all right we are continuing working with our professional messages we're going to be looking at chapter nine this week as we look at some of the negative messages we've been working with chapter eight with routine type messages where you have a pleased interested audience we're working on the direct outline and of course at the direct outline you come right out and state the purpose then you provide your reasons details and then create some type of goodwill ending or reset the purpose or both future oriented going to the next topic but just building that good wheel in chapter 9 we're talking about negative messages and the key here is with negative messages you still want to maintain goodwill and you want to make sure that you present your message in a way that the audience will accept the purpose they may not agree with the purpose and they may not be happy about the purpose but they will you will have provided a professional message that will allow them to accept the purpose always um think about this type of message as go back to when you were you know maybe in high school or you know wanting to go out and you ask your parents hey can i go out and they say no think about what question comes right out of your mouth why why not blah blah you're always you're counteracting trying to get them to say what you want them to say so again from a professional standpoint we don't want that continued around and around communication we want to present our purpose give the details to support the purpose and again with negative messages presenting the message and purpose in a way that the audience will accept the bad news again they may not like it but they accept it and you maintain a good relationship with them so that is our overall purpose again um you know the three-step process we're working with that so let's just take a minute and look at a couple of uh negative messages thanks to to consider all right one of the biggest things to consider is your credibility again going back you know how much credibility do you have the more credibility you have the less reasons uh backup that you need to present the negative the less credibility you need to show why you're being you're being negative it's essential to always do communication etiquette with negative messages this is really with negative you want to look at audience characteristics because you want to make sure that you target that audience again you're trying to get them to accept so making sure that their reasons are targeted specifically to their needs their their specifications is the best way to do that and you know you always want to think about alternative approaches sometimes with negative messages people will use digital email or something of that nature to avoid a confrontation you want to make sure you're not sending the message in a way that is not the most appropriate so these are all things to think about as as we're going through here with chapter nine normally we are going to use the inductive or indirect approach for uh negative messages is where we're gonna the reasons will come after or excuse me the purpose will come after the reasons the only exceptions to those are are here um if it's a repeated request and you know you just need to get it out out this time no no leading into it um you know you want to shake the receiver for whatever reason you can look at look at these some of these uh you want want to consider uh cinder wants to demonstrate authority again that's your credibility cultural consideration some cultures don't want the inductive approach no matter what it is they want that direct approach so knowing that audience again that's what you want to think about okay just kind of what we were talking about why the inductive approach is better and helps to build goodwill because you are giving reasons before the bad news you've kind of explained your situation and then you're going to present the bad news if you give the bad news first sometimes the reasons may be ignored because the audience now is just focusing on the negative so they're not listening to anything thing else in that way and then of course um they're disappointed and they it just allows them the audience just doesn't care or willing to understand the reasons and so forth so that's why you want to utilize the inductive approach some types of bad news messages from a professional standpoint you'll be surprised how frequently you're going to have to say no all right um denial the claim we're going to do one of these if you'll recall in chapter 8 a routine claim is when the the company is at fault the customer says hey this is the problem you need to fix it and they do and they send an adjustment and say yes we're going to fix it well a denial of a claim is when perhaps the customer is at fault and the company's not going to fix it so that's what what that is and of course constructive criticism again you'll be surprised how frequently you would be giving constructive criticism um employee evaluations and so forth that that would include that and just like what we talked about in chapter eight with approving credit being routine positive messages obviously denying credit would be a type of bad news message and again we're not going to specifically look at those because there is some specific language and so forth for legal reasons because of credit that have to be in there but it is considered a negative message skip over those couple of slides i've already looked at that um but here is the outline for a bad news message so it is a little more uh detailed than the direct outline so with an indirect you often want to open with what is referred to as a buffer a neutral idea an agreement some statement that lends itself to the negative but doesn't give it away immediately and it allows for the message to go from the opening to the body and with the body you do start with any reasons analysis uh anything you want to share before actually stating the negative all right and notice it says state negative positive tones de-emphasize techniques we'll talk about those and then sometimes you might include a counter proposal or silver lining um so maybe you're going to refuse something i'm going to use an example here in a minute to show you that a company has decided to move their headquarters out of new york so it's negative to the city of new york because you're losing that that um revenue and so forth but while the headquarters is moving out there's several stores gonna still remain in the city so that's a counter proposal or silver lining stating while the headquarters is gone the company will still have a presence here and then with the um the closing unlike the direct outline you do not want to restate the purpose so you don't want to restate the negative in the closing you want to focus on that good will or even that continuing relationship that future oriented going to the next phase of the relationship so that's what you want to focus on in the um indirect okay um again advantages of the inductive indirect outline for negative messages the subject of the message is is identified but in a way that it doesn't immediately turn off the audience again you're giving the reasons before so it increases understanding and acceptance um the refusal doesn't come as a shock and you also want to close on a pleasant or neutral note all right i want to show you an example of a bad example of a negative message and this is what i was just talking about so if you read this um i'm just i know you can read but i'm just going to quickly skim it for you uh it's