All categories/Workplace communication
Workplace communication · Level Advanced · Communication Workplace Relations
Credit taken: how to handle it
My work was presented in a meeting as someone else's.
Prompt
You lead with what the other side needs, then what you need. Emotion stays with you; facts and options go across the table.
Task: My work was presented in a meeting as someone else's.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- facts and evidence
- intent or oversight
- who was present
- the outcome I want
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- add facts, do not accuse
- reclaim with 'let me add detail here'
- talk privately afterwards and leave them a way out
- if it repeats, build a written record
[Process]
1. Read their situation and pressure first
2. Turn feeling into facts and impact
3. Offer a cheap way to respond
4. State the ask and the date
5. Check whether you decided for them
[Output]
One conclusion, facts, the ask, the date. Nothing long.
[Do not]
- Never embarrass anyone in public
- No 'you always' or 'you never'
- Do not send while angry
- Never handle a personal conflict in a group channelWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- facts and evidence
- intent or oversight
- who was present
- the outcome I want
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- add facts, do not accuse
- reclaim with 'let me add detail here'
- talk privately afterwards and leave them a way out
- if it repeats, build a written record