Communication strategy

It’s Monday morning-you’re half awake walking into the office and then….It has happened! Your career and credibility are being questioned.

Through a misunderstanding that was not your fault the entire project is in jeopardy. The President of the Sales is not happy. He mentioned a potential scope change to the project to you (alone and last week) knowing it would cost a lot of money and time to do. That conversation was in his mind a confidential one. When you took his possible requirement back to the team to research the impact of the scope change, word leaked out to the CFO, who is one of his peers.

He was confronted in the weekly management committee meeting and was caught flat footed and embarrassed. In his mind, he trusted you and you betrayed that trust. He is now writing a memo about you and filing with the COO who is another peer of his on the management committee and leads your division within the company. The COO is a reasonable person who, like you, wants to get this project underway. Your credibility is in question by the President of the sales division. This is no small matter. We need to diffuse this bomb and get to the work of delivering this project.

Complete a 2 page minimum essay that should cover the following topics:

Discuss the immediate triage steps you and the team will need to take. Damage control and communications containment among them.
Determine a communication strategy. How do you approach, discuss and repair so you can ultimately get the project back on track.
What about the change request? What can you do now?
How can you avoid this from happening in the future?