written to the mayor of new york dear mr flynn although we do see your viewpoint of the good of the city our board will not change its decision to relocate so right there's the negative all right i started right out the negative then you're going to say several major reasons and basically when you read these reasons and i don't know how many of you have visited new york or even a large city this is pretty much all large cities high taxes crime rates expenses and so forth that's just living in a big city but look at what they say uh are some of the disadvantages we still bear as a result of our location in new york so they're really blaming new york for a lot of their problems high personnel turnover and low corporate recruitment are also results of these problems so new york is the problem with their company and that's what they're saying all right not building goodwill here uh although new york has served well as our our headquarters we feel that our best years can now be spent in the suburbs where we can enjoy the many benefits of new york and still be competitive so yeah we can still come in and have fun but our company can't be there so not a lot of goodwill bashing the city blaming the city for everything um not finding anything good in it okay not maintaining a good relationship all right so let's look at look at this example all right um here's a good example in using effective techniques and so forth again um sometimes we don't think about it but if you notice here i put an thing using the correct personal title the honorable rather than mister knowing how to address a message and making sure you're addressing it correctly to the person goes a long way in building good way good will okay um just for instance i'm just going to use myself as an example i am i do have a doctorate so i'm dr robinette i quite frequently get emails and messages addressed to me to miss robinette or mrs robinette person i don't take offense to that i don't correct anyone because that is also a title but professionally dr robinette is the more uh correct title than the other two the other two are more up from a personal nature so just something to think about even in your higher ed settings so using that correct personal title all right so instead of coming right out with the negative this particular example starts out with a buffer in recent years companies like regal discount have searched for ways every way to way possible to cut costs to remain competitive custom companies are also adjusting to the needs of today's workforce to recruit the best talent that's something companies do all the time they've gotta be competitive and get and get good people so this would be an example of a buffer just stating a fact i mean there's no difference all right and this is what what their purpose is so now here comes the reasons in the recent past several our competitive competitors have relocated to the suburbs consequently they have gained several advantages specifically they have profited from the lower tax rates and are not paying extra compensation to employees commuting from the suburbs yes some companies as a perk if you have a long commute into a big city they may actually pay your travel expense in addition they have successfully recruited many manager managerial applicants moving the thing here managerial applicants who prefer living in the suburbs so theirs tied right back into their reasons we want to be competitive they're saving money and they're able to get more talent therefore are living in this living in the suburbs to ensure that we remain competitive our board is committed to the relocation of the headquarters there's the purpose there it stated versus our board will not change its decision to relocate all right so again it's being forceful it's stating it but in a way that an audience would better accept and understand okay here's the ending this ending is a good will future oriented ending and also serves as the alternative i was mentioning that to you just in our example above so mayor flynn new york has provided an excellent site for our corporate headquarters over the years and we do not expect that relationship to change our 22 retail stores will remain to provide quality products at an affordable price as well as 500 jobs for new yorkers so again headquarters moving out but look we're leaving this and and we're still uh contributing so in this example goodwill totally lacking reasons were blaming the audience not some of the reasons for that the company wanted to use whereas here you've got a the indirect uh focusing on opening up segwaying into the reasons they relate the negative and then that future oriented ending so this is what what you're looking for when you do develop those negative messages so think about um that buffer all right and again it's going to vary obviously on the purpose so in this particular one you know why is that company moving all right why are they moving they need to stay competitive and they need talent so they could restate that buffer as a fact that is the fact every business knows about all right so you want to think think about that that buffer um what we're saying here avoid empty acknowledgements of the obvious well i hope you will understand our reasons you know our our policy states you know and again i want to there's a slide later on but i'll just go ahead and say it right now using policy as the main reason is not the best uh argument for a negative because just like anything else a policy can be changed and altered so it's not always set in stone so you want to want to think about that again uh you don't want to avoid or you don't want to reveal bad news too early and you don't want to make the buffer so positive that it it it doesn't segue into the reasons you want it to just be neutral i've got a couple of examples of buffers in in this next slide and there are also some examples in your textbook on 258 different techniques to use and so forth so make sure that you are looking at those okay so here are some buffers and leading into a message where you've been asked to volunteer to be the treasurer for a i don't know how many of you are familiar with united way it's a it's a um a community organization usually the people in it are um volunteers okay so it's a volunteer position so you're going to be denying this you're going to turn them down all right so again thinking back to our effective techniques you know you want to be audience centered with a buffer you want to give you don't want to give away the negative but you don't want it too positive so when i'm looking at this obviously version two is going to immediately be out because you start right out with the negative all right and then version one i'm going to throw out because it where you're pleased and honored to have been asked it gives the tone an impression that you're going to accept whereas if you look at version 3 all of us who feel proud of our community agree the united way has significant value again a statement of fact an agreement it has given shelter healthcare money and hope too many critical needs so you just kind of stated it and then you're gonna go into your reasons and and so forth so so look at these examples again i have another example on this slide you can read um explaining what it's doing there okay think about your reasons so the buffer provides helps you to provide a smooth transition into the reasons again go back to the the new york we want to be competitive and um good talent so your reasons had to do with how you were losing your competitive edge and