The first conversation after bad news should not demand an immediate new plan.

Bad news arrives and the room fills with planning, because planning is what people reach for when they feel helpless. Someone who has just been told something hard is usually in no state to decide anything, and being asked what they will do now adds a task to an hour that already has enough in it.

If you are with someone in that first stretch, sit with them rather than sorting it out. Say that you will help with the thinking whenever they want it, and then wait to be asked.