A video-based lesson for B1+/B2 Business English learners. Listening decoding skills, vocabulary, speaking.

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Task 1. Watch a fragment from a talk by the Daniel
Pink, a best-selling author of ‘Drive: The Surprising
Truth About What Motivates Us’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j2aTwNor5k
This extract is about performance reviews.
1. What problems with performance reviews does
Daniel Pink mention?
2. What two suggestions does he make?
Notes:
Task 2. Listen and fill the gaps. As you’re working, note the words that were difficult tocatch
Other words:
-t/-d/-k missing
went_on_and_on_and_on
vowel missing
about how
I /aɪ/
chunk
at_the time
(1) ____________ outsource your performance review to managers or bosses or people of formal
authority.
(2) ____________ . ____________________________would work. ____________ ___________
____________ performance review.
(3) ____________________________________, _____________ your goals -- your learning goals,
and your performance goals, okay?
(4)____________________________________________________________.
(5)__________________________________________________________________.
(6) ___________ ____________ stern, but loving, assessment ________________________.
(7) ____________________________________?
____________________________________?
(8) _______________________________________________ in performance reviews is,
(9)__________________________________________________________________?

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Task 3. Cover the transcript. Your teacher is going to play this part of the videosentence by
sentence. Listen to the sentence and share what you caught with your partner. Then listen again,
read the sentence and underline what you didn’t catch.
So that you see this -- sometimes people will say, "It's too weird to call myself into the office.
50:10
I'm not going to have this secret conversation with myself. But I will have it with a peer. Or I will
have it with two peers or three peers or four peers."
And so, you see this less inside of organizations but more among people who are self-employed or
small entrepreneurs who will fashion these groups and meet monthly and say -- So, Court, Patsy,
and I meet.
50:30
And I say, at the beginning of the month, I say, "Listen, Patsy and Court, here's what I'm hoping to
do this next month".
50:36
"Okay, great. Maybe think about this, that, the other thing," they say to me. They tell me what
they're trying to do in the next month. At the end of the month, we meet.
50:41
We sit down informally. Have some coffee. "Okay, how'd you do?" "Well, I didn't quite make those
sales calls." "Why not, Court?" Hold you accountable a little bit. Give you feedback.
Task 4. Discuss in pairs: would the approach that Daniel Pink suggests work for
you?
Task 5. Match the highlighted expressions with theirdefinitions.
Now, we all know that that is actually not the best mechanism for providing feedback. What's
wrong with it as a mechanism for providing feedback? It's too late. Very good. Your first name was
-- Patsy. Patsy says it's too late. What's another flaw in that? It's tied to the money. That's a good
point. What about the session itself? It doesn't work very well. As Patsy said, it's too late, and it's
also too infrequent. Think about an athlete. Athletes get feedback all the time. Serena Williams
doesn't have a biannual performance review, you know?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do not outsource your performance review to managers or bosses or people of formal authority.
Take it back. And here's how it would work. Basically, a Do It Yourself performance review. At the
beginning of a month, set out your goals -- your learning goals, and your performance goals, okay?
Set them out at the beginning of the month.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And then, at the end of the month, call yourself into the office. Give yourself a stern, but loving,
assessment of how you're doing. Where are you making progress? Where are you falling behind?

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And I say, at the beginning of the month, I say, "Listen, Patsy and Court, here's what I'm hoping to
do this next month". "Okay, great. Maybe think about this, that, the other thing," they say to me.
They tell me what they're trying to do in the next month. At the end of the month, we meet. We sit
down informally. Have some coffee. "Okay, how'd you do?" "Well, I didn't quite make those sales
calls." "Why not, Court?" They hold you accountable a little bit. Give you feedback.
1 decide what you want to achieve ___________________________
2 a defect, a feature that makes something imperfect ___________________________
3 don’t happen often enough ___________________________
4 you’re progressing tooslowly ___________________________
5 get someone to do some work instead of you ___________________________
6 have an unofficial meeting ___________________________
7 not an ideal way ___________________________
8 they ask you to present your progress and evaluate it ___________________________
9 your current progress ___________________________
10 expression that is used to soften a bad result ___________________________
Task 6. Use the expressions from Task 4 to fill the gaps.
didn’t quite
falling behind
flaws
hold you accountable
how are you doing
mechanisms
outsource
set out your goals
sit down informally
too infrequently
1 Do you see any __________________ in the approach to performance reviews that Dan Pink
suggests? If yes, how would you improve it to make it work for you and your team?
2 How many __________________ can you remember that your company uses to get feedback
from the employees? Which of these __________________ are the best ones? Can you suggest
any alternatives that would work for you and/or your team?
3 Are you good at monitoring your own performance and working autonomously, or do you need
other people to help you __________________________ and to __________________________
for the decisions you make?
4 __________________ at work at the moment? Are there any tasks that you’re
__________________ with?
5 Would you like to __________________ some of your tasks at work/housework to other people?
Which ones?
6 Is there anything that you personally do __________________? Why?
7 What were the things that you __________________ manage to do in your first year in your
current role?
8 Do you ever __________________ with anyone to discuss yourprofessional prospects?
9 [your own question] __________________________________________________________
10 [your own question] __________________________________________________________

