together the week after next (= in two weeks). Half the jobs that need to be done to prepare for the presentation are written below with the time that it will take to do each one. Without telling your partner the exact time needed, persuade them to do some of the jobs below and accept doing some of their jobs in return. When you finish your negotiation, the time of the jobs that are still left on your sheet plus the time of the jobs that you have volunteered to do from your partner’s sheet is your total time. If you have agreed to do something together or split it fifty-fifty, you should add the times with that in mind. The person with the least total time when the teacher stops the game is the winner. Anything which you haven’t had time to discuss stays on your list.

Stop your negotiation when your teacher tells you to and add up all the time of all the jobs that your partner has agreed to do (including half of the jobs that you have agreed to do together). Add the times from both of your worksheets and see who has less work to do (= under 765 minutes) and therefore who is the winner.

Look at your partner’s worksheet too. Which things on the lists do you really think you will have to do to get ready the next time that you give a presentation. What order is it best to do those things in?

Draw up a similar checklist for another purpose, for example:

• preparing for a negotiation
• writing a report
• employing new staff

Then roleplay a similar negotiation on splitting those jobs up. When you finish, tell other students how you split the jobs and see who they think negotiated a better workload.

 

Student A

Try to persuade your partner to accept as many of the jobs below as you can while only accepting short jobs/ easy jobs from them. Anything that you can’t persuade them to do stays as your job. The person who has less than 625 minutes of jobs in total when your teacher stops the game is the winner.

Student A’s list of jobs to do

1. Brainstorm possible topics as a mind map on a blank piece of A3 paper and choose the best option, thinking about your audience and how long you have to speak. – 20 minutes
2. Brainstorm absolutely everything that you could possibly mention about your topic onto a mind map in pencil on an A3 piece of paper, not editing out bad ideas at this stage. – 15 minutes
3. Organise the mind map into larger categories, brainstorming more examples if you can. – 20 minutes
4. Circle the best things on your mind map (meaning things which match your aim, won’t be known by the audience and will be interesting. Add even better options and more details if you can). Make sure you have between two and four sections left on your mind map, with between two and four things that you can speak about in each of those sections. If not, widen the topic or narrow down the topic (= make the topic more general or make it more specific). – 10 minutes
5. Put the main sections of your body into a logical order, writing (1) etc on your mind map. – 5 minutes
6. Add details/ Add support to each thing that is left on your mind map after editing it down (examples, statistics, quotes, consequences, references, logical arguments, anecdotes, etc). – 120 minutes
7. Research more support for what you want to say, adding it to your mind map. Change the mind map if you find more interesting or more relevant information while you are researching. – 240 minutes
8. Decide how you will hook the audience (= get and keep their interest), e.g. a survey question, a rhetorical question, an amazing number or fact, a quotation, a personal story, an impactful image, how topical the subject is, or the importance of the topic. – 15 minutes
9. Decide what personal information you will give, making sure that what you say about yourself/ yourselves is interesting, linked to the topic, and not already known by the audience. – 5 minutes
10. Check the pronunciation of difficult words, writing down phonemic symbols and/ or words with the same sounds to help you remember. – 20 minutes
11. Time yourself giving the presentation, improving the content of the presentation and practising again until it’s exactly the right length. – 120 minutes
12. Edit down the PowerPoint as much as possible, cutting out pages, words, bullet points, figures, etc. – 25 minutes
13. Ask someone to proofread your notes and PowerPoint. – 10 minutes

 

Total time for the jobs above: 625 minutes (= half the total)

When you have finished the game, added up your totals and seen who has less work and so won. Then discuss how you would really prepare a presentation. 

 

Student B

Try to persuade your partner to accept as many of the jobs below as you can while only accepting short jobs/ easy jobs from them. Anything that you can’t persuade them to do stays as your job. The person who has less than 625 minutes of jobs in total when your teacher stops the game is the winner.

Student B’s list of jobs to do

14. Write down a description of your audience at the top of the page where you are brainstorming, including what they will already know about the topic and will probably be interested to learn about it. Find out more about your audience if you aren’t sure. – 30 minutes
15. Write at least one realistic and concrete aim for your presentation at the top of your mind map, e.g. “After my presentation (I want most of the audience to)…” – 25 minutes
16. Edit your mind map down, crossing off things which the audience (probably) already know or (probably) won’t be interested in, and things which don’t match your aim(s). Add any better ideas that you come up with while you are editing. – 30 minutes
17. Ask other people for feedback on your ideas. – 25 minutes
18. Re-write the mind map as notes (= key words, not a script with full sentences) to make the body of your presentation. – 40 minutes
19. Simplify the language, simplify the ideas and add extra explanation so that everyone in the audience will understand everything that you say. – 40 minutes
20. Write a script of how you imagine the Q&A stage might go, with questions that people might ask and your answers, including useful phrases for dealing with questions like “Yes, please go ahead.” Do more research if you don’t know the answers, and move very important info that should be explained before the Q&A into the body of your presentation. – 180 minutes
21. Write the summary/ the conclusion (probably as a script with full sentences). – 10 minutes
22. Write the intro (probably as a script in full sentences), including getting people’s attention, connecting personally with the audience, a greeting, some personal info, the topic, a hook, your aim(s), the organisation of the presentation, your policy on questions, and moving onto the main body of the presentation. – 50 minutes
23. Use a highlighter pen on your notes so that you can easily see important the most important information when you have to describe slides, answer questions, etc. – 20 minutes
24. Write the PowerPoint (in note form, without full sentences). – 70 minutes
25. Spellcheck your notes and the PowerPoint slides. – 5 minutes
26. Mark important pauses and stressed words on your notes, especially the script of the start and ending of the presentation. – 30 minutes
27. Think about some suitable body language/ gestures and rehearse your presentation with that use of your body in front of a full-length mirror. – 40 minutes
28. Rehearse in front of colleagues/ classmates, if possible in the same room that you will give the presentation in. – 30 minutes

 

Total time for the jobs above: 625 minutes (= half the total)

When you have finished the game, added up your totals and seen who has less work and so won. Then discuss how you would really prepare a presentation.