Business · Unit 5 · Case study

Case study: 'Rebuilding trust after a difficult performance review'

Duration: 20 min

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← Lesson 5ALesson 5B →
Warm-up

Warm-up · Prime the case (5 min, solo)

Two micro-drills from 5A (unreal conditionals + feedback) and 5B (wish / if only + -ed / -ing adjectives). Do both before opening the scenario.

Drill 1 — Wish / If only, without blame

Rewrite each accusation as a WISH / IF ONLY sentence that owns the manager's share.

  1. 'You should have told me.'

  2. 'You keep making the same mistake.'

  3. 'You never speak up in meetings.'

Drill 2 — -ed vs -ing adjective (feeling vs cause)

Pick the right form. Then say what the WRONG form would accidentally accuse the person of.

  1. 'Your feedback last week was really ___ (frustrated / frustrating).'

  2. 'I know you were ___ (disappointed / disappointing) by my Q2 rating.'

Bridge to the case → Two moves the case will demand: (a) every regret is framed as a wish / if only that owns YOUR share first; (b) every adjective is -ed / -ing chosen with care — one wrong form re-breaks the trust. Open the scenario.
🎯 Final output

Final output — the all-hands script + the 12 conversations plan

Solo. (1) Record a 90-second voice note of your all-hands opening (the version you'd actually deliver, in your voice, with your CEO in the front row). (2) Draft a one-page plan for the 12 conversations: who takes which conversation, what the opening sentence is in each of the three groups (already-resigned / interviewing / staying), and what a 'good outcome' looks like for each. (3) End with the ONE-line policy change you'll pin above every future review.