From an early age, Ori had a phobia about uncomfortable situations, especially when it came to delivering bad news.  Even as a kid, you could see it on his entire body: he’d squint his eyes, curl his toes, and try to circumvent the situation by any means necessary. He was always wary about how people would react—would they get upset?  Would there be a fall-out? It’s a lot easier to keep quiet and hope that, well, if you ignore it, it will go away.

Many managers share the same sentiment of feeling uncomfortable with delivering bad news, especially these days when company reports aren’t the most optimistic.  When the company is not doing as well as expected, it’s tough to find the right words to communicate what’s going on. Is employee morale going to suffer? Are investors going to be dismayed?

But research suggests that, especially when there’s bad news, keeping quiet exacerbates an already bad situation. It all comes down to a psychological force called procedural justice: when we evaluate the overall outcome of a situation, we place disproportional emphasis on the process as opposed to the actual result. 

Simply put, people value frequent communication. As uncomfortable as speaking out may make us, letting people know where things stand makes it a lot easier for them to swallow the bad news. This holds true for venture capitalists and jailhouse defendants alike.  Research show that both evaluate the results (be it the success of the venture or the fairness of their sentence) by whether they received frequent communication. 

So, curl your toes as much as you want, but start speaking…