Are you working on a big project at work and you need to coordinate with other team members about your plans?
Listen in as Michelle and Lindsay share with you how to properly and smoothly share your plans in the workplace in English.
Planning and coordinating
Michelle asks Lindsay if she finds it hard to coordinate schedules at times.
Lindsay says it’s definitely tricky.
The challenge is the number of people you need to coordinate with.
The more people, the more complex the coordination needs to be.
Michelle agrees.
It’s very complicated that there is an actual job just for managing or coordinating plans.
Today, there is a great question from a listener that Lindsay and Michelle are excited to answer.
G’day guys! I’m Rafael, from Brazil. I need to mention I feel like we’re close, because I’m literally always listening to you! Once a day. With my wireless headphones. How can I use “coordinate”?
Rafeels
Communication at work is important.
Especially when you have projects that require you to work together with your team members.
You can check out episode BE 261: Here’s My Two Cents: How to Walk Back Your Opinion at Work to learn better ways to talk in the workplace.
How to use ‘coordinate’
There are several meanings of the word coordinate.
The main meaning is to organize how something, like a task or project, will run.
This is a very useful term in business and you may get to use this often.
There are many moving pieces usually in work projects so coordination is key to make the outcome successful.
You would commonly hear using this word when talking about schedules.
Here are some examples:
- We have to coordinate our schedules to make sure we have time to conduct all the job interviews.
- Let’s coordinate later so we can decide on the meeting agenda.
- Sarah is coordinating the company’s plans to market to a new age group.
Other words similar to ‘coordinate’
You don’t want to overuse a word and ‘coordinate’ can be one that you would avoid to say over and over again.
There are other phrases and terms you can use that have a similar meaning.
#1: Orchestrate
This sounds very formal and you may not use it too frequently but is a good alternative.
This word is not limited to music but can also be used to talk about making a group activity work.
Example:
Let’s orchestrate our plans.
#2: Arrange
This means to put things in order or in the right sequence.
Example:
Let’s arrange our schedules so we can take the train at the same time.
#3: Organize
This is also a good alternative to say something needs to be placed in an orderly fashion or to have a clear structure.
Example:
Let’s organize how we want the meeting to go, then we can hand out tasks.
Roleplay
There are several words shared in today’s episode.
Take note of them and make sure to use them in the workplace when you’re coordinating plans and tasks.
Here is a quick roleplay from Lindsay and Michelle to give you a better understanding on how these words are used in a conversation.
In this scenario, Lindsay and Michelle are coworkers planning a meeting.
Michelle: Okay, so first we should talk about how to coordinate everyone’s schedules for the fall.
Lindsay: Definitely. It’s going to be tricky to arrange, but we can do it. Everyone just needs to be on board.
Michelle: Yeah! We could organize everything on a giant team calendar.
Lindsay: Great idea. Then we can orchestrate how everything would work.
Takeaway
Try out these words in your workplace today.
Communication is very important in the business world.
It’s key to making great relationships and achieving work goals.
Ensuring you and your colleagues are on the same page, you have to coordinate with each other.
Being aligned and organized with your plan of attack for each project creates a harmonious working environment.
Use the vocabulary you learned in today’s episode to express yourself better.
If you’re still getting the hang of saying alternative words to mean ‘coordinate’, that’s fine.
Don’t let that stop you from continuing to build relationships at work.
Remember, Connection Not Perfection!™
What is a recent project you organized?
We’d love to hear how it turned out in the comments below.
