Sarah gazed at her calendar in shock. As the new project coordinator, she faced a scheduling nightmare that seemed impossible to solve.
The company’s most important client planned to visit next Tuesday for a vital presentation. Five crucial department heads needed to attend, but this created a problem: they couldn’t all meet at the same time.
- Marketing Director was only available 9-11 AM (flying out at noon)
- Sales VP could only do 10 AM-12 PM (court hearing at 2 PM)
- Finance Chief was free 11 AM-1 PM (board call at 1:30 PM)
- Tech Lead had 12-2 PM available (customer demo at 2:30 PM)
- Operations Manager could meet 1-3 PM (picking up kids at 3:15 PM)
The customer demanded to meet all five department heads face-to-face – no exceptions. They had traveled to have this in-depth talk and wouldn’t accept partial meetings or video chats.
Sarah’s manager was direct: “Figure it out, Sarah. This $2 million deal hangs in the balance.”
Her coworkers showed sympathy but offered no answers. “No way,” said her cubicle mate. “You need at least two hours with all five people, but there’s no two-hour slot where everyone has time.”
The front desk worker suggested breaking up into several meetings, but the customer turned down that idea. The tech support person brought up video calls for some participants, but again – the customer wanted everyone there in person.
Sarah spent Monday night looking at the overlapping time slots sketching out diagrams and schedules. Each approach failed. There just wasn’t any time when all five calendars lined up for the needed two-hour talk.
Tuesday morning came. Sarah walked into work with a self-assured grin, having come up with an answer that worked for everyone – the customer got their full meeting with all five team leaders, and nobody missed their other obligations.
How did Sarah fix the scheduling problem that seemed impossible to solve?
View the answer
SOLUTION:
Sarah realized she was thinking about the problem wrong. Instead of finding one continuous two-hour block, she created a relay-style presentation where each department head presented their section during their available window, with seamless handoffs:
- 9-10 AM: Marketing Director presents alone
- 10-11 AM: Sales VP presents alone
- 11 AM-12 PM: Finance Chief presents alone
- 12-1 PM: Tech Lead presents alone
- 1-2 PM: Operations Manager presents alone
The client loved the “executive relay” format – they got uninterrupted access to all five leaders over five continuous hours, with each expert presenting at their peak availability. Each department head was present for at least two hours of overlap, ensuring comprehensive discussion.