GOOD NEWS ABOUT BAD NEWS
“I’VE GOT SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME BAD NEWS.”
You’ve undoubtedly said that before. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, a doctor, or a writer trying to explain a missed deadline, you had to deliver information — some of it positive, some of it not — and opened with this two-headed approach.
But which piece of information should you introduce first? Should the good news precede the bad? Or should the happy follow the sad?
As someone who finds himself delivering mixed news more often than he should or wants to, I’ve always led with the positive. My instinct has been to spread a downy duvet of good feeling to cushion the coming hammerblow.
My instinct, alas, has been dead wrong.
To understand why, let’s switch perspectives — from me to you. Suppose you’re on the receiving end of
