Sometimes bad news comes out of nowhere. A nasty shock from an unexpected source or conventional wisdom turned on its head.

Often, though, you can see it coming down the track from a long way. This gives you time to think properly about how you communicate and prepare your audience. And is particularly important when the story you wanted to tell changes.

The new government’s first Budget is a case in point. Taxes and borrowing went up far more than promised during the campaign, with the blame directed at the Conservatives for leaving Labour said is a far worse economic inheritance than expected.

There are lessons for internal comms professionals in preventing an overly negative narrative to develop when preparing for bad news and in how to set it within a broader – and more positive – context.

Acknowledge and explain

Giving people time to accept and adjust to the fact that bad news is coming is better than dropping it on them without warning.

The Chancellor set out back in July that the “scale—and the seriousness—of what has been uncovered” meant that “the Budget will involve taking difficult decisions to meet our fiscal rules across spending, welfare and tax.”

Explaining to your audience, and in some cases working to convince them, why bad news is necessary to hear, is essential. This has to be followed with an explanation of not just the why, but the what, setting out clearly and as promptly as possible how bad news is likely to affect them.

Don’t let negativity fester

For months after the Chancellor’s warning the negative narrative drifted, without sufficient positivity to balance it.

The precise details of the what was delayed – inevitably – until the Autumn Budget. Yet this created a vacuum which, as it proved, did not help.

Speculation about which taxes might rise – which the government couldn’t confirm or deny – dragged on.

This damaged business confidence and investor behaviour, with £666 million withdrawn from UK-focussed funds in September alone and a fall in the AIM market which was (correctly) rumoured to be facing changes.

Make sure you point to the bigger picture

If the bad news is temporary – make that clear. The government recognised that the doom and gloom narrative was overshadowing any sense of why they were taking tough decisions and what the sunlit unlit uplands could ultimately look like.

In her Budget speech, the Chancellor attempted this gear shift, insisting that “my belief in Britain burns brighter than ever, and the prize on offer is immense” and that “change must be felt” through tangible positive changes to people’s living standards and improved public services.

The government also spent a lot more time before the Budget championing its International Investment Summit, which confirmed commitments of more than £60 billion of investment which ministers were keen to connect to new opportunities for jobs and growth.

All this sought to weave a broader, more positive narrative within which the government wanted its audience to see the bad news.

Sometimes bad news is just bad news

Ultimately, however, there is a limit to the sugar coating or silver linings that communications can use to soften bad news.

Fronting up to it honestly, supporting teams to digest it and motivating them to respond to it as constructively as possible, though, are essential to ensuring that communicators at least don’t make things worse.

Sometimes, that’s the best to be hoped for with bad news.