When someone brings you bad news: the first thirty seconds decide the next six months.
Whether people tell you about problems early depends almost entirely on what happened the last time they did. Your first reaction is the policy, whatever the policy says.
Thank them, ask what we know, ask what they need. The lesson comes later. How to react so people keep bringing you problems early.
Nobody plans to react badly to bad news. The sigh, the “how did that happen”, the glance at the clock: they are reflexes, and they cost you the next problem, which you will hear about late or not at all. Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological safety comes down to this in practice: people run a quick calculation before they speak up, and the biggest number in it is what you did last time.
The three sentences
Learn these until they are automatic.
- Thank them. Out loud, first, before anything else. “Thanks for telling me.” It sounds small; it is the whole thing.
- Ask what we know. Facts, not blame: what happened, what is the state of it now, who else knows.
- Ask what they need. “What do you need from me right now?” Sometimes the answer is nothing, and they needed to say it to someone.
What to leave for later
The lesson, the why, the “what would you do differently”: all of it belongs in a calmer conversation a day or two on, and it should be a question, not a verdict. If you fold the lesson into the first thirty seconds, the next person will hear it as the price of telling you, and they will not pay it.
When it is serious
The three sentences still come first. Then: who needs to know now, what is the first safe step, and who is doing what in the next hour. Write it down. A calm manager in a real crisis is the most reassuring thing a team can see, and calm is mostly a sequence you have practised.
Write it down
The date and the gist, in your notebook, so you can come back to the lesson without relying on memory, and so that if the same thing happens twice you can see it.
The clearest thirty minutes in your week.
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