#deemphasizing

De-emphasizing bad news can have a positive effect on your audience. It puts them at ease so that stress levels are kept at bay. It makes it possible to process the negative information without casting too much blame. Finding scapegoats is tempting but playing hot potato with that blame doesn’t improve the situation or fix the problem. If it’s someone’s fault, they should be made aware but then allowed to move on and start brainstorming.

Because I love fairy tales, I of course watched the movie, Into the Woods. Yes, I would much rather have experienced the Broadway version, but sometimes settling is placating. At one point, the main characters are together in, well, the woods and trying to find out who is to blame for the unfortunate circumstances that took place earlier in the movie. It’s entertaining to watch and listen to. If everyone sang about whose fault something really is, it might become the equivalent to de-emphasizing bad news. But, someone has to be the witch and seize back some semblance of control.

“Minimize the space or time devoted to the bad news—without trivializing it or withholding important information” (Bovée 198). Minimizing bad news can be taken too far. If it’s glossed over so much that it starts to sound inconsequential, no one will feel motivated to correct anything. I remember seeing performance charts on the employee board at Panera and specific stats that were down were highlighted, usually in red like the blood of angry men. Sometimes there was a neon sticky note that had encouraging words like “really??”, “is this truly the best we can do?”, or my favorite, “it’s like you guys aren’t even trying”. That last one may or may not have been in my head. The result of posting how we as a restaurant were doing daily or weekly while making sure everyone fully comprehended that there were areas to improve ensured that employees had goals to achieve and how close, or far, they were from doing so. Bad news doesn’t always have to be presented negatively. If we face it as fact, then we accept it and take steps toward resolving problems.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ELFOyzvgPg  (This is a great team-work inspiring piece on handling bad news)

Works Cited

Bovée, Courtland L., and John V. Thill. Business Communication Essentials. 6th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.