You have been hired by a vice president of a national company to create an employee attitude survey, to administer it to all employees, and to interpret the results.

You have known this vice president for more than 10 years and have worked for her on several occasions.

She trusts and likes you, and you trust and like her. You have completed your work and now are ready to present the findings and your interpretations to the vice president’s management team. The vice president has told you that she wants your honest interpretation of the results, because she is planning to make changes based on the results. Based on this discussion, your report clearly identifies several strengths and weaknesses that need to be addressed. For example, employees feel that they are working too hard and that management does not care about providing good customer service. At the meeting you will be presenting the results and your interpretations to a group of 15 managers. You also have known most of these managers for at least five years.

You arrive for the presentation armed with slides,

handouts, and specific recommendations. Your slides are loaded on the computer, and most of the participants have arrived. They are drinking coffee and telling you how enthused they are about hearing your presentation.

You also are excited to share your insights.

Ten minutes before the presentation is set to begin,

however, the vice president takes you out of the meeting room and says she wants to talk with you about your presentation. The two of you go to another office,

and she closes the door. She then tells you that her boss’s boss decided to come to the presentation unannounced.

She thinks that he is coming to the presentation to look solely for negative information in your report. He does not like the vice president and wants to replace her with one of his friends. If you present your results as planned, it will provide this individual with the information he needs to create serious problems for the vice president. Knowing this, the vice president asks you to find some way to postpone your presentation.

You have 10 minutes to decide what to do.

Questions What would you do?

1. Deliver the presentation as planned.

2. Give the presentation but skip over the negative results.

3. Go back to the meeting room and announce that your spouse has had an accident at home and you must leave immediately. You tell the group that you just received this message and that you will contact the vice president to schedule a new meeting.

4. Invent other options. Discuss.