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Teacher’s notes
Warmer Distribute the handout with the quotes (page 1). Ask the s/s to discuss the quotes in
pairs: which ones do they like? Which ones do they dislike or disagree with?
Task 1 Link: https://youtu.be/9j2aTwNor5k?t=47m30s
The s/s watch the video, make notes and then share what they caught in pairs.
Key:
1. Performance reviews happen too late, they are not typically ‘an open
conversation’ (‘it’s Kabuki Theatre’), they are too infrequent
2. Suggestions. a) Do your performance review yourself: set out your own goals
and review them at the end of the month; b) do performance reviews
informally, in peer groups.
The source of the video: Talks at Google youtube channel; video title:
Leading@Google: Daniel Pink
Task 2 To play each line as many times as you need, open the video on youtube
(https://youtu.be/9j2aTwNor5k?t=49m7s ), open the interactive transcript
(More>Transcript under the video), click on the line and press ‘Play’.
Procedure: Sentence by sentence,
1. Play the sentence several times using the Interactive transcript.
2. Get the s/s to compare in pairs.
3. Ask the s/s to dictate the sentence to you and board it. If there are more than
one alternative, board all answers and get the students to listen one more
time to decide which variant was in the text.
4. Reveal the correct answers and for problematic words/expressions help the
students to analyze the actual pronunciation (get them to listen again and
analyze how the expressions sounds, what sounds are missing etc)
5. To support the students, allocate a section of the board tokeep a record of
problematic words/expressions, sorting them according to features of
connected speech (a) t/d missing at the end b) vowel missing and weak
forms c) frequent chunks).
Key: Do not outsource your performance review to managers or bosses or people of
formal authority. Take it back. And here's how it would work. Basically,a Do It
Yourself performance review. At the beginning of a month, set out your goals -- your
learning goals, and your performance goals, okay? Set them out at the beginning of
the month.
49:28
And then, at the end of the month, call yourself into the office. Give yourself a stern,
but loving, assessment of how you're doing. Where are you making progress? Where

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are you falling behind? The other question that we don't ask enough in performance
reviews is, "What tools or information do you need to do things better?" Okay?
Task 3 Again, it’s best to open the interactive transcript on youtube to play each line several
times. https://youtu.be/9j2aTwNor5k?t=50m5s
Task 5 Key:
1 set out your goals
2 a flaw /flɔː/
3 (are) too infrequent /ɪn.ˈfriː.kwənt/
4 you’re falling behind
5 outsource [work] to [someone]
6 sit down informally
7 not the best mechanism /ˈmek.ə.nɪ.zəm/
8 hold you accountable
9 how you’re doing
10 Well, I didn’t quite…
Task 6 The students fill the gaps and check the answers and then choose 3-5 questions to
discuss with their partner.
Key
1 flaws
2 mechanisms
3 set out your goals, hold you accountable
4 how are you doing, falling behind
5 outsource
6 too infrequently
7 didn't quite
8 sit down informally

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Transcript
47:30
Let's talk about performance reviews here for a moment. You're laughing about performance
reviews. What's the point of a performance review? Ideally, to provide -- tell me your first name?
Court. Court says ideally to provide feedback. Ideally to provide feedback.
47:48
Now, we all know that that is actually not the best mechanism for providing feedback. What's
wrong with it as a mechanism for providing feedback? It's too late. Very good. Your first name was
-- Patsy. Patsy says it's too late. What's another flaw in that?
48:03
It's tied to the money. That's a good point. What about the session itself?
48:10
Most performance reviews sessions -- you know this -- it's Kabuki Theater, okay? It's basically
people playing certain kind of rehearsed roles, right? It's not typically -- sometimes it is -- an open
conversation. It's Kabuki Theater.
48:29
And so, it doesn't work very well. As Patsy said, it's too late, and it's also too infrequent. Think
about an athlete. Athletes get feedback all the time. Serena Williams doesn't have a biannual
performance review, you know? I mean, you're laughing, but it's crazy to think about that, right?
How are you going to get better at tennis if you only get feedback twice a year, all right?
48:52
And so, I think there's a better way to do this -- a better way to do performance reviews. And
basically, is a much more autonomous way. And I think it's very effective for people -- that Court
says -- who are not the folks in positions of traditional power. And it is basically to take
performance reviews back. Take them back.
49:07
Do not outsource your performance review to managers or bosses or people of formal authority.
Take it back. And here's how it would work. Basically,a Do It Yourself performance review. At the
beginning of a month, set out your goals -- your learning goals, and your performance goals, okay?
Set them out at the beginning of the month.
49:28
And then, at the end of the month, call yourself into the office. Give yourself a stern, but loving,
assessment of how you're doing. Where are you making progress? Where are you falling behind?
The other question that we don't ask enough in performance reviews is, "What tools or
information do you need to do things better?" Okay? Ask yourself that. Ask yourself that question.
And that's how you can move toward greater and greater mastery on your own. Take them back.
49:57
The other thing that's very interesting that goes toward an aspect of Court's question is that --
what I've seen is that -- this is happening in a really interesting, somewhat self-organized way. So
that you see this -- sometimes people will say, "It's too weird to call myself into the office. I'm not
going to have this secret conversation with myself.

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50:15
But I will have it with a peer. Or I will have it with two peers or three peers or four peers." And so,
you see this less inside of organizations but more among people who are self-employed or small
entrepreneurs who will fashion these groups and meet monthly and say -- So, Court, Patsy, and I
meet.
50:30
And I say, at the beginning of the month, I say, "Listen, Patsy and Court, here's what I'm hoping to
do this next month". "Okay, great. Maybe think about this, that, the other thing," they say to me.
They tell me what they're trying to do in the next month. At the end of the month, we meet. We sit
down informally. Have some coffee. "Okay, how'd you do?" "Well, I didn't quite make those sales
calls." "Why not, Court?" Hold you accountable a little bit. Give you feedback.
50:50
"Oh, that was a really" -- and so, people are yearning for this. So they're taking these back in a self-
organized way. So I think that reclaiming performance reviews is one thing that individual
contributors can really do to get better at stuff. And I don't think that most organizations are fully
committed to helping everybody get better at stuff.
51:12