Page 46 - The Voice of Authority

sions, rewriting unclear documents, rehashing the same
old issues in unproductive meetings, and shuffling priori-
ties and missed deadlines due to misunderstood direc-
tions.

Fear of Giving Bad News and
Handling Negative Reactions

The world watched TV coverage of the behavior and com-
munication from the Iraqi Information Minister,
Muhammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, and President Saddam Hus-
sein during the initial liberation effort and drive into Bagh-
dad.
As American armored divisions launched assaults on
Saddam International Airport 20 kilometers from the cen-
ter of Baghdad and U.S.-led coalition troops advanced on
the blacked-out city, the Information Minister reported
that coalition forces “are not near Baghdad. . . . They are
not even [within] 100 miles.”
The same response to bad news happens in our work-
places daily: Denial, deception, embarrassment, and fear
lead to delay in telling bad news—even when the conse-
quences threaten to engulf people.
Here’s a bad-news situation that puzzled people for
years, according to the former vice president of engineer-
ing at a large oil company:
“We had an oil well that
didn’t fit any correlations. I don’t want any yes-men
Then as we drilled other around me. I want every-
wells nearby, this particular one to tell me the truth—
well still didn’t correlate. even though it costs him
The well had wandered off a his job.
half mile from surface loca- —Samuel Goldwyn
tion. The company had fal-

34 The Voice of Authority