BE: How to Reflect on a Project in Retrospect Plus New AI Opportunities
16:01 Share

This is the Business English Podcast, how to reflect on a project in retrospect, plus new AI speaking opportunities. ♪

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

You know that feeling when someone shows up for you just when you need it most? That's what Uber is all about. Not just a ride or dinner at your door. It's how Uber helps you show up for the moments that matter. Because showing up can turn a tough day around or make a good one even better. Whatever it is, big or small, Uber is on the way. So you can be on yours. Uber, on our way.

Hello, Michelle. How are you today? Good, Lindsay. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm good. I'm doing great. What are we getting into in today's bonus episode? All right. So, Lindsay, is there anything in your personal or professional life that you would change if you could go back in time? Like if you could see what would have happened and you could change it?

Well, I probably would have in retrospect, I probably would have done more conference presentations early on, like when podcasting was first growing in 2015, 16, 17. That's probably what I would have done. Michelle, what about you? What would you have done differently? In retrospect,

have done more living abroad. Yeah. Spent some more time, maybe done like a year or two. I mean, I did a little bit, certainly. I've done total probably nine months. But I would have done a little more time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's a good one. Oh my gosh. You can never be abroad too much, right? No, no, no. I think. So yeah, Lindsay, you were using, we were using this in retrospect.

Yes. So that's what we're going to talk about today. This is really good for business and for your personal life. But what does that mean when somebody says in retrospect, blah, blah, blah? It really means looking back. And it has the suffix spect, which literally means look, right? And spectator, spectacles, if you wear glasses, right? Right. Yeah. So this is a great word, Michelle. Very high level.

Very high level. I mean, so this is often used to talk about something that you would change. So something that happened in the past that you would have thought about differently or done differently if you could have. So, um, this is one of the expressions that you are going to be learning in our C1 fluency course, which we were so excited about. Lindsay, you want to tell us about it? Yeah, super excited guys. We are doing a promotion this week to get into our C1 fluency course, but there's

There's some exciting changes and updates that we're making to the course, Michelle, that have to do with AI.

Yes. Oh my gosh. AI. We could talk so much about that. It's true. So the whole point of the C1 course is giving our students all the targets to qualify for that level and to pass the final exam, but then they also learn connection skills, which is what we think at that level our listeners want to do, Michelle. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. So yeah, you're going to be able to practice these key connection skills actually with AI. Yeah, it's crazy. We've designed a special template that we're going to give you all the information you need to give to AI to have a conversation with a person

using that connection skill, practicing it, and then getting feedback from the AI about how you can improve. Of course, this is only after you've done the lessons, practiced the skill, and done the module in the course, Michelle.

Right, right. Exactly. So gosh, there, there's going to be things like, uh, narrating internal law, a dialogue, um, you're giving concessions and a heated political debate. Oh my gosh. So, so many good topics here that are going to really help you guys. It's so true. Giving clear examples, referring back to what someone told you before pulling that back up in the conversation, which by the way is kind of a ninja connection skill, which

Not all native speakers do that, to be honest, but the really smart ones, the really good communicators do. So these are the things you get to learn in C1. Michelle, where can our listeners go to get into this course and save money and also get access to the live community speaking events, open conversation club, fluency party? So you're not just chatting with AI out in the

internet world, you are actually also connecting with us, attending our live speaking events every week in this course. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, guys, we are here for you. So go on over to all ears, english.com/letter C number one. Yes. Good guys. This offer ends June 1st, so make sure you get it now. So let's go into a little bit more depth into this word, which does come directly from the C1 course, but let's learn about it here on the podcast.

Absolutely. All right. So let's do some examples. So the first one is, in retrospect, we should have taken more time with each client to show them our value. Yeah. And this is a good thing that you want to do in the business world to reflect like a postmortem kind of thing, right? If something doesn't work out, you go through it and you think, okay, what did I do wrong? What could I do better? Right?

Right. This is huge also. I mean, I'm thinking even of quarterly meetings people might, you know, so this could be used in the, in meetings more casually, just kind of going through something with a colleague. Yeah. Um, but just really, I mean, I, there are endless ways to use this in the business world, I think. Yeah. Here's another example. Oh, so we could have sent a few extra cars. That would have been a good idea in retrospect. So what's the difference between sentence one and sentence two, Michelle?

placement. So you can put it in the beginning of your thought or you can put it at the end. Yes, exactly. And I love how flexible that is. Right? Yeah. Yep, exactly. Or here's another example. In retrospect, I should have thought about going into the medical field. So just talking about your career, your aspirations, things like that. But yeah, this is so useful for business. I feel like

Because things are changing at work all the time. Yes. You can talk about your career. You can talk to colleagues. What else can you do, Lindsay? Yeah. So you can connect over your past, discuss things at work that should be changed now. Maybe you should have done something in retrospect a long time ago, but you can still make that change now.

Right. It's a good way to show the idea that you do regret something, but you're not you're not like hanging your head in shame or you're not dwelling on it. You're just stating it in a matter of fact way. OK, right. That's what I love about this. It's very it's just very professional sounding. It's also kind of benign. Oh, in retrospect. Right. It's not showing. Oh, my gosh, I can't believe I didn't do that.

this, right? Just in retrospect, very matter of fact. Exactly. I love that. That is so true. Yeah, I love it. What else do we need to know here, Michelle?

