Diplomatic No: Avoid Confrontations
When you need to say no but want to either retain the relationship or, at
the very least, avoid alienating your readers, consider the Diplomatic No.
By focusing on the process by which the decision to say no was derived,
you avoid saying anything personal. Form letters and press releases are
often written using the Diplomatic No organizational structure.
Form Letters
Sonya (see above) said that she talked to more than two dozen candidates
during the hiring process. She decided to send a form letter to
a dozen or so—those candidates she’d spoken to on the telephone but
hadn’t interviewed.
“I had nothing particularly against them but nothing nice to say
either. I wanted to be respectful in telling them they weren’t going to get