The sincere apology from Ryan’s client.

Ryan was numb as they read and reread the message from their client Carey at ACME Corporation.

This numbness was new for Ryan, a confident and trusted advisor to ACME Corporation for three years. As an ACME vendor, Ryan isn’t an official employee, but ACME is their only client. All the salary and none of the benefits.

The relationship with ACME was solid. Until now.

They’ve never been treated this way before.

Carey wasn’t Ryan’s direct client, but they worked together closely on several projects, including writing this press release for an upcoming announcement.

As per protocol, Ryan sent the press release to other ACME regions in advance of the press release being distributed to the public.

But clearly, Carey and Ryan were not on the same page.

Later that afternoon, Ryan received a call from Carey’s manager, Baker.

“Hi Ryan,” Baker said. “I learned about the exchange with Carey. Carey was completely out of line. I am sorry for their behavior. No one, especially our partners, deserves to be treated that way. You will hear from Carey soon as well to apologize.”

A few minutes later, Carey called Ryan. The conversation went in several different directions, but ultimately Ryan learned a lot about what Carey has been going through personally.

“It’s no excuse, Ryan,” Carey said. “I’ve just been dealing with some things and got overwhelmed this afternoon. I didn’t realize you already received approval to send out the press release. I’m deeply sorry, and it won’t happen again.”

“Thank you, Carey. I accept your apology,” Ryan responded.

Ryan was going to leave it there, but said “Can we talk soon about how we can ensure we can learn from this and it doesn’t happen again?”

Later that week, they connected for 30 minutes and put together an action plan.

The first thing they agreed on was messages like these were unacceptable. But not just between partners and clients, but within ACME.

“Trust me, Ryan,” Carey said. “This happens too often here within ACME. It’s in our culture. It’s not appropriate for my colleagues to write like this, let alone our partners. I’m going to talk to Baker about having some civility training.”

Another thing they realized is that, while the process for finalizing materials such as a press release is sophisticated, there’s one area missing: determining who sends out the final materials. To date, that part of the process was ad hoc, so Carey and Ryan spearheaded a recommendation on how to finalize the process.

Finally, they both agreed to take a deep breath, get up, take a one-minute walk, and reread all difficult emails before sending.

Postscript: How great was it for Baker to call Ryan? I was Ryan once, and I did have a very senior client call me to apologize about their team’s decorum. It meant a lot to me, and more than 15 years later, I think fondly about my client “Baker.”

And now for your MollyMoh update! The weather is perfect here in the Pacific Northwest and we're taking full advantage of the soft grass!