Yeah. So, I mean, we don't have information about the future when we make decisions, right? So this retrospect gives us the opportunity to share what we would change. And so maybe help us learn a lesson. Um, but there are other things that we can say to express this idea. So we're going to teach you a couple. So one is in hindsight, and I think we may have talked about this a little bit before, but you could say in hindsight or hindsight is 2020. Um,

Yeah. And this is really in the same family of more articulate ways of saying you would have done something different. Right. And again, it's not like dwelling on the thing. It's not making it emotional. It's very matter of fact, intellectual professional. Okay. Yeah, exactly.

or as we mentioned before with the definition to this one you could just say looking back yeah right um so for in hindsight you could say in hindsight we should have probably checked with our accountant before we made that purchase yeah oops big mistake big mistake yeah or what about this phrase looking back i think purple would have been a better choice for our logo

Yeah. I mean, if we could see the future, right? We would never have to use these phrases, but we can't see the future. Most people can't. Right. What's going to happen? Right, right, right. And I just like, I mean, if you didn't have these, I mean, you could have just said, we should have probably checked with our accountant or you could have said, I think purple would have been a better choice. You don't need them, but they just add a little bit of something because you're kind of

To me, what you're saying is you're adding in this, well, I couldn't have known. Yeah. Right? Yes. It's a kind of reflection opportunity. And again, like we said, this is a standard process for a lot of companies. Maybe they launch a new product and it flops, right? That's a bonus word for today, Michelle. It flops. What does that mean? Flops. It does.

It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Exactly. And then you're going to have a chance with your colleagues to review and your ability to do that, to look back, say that you made a mistake maybe is very important for your professional reputation, right? Absolutely. So guys, this is going to be really, really helpful. Um,

I mean, hopefully you don't have mistake after mistake after mistake, but it is always good to reflect and to reflect honestly. And so that's what these expressions can help you do. Michelle, let's dive into a role play. Are you ready? Here we go.

I am ready. Here we go. We are coworkers and we're going over an event that we planned for work. That was the previous day. All right, here we go. Yes. Okay. So how do you think it went? Well, overall, uh, I know, sorry, start again. It went well overall, I guess in hindsight, we could have printed out all the brochures and handed them out with the gift bags.

Oh, true. Yeah, we could have also given away some extra prizes in retrospect. Totally agree. Looking back, there are some things we could have done differently, but I'm pleased for the most part.

Same here. Yeah. When you organize big events, like you organize a conference, a lot of companies will have like internal conferences, right? For their industry. Or when I remember when we organized our New York adventures, right? The immersion adventures, Michelle. Yeah. You know, it took a lot of work. We were sure there were things we could have tweaked or done differently. But overall, we felt good about that. And it is possible to say that there's a few things you would have changed. But overall, it went well.

Right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So yeah, you said it went well overall, I guess in hindsight, we could have printed out all the brochures and handed them out with the gift bag. So really kind of logistics.

Right. A lot of times with event planning, it's always the logistics of what would have been what would have maybe worked better. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And then I used retrospect. So here we go. Yeah, we could have also given away some extra prizes in retrospect there. I used it at the end of the sentence.

Yep. And then you said, looking back, there are some things we could have done differently, but I'm pleased for the most part. So you're not being like completely specific here. You're just kind of grouping everything together and say, yeah, looking back, we could have changed things. But you're also acknowledging that things went well, everything was good. So you can still be looking for these little ways to improve, even if things are fine, right? When we should always be striving for that in business and in our regular lives, I think.

It's so true. And we know that your business skills are important to build, but then there's so much of our connection abilities that we use Michelle in business. Isn't that right? And that comes down to fluency, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. So guys, that's why we really know that this C1 course is going to be huge for you for your fluency goals. Um, so yeah, we want to bring it back to that. So remember to get the special price on the

course, because this offer ends June 1st at midnight. You want to tell us more about that again, Lindsay? Yes, exactly, guys. So you can save up to $100 off the normal price. But again, that deal ends at midnight on June 1st. After that, you'll have to pay full price. And don't forget, we've added these new AI conversation guides.

where you're gonna have a chance to learn the connection skill inside our course. Then you're gonna go out and practice it with the AI and get feedback, all right? It all works together. I love it. So good. And Michelle, one more piece about our live speaking events. What about that?

Okay. Well, again, you are going to be a part of the All Ears English community when you are involved in this course. And we do have open conversation club and fluency parties that you'll get invited to. So you will have live speaking opportunities. You'll have the AI opportunity, but you can also talk live.

- With the real people. - The real people. We never wanna forget the community piece because we're all about connection, human connection, and we can never have connection without community, right? So what we love about the C1 course is you get the combination of a targeted curriculum, AI practice, unlimited AI practice, so you have a chance to practice as much as you want in private, make the mistakes you wanna make, and then come to the community events, the open conversation club, the fluency party,

our online community and practice with real people. When we put these three things together, we have a path to achieve C1 and beyond and pass our final exam.

Okay. Well said, Lindsay. I think that's huge. I'm excited about this new AI feature. And yeah, guys, remember to go to allearsenglish.com slash C1. And the offer ends June 1st at midnight. Excellent. So go on over there. Thanks, Lindsay, for talking about this with me today. Yes. Good stuff. Good choice of the word retrospect. Super important for our listeners in the business world and as a connection skill. All right, Michelle, I'll talk to you very soon. All right. Bye, Lindsay. Bye. Bye.

Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional. Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads. Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more. Or

Tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English. Follow the All Ears English podcast now.