Everyone's heard the old expression: Don't shoot the messenger. But when the project manager tells the team about a problem, tempers can flare. We asked project practitioners:
How do you avoid creating a negative atmosphere when delivering bad news?
“Provide your audience with some background information about what the issue is, what caused the issue, actions taken and the end result. Always offer options and then provide your recommendation.
During one project I worked on, the planning and elaboration indicated that the cost would be higher than allowed. At the meeting to present delivery options, the governance group of primarily business stakeholders was not pleased with the situation. In order to get past the negativity, I needed to win their trust.
I provided the stakeholders with some background on the state of the project. Then I presented a couple of delivery options and the expected outcome, benefit and cost. I elaborated further by explaining what caused the increase in budget and scope for each option. By elaborating and explaining the situation, I was able to get the group to relate to how the issue was triggered. And after I addressed their concerns, the group pleasantly selected and endorsed one of my recommendations.”
—Kashvinderjit Kaur Grewal, CAPM, PMP, project manager, Christchurch City Council, Canterbury, New Zealand
Be Ready
“Issues come up all the time, but if you work collaboratively to resolve them, you can put them behind you and move forward.
A few years ago, I inherited a fairly old project that had passed through a few project managers. When I got it, there were new stakeholders, and their needs had changed considerably. Plus, the sponsor team felt their needs were not being met by our product or our team. They were unhappy to the point that almost every meeting would result in an attack on the product or a list of issues that they had encountered.
They were quite obviously upset and disappointed. So my initial reaction was to listen, ask questions and put myself in their shoes. I researched their complaints thoroughly and got internal feedback on the best solutions. I treated the meeting as a collaborative effort, so they felt they were part of the solution.
This worked well and kept the meetings productive. I made sure my team kept its word and delivered what we promised. In the end, the sponsor was quite satisfied.”
—Sharnjit Gill, PMP, principal project consultant, Oracle, London, England
Make Them Laugh
“At 11:47 p.m. the night before a major online product launch, my team held an overnight testing and validation session to make sure all systems were ready to go. We realized our testing procedure wouldn't work due to miscommunication and misaligned expectations between stakeholder parties. The conversation became heated with 50 or more angry people on the phone line and in the war room. It was late at night, people hadn't had dinner yet, and the situation looked like it was becoming a risk in itself.
So I cracked a joke about us all being hangry (a combination of hungry and angry), and quickly redirected the conversation toward our core requirements. I followed up with proposals on how we might circumvent our limitations and provided feasible alternatives given the extremely tight time constraint.
The team immediately wrapped up their emotions and focused on developing a solution to solve the problem at hand. Even without the original detailed plan, we were able to beat the clock and deliver earlier than expected!
Throwing in an unsuspected neutral or positive remark in the middle of a detrimental discussion helped disrupt the negativity and allowed me to refocus the team on what can be done and needed to be done.
More broadly, when a challenge arises, I've found that reminding team members of what they have achieved and how close they are to success prevents extremely negative groupthink or just a massive finger-pointing session.”
—James Lee, content strategist, Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, California, USA
Make a Choice
For a project manager, delivering bad news is part of the job. So is having the right information handy so the team can make the right decision to move past a problem. It might seem obvious, but PMI's Pulse of the Profession®: Capturing the Value of Project Management Through Decision Making found that having the right information isn't as easy as it seems.
One on One
“You should be truthful, direct and to the point, but above all, be personal. As a result of the 2008 economic downturn, I had the painstaking task of delivering bad news to some of the people on my project in the first quarter of 2009: We had to let go of our contract members earlier than planned.
I did it first in a meeting with everyone and then, one by one, I talked to each person. I explained the reasons why it was happening—that this downturn is part of the business cycle and it was not because of any performance issues— and that I personally felt bad about the situation. Most were glad we talked and that I explained the reasoning in person. Some understood that it was part of business while others felt it was sudden.
We saw the real results when business got better: Many came back when we called them in again.”
—Winifredo Cipres Jr., PMP, project engineer, Fluor, Muntinlupa City, Philippines
Good Vibes
Discussion always helps. Share your techniques on the PMI Project, Program and Portfolio Management LinkedIn Group.