The Message That Has to Land

You are the communication — choose your register or lose the room.

Your scenario

You are a senior manager. A project has been delayed by three weeks. You must inform two audiences: your direct team (informal, stressed) and a client (formal, disappointed). Write one sentence describing what happened — in the passive voice, agent removed.

What each audience wants

In each zone, write the ONE thing your team wants to hear and the ONE thing the client wants to hear. They are not the same.

Your team

The client

The core message

Across both communications, what is the single fact that cannot be softened or omitted? Write it here in one plain sentence.

What to avoid

List two phrases you must not use in the client email and two you must not use with your team. Look back at step 2 — do your 'avoid' lists reflect what each audience actually needs?

Avoid with client

Avoid with team

Draft both messages

Write your message to the team (3 sentences, informal register, active and get-passive allowed) and your message to the client (4 sentences, formal register, passive voice where responsibility is shared). Use your notebook.

Read as the audience

Re-read each message as if you received it. Mark one phrase in each that could land badly. Would your team feel blamed? Would the client feel managed rather than respected?

Team concern

Client concern

The one change

Identify the single edit — one word, one structural shift, one passive replacing an active — that would make both messages land better. Name it, then explain in one line why that change carries the most weight.

Why that word?

Discuss Share your 'one change' with a partner — do they agree it's the highest-leverage edit?

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