5 Strategies for Delivering Bad News: Roseanne Roseannadanna, tell them the truth!
It’s better to say it now than to wait until disaster is upon us.
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There's a old Saturday Night Live skit where a Russian news reporter in Chernobyl, played by the late Gilda Radner, is saying, “Nothing is wrong here. Especially near the nuclear reactor.” It's a funny, now classic, line from 1986, but tragic story.
From history.com:
"On April 27, Soviet authorities began an evacuation of the 30,000 inhabitants of Pripyat. A cover-up was attempted, but on April 28 Swedish radiation monitoring stations, more than 800 miles to the northwest of Chernobyl, reported radiation levels 40 percent higher than normal. Later that day, the Soviet news agency acknowledged that a major nuclear accident had occurred at Chernobyl."
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Meanwhile, in a different part of the world, a project was taking place with the UK Ministry of Defense. It involved high-stakes testing for senior managers, and past problems with the process had led to mandated governmental oversight and monitoring to ensure consistency and fairness in the project.
No lives were on the line like at Chernobyl.
There were serious underlying problems. Personnel were constantly changing. Long days were common. Software tools were obsolete. Only heroic action on the part of team members kept the project from collapsing on the spot.
The project manager, however, did not share these problems with the customer. When asked, he repeated told everyone that things were fine, but he was holding the project together with sheer force and a good dose of luck.
Then it came time to renew the project.
In a competitive bid situation with a great deal of cost pressure, the project manager’s failure to raise the alarm early meant that the company couldn’t suddenly add in a huge amount of money to upgrade. Sound like a situation you've seen before?
Unfortunately, a Bare Knuckled Project Manager ("BKPM") was not at the helm. Had the project manager been forthright about the problems all along, the bid could have included an upgrade requirement, and those problems could have been dealt with. Both the project manager and her employer were left vulnerable.
The effective BKPM will never wait until the last minute to face the truth, no matter how unpleasant it may be. Often, the problem can be solved, albeit at a cost. In some cases it may be necessary to walk away from the project altogether, or at least to dramatically rethink the whole thing. In both cases, the problem usually gets worse the longer you wait.
The question of how you present bad news is vitally important.
Preparation is the best tool you have going for you. The need to deliver bad news may happen to any project manager. Prepare in advance by using the following 5 strategies discussed in BKPM to present bad news or problem issues in the most effective manner possible:
- Don't own the outcome; own the process; use the three-sided table to your advantage.
- Problem-solve the solution. Come up with multiple approaches. The old saw, “Don’t bring me problems, bring me answers” is good policy, even though it’s not always possible.
- Don’t commit to one solution alone, but rather develop a set of options to present to the customer or sponsor so you can make the decision jointly. This is true even if there’s only one good option. Add some less-good options into the mix because lots of people want to feel there’s a choice, no matter how constrained.
- Avoid being maneuvered into a solution prematurely. The “ready-fire-aim” syndrome has sunk many projects. An answer that makes the situation worse is always possible, so make sure to “murder board” your solutions.
- Cultivate your “walk away” power. If you’re seen as someone out to protect his or her own role at all costs, no one will see you as an honest broker. When you put the project ahead of your own career interest, the gain in extra trust actually increases the likelihood of your survival.
First published in Bare Knuckled Project Management; how to succeed at every project (Gruebl, Welch & Dobson, Gameplan Press, 2013), available for download - Smashwords or Amazon. Feel free to call Jeff Welch or me at Think at 410.235.3600 to learn more about how to use BKPM to succeed in every project.