Don’t Point Fingers in Meetings

Fight the temptation to say, we couldn't move forward because your team did not send us the data on time. Sounds accurate. Also sounds like you're pointing fingers. Instead, say something like this. It looks like we hit a delay due to the missing data from multiple stakeholders. Even better, you can say, we identified a dependency on data that slowed progress. To avoid this going forward, I recommend we centralize inputs through one owner and set a 48-hour turnaround. That will keep us on track for the next milestone. This way you shifted the conversation to root cause and resolution. And talking about root causes, ask why 5 times. Go past the surface issue, identify what actually broke and fix the underlying process and then move on.