Ch. 8

I found most of the information in this chapter to be pretty familiar, but the vocabulary and specific reasoning for phrasing and word choice was very helpful. I had never really thought of one way of giving bad news to be direct and the other indirect, but this is definitely a choice I make every time I know I have to give some bad news.

I liked the suggestion of building a positive relationship with customers before any bad news has to be given. So many companies today seem to do very little to establish that kind of customer relationship, and I am always impressed by the ones that do.

I also liked the idea of keeping some sort of positivity either at the beginning or end (or both) of giving bad news to colleagues. I think as long as it is genuine and not patronizing, this really does create a healthy workplace environment where people feel appreciated.