He tries to walk past. He’s too quick. His smile too bright. Something must be wrong…? So she stops him and calls him in. One by one, we grow to a size of 6. We all sit around a table fit for 20.
To get to the real problem, she digs deep. Her questions are designed to invite yes/no answers. Once she gets to a ‘no’, the how is asked. Then the clincher. Why is this happening, and why are we only finding about this now?
“So, it works for one set of data, but not the other? The logic is broken for the other set?”
Apparently a known issue to one party but not the rest of the team.
“…Wait… didn’t someone raise this two months ago, and you told us everything was fine…? You’re telling us now, less than 24 hours before going live that the system will only give us 50% of the solution?
After we told you…this is the biggest game changer for us?”
Her sharpness cuts through the silence. No one dares to speak. When she resumes, her voice is devoid of anger. She grows calm and asks how we can solve the problem.
She asks whether we can still turn things on. We have a promise to keep. She asks for practical and comprehensive plan of action based on real timelines, effort required and impact, before close of business Monday.
“…But that’s too short of a timeline…”
“Please present us with standard operating procedure. Further, this is a product defect you’ve known for months. We trust you to come back to us no later than Noon. Thank you.”
She adjourns the meeting.