Delivering bad news, especially in person or on emotional subjects, can be tough. Now that you know
Question:
Delivering bad news, especially in person or on emotional subjects, can be tough. Now that you know a few strategies to do so, consider how you could handle this difficult situation:
You\'re taking a Harvard course with a weekly lab component, and due to the nature of the course, you have to work in small groups of four students. The labs are worth 50% of your final mark, and it\'s important to get a good grade on them. You must work with the same group each time, and all of you get the same mark. To succeed, the whole group has to work together closely.
Unfortunately, by the third week of the course, it\'s become apparent to the rest of your group that one group member--let\'s call them "X"--has bad body odour. You don\'t know why, and X has never mentioned it. However, it\'s bad enough that the other three of you have trouble working with X. The bad smell is too distracting.
Because of the difficulty of working with X, the quality of your team\'s lab work is slipping. You and the other two members of your team have discussed it. You all agree that someone should talk to X, but both of them are too shy to do so themselves.
Consider your answers to the following questions, and post them:
1. In your opinion, what should you do?
2. What do you think Ask a Manager would advise you to do?
3. Imagine that you have to confront X about their body odour. Using the Bad News Formula, what could you say?
College Mathematics for Business Economics Life Sciences and Social Sciences
ISBN: 978-0321614001
12th edition
Authors: Raymond A. Barnett, Michael R. Ziegler, Karl E. Byleen