Say the Thing Choose to talk straight. There's a particular kind of meeting I've come to dread. Everyone in the room knows the project is in trouble. The slide says "on track with minor risks." The leader says something about staying agile and monitoring closely. People nod. The meeting ends nine minutes early, which everyone takes as a sign it went well. Six weeks later the thing collapses, and in the postmortem half the room says some version of I knew. That's not a communication problem....