couldn't get enough people to come in from the suburbs to work so you want that uh buffer to go to lead into into your reasons that way again um you want things to be logical think about how it's benefiting the reason uh the the company sorry how's benefiting the reader and giving them consideration the audience and as i said you always want to avoid using company policy as the single reason it might be part of the reasons but you just don't want to say oh policy states because again policies can be changed and then as far as the bad news statement again you want to position it strategically to come right after the reasons sometimes depending on the the purpose depending on you want to say it a passive voice may be maybe better than active i want to go back up here to our new york option um to ensure that we remain competitive it is it's an active our board is committed all right so our board is this is an active statement but again it's d emphasized and it follows the reasons so that we can be competitive all right and we're committed we're we yeah we've listened but we're still we've listened to some of your reasons but we're still con uh um commit it that way so it's still building that that good will right um and again you know really was an implied refusal we are committed to the relocation sometimes depending on the purpose it may be an implied but again only if the reader will understand it um here's some good examples of de-emphasizing the negative all right um there's that passive subjunctive mode you know where you're not like placing blame you know that we've talked about this positive language that accents the good okay uh here's a couple more examples of different things to use complex sense complex sentences general terms so forth right and then of course if it lends itself you may have a counter proposal or silver lining again the new york example that i that that we were just looking at the um silver lining was also the ending you know even though the headquarters are leaving we have 22 retail stores and 500 employees so not every um negative or bad news message will have a counter proposal or silver lining it just depends on the purpose in the audience [Music] and then um this is just another example of refusal statements and i apologize it's out of order it should have been a couple of slides up so i'm just going to leave it right there for now and i'll fix i'll fix those for you um so again closing all right you do not want to return to the negative all right you want to be optimistic be sincere you know there may be some type of action that needs to be suggested based on the purpose it could be an action that's leading to the next uh type of message next type of purpose that future oriented or you just want to maintain and build good will may just be a good will ending that way but definitely do not return to the negative you don't want to restate the negative again okay um again uh unifying positive forward okay let me reiterate from chapter eight call me if you have any questions all right do not end any message routine good news positive worst bad news ever with call me if you have any questions let me know if you have any questions open-ended do not end the message that way if you have specific questions regarding the 22 retail stores still in new york please uh contact our you know franchise department give if you're wanting to offer the questions it needs to have a specific um purpose not open-ended otherwise you're just going to continue the correspondence think of the poor soap story he got wanted the dial soap and ended up with how many at the end so you don't want that communication to get caught up in that cycle and not stop because you keep that open-ended option for the audience to continue the the communication so that's something you want to work on each professional message whether it's routine or negative at the it should end all right that your purpose should fulfill in the message there should be of ending you may continue correspondence on to the next purpose that would be what you would want to springboard off of or that goodwill and end it right there and there wouldn't be further communication so keep that keep that in mind all right um here's just some some good examples of again just some closing positively some things to think about you can look at that trite statements these are things you want to avoid you know thank you for your interest thank you in advance for your your help even though they haven't helped or something of that nature you know we hope you understand things like that that are shallow you need to avoid those trite statements fill in you know um you know our reasons for relocating are to help us remain competitive and find good talent or something you know i'm going back to that same example but you want you just don't want to just oh thanks thanks for your thanks for your attention or something of that nature so so make sure you you avoid all of these types of of statements with with that you know again we trust this is satisfactory well if it's not from the reader's standpoint you don't want to keep going again they may not like it but your purpose in the communication is to present it a message where they can accept the negative even though they don't like it but they accept the reason and they will will accept the purpose and go on so you don't want to put things like this oh we hope you accept this when then that just opens it up okay and again each purpose is so specific to itself you know you can't have a just a an overall ending okay and these are just just some things to to think about in in doing that these next several slides and i'm not going to go over every one of them because you can do that are a good example of a refusal um an employee request give what's good and what's not good um here's just talking about denying a claim okay why it's there um negative employment messages ubc you know if you have to give a negative recommendation or you have to give a negative performance free view or something so they they have quite a some examples there right that constructive criticism that we talked about and there's two good examples here of how to how to do that okay the other type of negative um negative organizational news you you have to something bad is happening um you can't think of an exact right now at concord but um you know over the years the we've had a little decline in enrollment a lot of colleges across the united states have had a decline in enrollment and that you know we've had to have some some negative information presented to us but you want to do it in a way that is is more normal than versus crisis that's going through there so here's a couple examples of negative organizational news as well so i'll go back up here and again um for that negative message that bad news message the underlying purpose is to create a message using the techniques and having your audience accept it again we don't like negative news we don't like to get negative news but accepting it and acting on it the way you as the um sender want them to act that's the the purpose in doing that okay so we will be writing several messages this week focusing this week on the indirect or inductive outline and um just similar to when we worked on our routine messages i'll have one do earlier i'll get feedback to you to help to assist you with writing the other messages all right so we'll be working on both direct and indirect over the next uh week and a half and finishing up our written unit and that's all for chapter nine