the gentle art of breaking bad news (advice to political staff)

THE GENTLE ART OF BREAKING BAD NEWSCompiled by: Cincinnatus

It’s another gloomy, cold day in Ottawa and you’re reviewing messages on your Blackberry while the daily Question Period slugfest unfolds.

Now, let us assume you’ve received a message that identifies a looming bad news story. The story concerns your department (or your Minister) and is about to break.

Maybe it’s about your office’s expenses. Maybe something has happened at the department.

How do you break the bad news to your minister and your fellow staffers?

Some tips: 1. Remember that to break bad news, you’ve got to consider the personality of the person with whom you are sharing the news. Maybe they would prefer to learn everything immediately. In that case, you may want to send a PIN on your Blackberry.

Or maybe their preference is to learn face-to-face, behind closed doors.

2. If you have some lead time re: when this particular bad news story will break in public, you may wish to write a briefing note and send it along with your minister’s night-time reading package.

3. If you have to cover your back against underhanded attacks by people in your office who will rush to be first to tell the Minister of some crisis (in order to make you look bad), then you may not have a choice – a PIN may be best, or perhaps a phone call.

In this kind of situation, there may be no “perfect moment.”

Regardless of the circumstances, as you begin to explain the situation to your minister, briefly share what you know to be the case, and summarize what the possibilities of further bad news might be -- but don’t speculate beyond your knowledge.

4. In any case, you don’t need to only break the bad news – you also need to make sure you have solutions/proposed options so the person moves to "solutions mode" right away. Be proactive and useful.

As part of being proactive and useful, remember to scan for more news at regular intervals and provide updates as needed.

Also, don’t forget to loop in whatever policy experts, legal gurus, etc. you may need to consult as you and your Minister begin thinking about how to respond. Don’t plan in a vacuum, if you can help it.

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5. What about when the bad news story involves you personally and a bad decision you made? It’s easy to fantasize about a caper where you edit your minister’s morning clippings so that he doesn’t see any news about your bad decision… But instead of plotting some Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-style escapade, do the right thing - ‘fess up and explain what happened, who said what and why, etc.

Even when you’ve messed up, you owe it to your minister to provide the same situational awareness you would provide if the mistake had been made by someone else.

And since your credibility is on the line – yes, be sure to have some solutions in hand. (Beyond, hopefully, just passing the buck.)

6. Whatever the bad news is and whoever appears to be responsible, when explaining the situation to your Minister, being very well prepared is key.

Try rehearsing a bit in your office by anticipating questions and thinking about possible answers. When you’re rehearsing, practicing with at least one person in your office who you can bounce things off can help a lot.

That person’s second viewpoint, extra knowledge and advice will all improve your briefing. Remember – you aren’t being paid for your brilliant opinions. You’re being paid to help Ministers think about angles and details they may have missed.

Cincinnatus thanks all those who shared tips for this list. For additional advice on this topic, any book on corporate crisis management should provide useful further insight that is relevant to political staffers.

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