[raganwald]

This isn't just a question of emotional insensitivity. Machiavelli's "The Prince" specifically warns against trying to mix bad news with good. Send the bad news out and put as much bad news as possible in one message. Then dole out the good news in dribbles.

So you start by saying almost everyone will be fired and the pension plan is bankrupt. Let that sink in. Then an email goes out saying that the executive team has discovered some funds and saved the pension plan. A day letter, good news, the TPS report Writing Team are keeping their jobs. And so forth.

There's only so much bad news people can take and then they just put it down as a bad news email whether there's goo dnews in there or not. Good news in that email is entirely wasted.

[jpadvo]

Interesting -- so not only does mixing good news with bad like this anger the recipients and cast doubt on the leader, it doesn't even accomplish anything.

And thanks for reminding me that I need to read that book.

[jgmmo]

Machiavelli's point was if you have to infringe on your peoples rights, and do something negative --- then do them all at once. This way, time erodes the negative memories - and since they are all focused in point in time, then the series of positives that follow will move to the forefront of people's memories of your time 'ruling'.

[jules]

Dan Ariely, from Predictably Irrational, has found that pain is best given in lots of small doses. People tend to remember the height of the pain, and not the time it lasted. Whether that result is transferable to emotional pain I don't know.

[jackowayed]

You have no excuse not to read it. It's on gutenberg, and it's only ~70 pages.

[jpadvo]

That's cool, I didn't realize it was so short - I'll load it on my ipod and read it in spate moments.

Don't know what's up with the downvotes. I appreciated this comment and upvoted accordingly.

[alexophile]

While I believe that's psychologically sound, Machiavelli's advice was specifically for a singular figure head to maintain order and control for as long as possible (i.e. indefinitely.) Normally, this is exactly the situation a CEO is in, but if he's announcing that he's leaving the company, his goals may differ from those of Lorenzo the Magnificent (as I imagine Machiavelli would have offered different advice to Romulus Augustus.)

[Skroob]

I'm not sure there really was any good news in that email. Just bad news with lipstick.