The Invisible Hand in Every Boardroom
Grammar: Modal Verbs
A Business English English lesson exploring business.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on business, practising modal verbs. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Invisible Hand in Every Boardroom
In 2010, researchers at Columbia Business School gave 101 experienced judges a set of parole cases to review. The judges granted parole to roughly 65% of applicants immediately after a food break — and to fewer than 20% just before one. Nothing in the case files had changed. Only the judges' hunger levels had. If professional decisions made in courtrooms can be skewed this dramatically by biology, it is worth asking what else might be quietly bending our judgement at work — and whether we can ever fully see it.
Vocabulary
- anchoring effect
- confirmation bias
- default option
- sunk-cost fallacy
Grammar: Modal Verbs
- Certainty — must
- This must be the reason sales dropped in Q3. — near-certain deduction from evidence
- Probability — should
- The new process should reduce errors by around 15%. — confident expectation, not guaranteed
Discussion questions
- Tell me about a decision at work you later realised was driven by gut feeling rather than evidence.
- When did you last change your mind about something professional because of new information?
- Have you ever continued a project simply because too much had already been spent on it?
The Invisible Hand in Every Boardroom
Grammar: Modal Verbs
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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