How does your bad news timeline look like?
We are going to miss the production schedule.
We uncovered couple of critical issues.
We are not going to get the deal.
We have serious performance issues in new flows.
The customisation could not be done.
The service we consume has issues.
When something goes wrong how much time does it take to reach internally and to client.
Bad news timeline is a good indicator of culture within a team / company.
The delay at each layer internally and then to client all adds up. When the news reaches the client it is a knockout punch. Probably the client has to take it forward in their hierarchy.
Inordinate delay can happen both in small startups and large corporations. The tendency is to delay the news fearing the consequence. But it is counter productive.
More delay mean more serious consequence.
Creating the right culture starts at the top. Instead of rebuking when things don’t go as per plan, looking at it objectively and coming up with a revised plan sends a strong signal.
The teams then are not afraid to convey the bad news. They know the drill and start looking at it productively.
Also clients prefer partners who are upfront