The Truth Is Out There

When you look at a company like Netflix, so brilliant for so long, making a series of moves that shatter their image, revenues, earnings and stock price, a fundamental question comes to mind:  Didn’t anybody know?

Didn’t anyone inside that organization have any doubts or qualms about raising prices 60%?  Or splitting the business into two parts, one for streaming video and the other for DVD delivery, causing customers to have to deal with two ordering systems and invoices?  And if someone did know, did question, did have doubts, why weren’t they heard or listened to?

Organizations are all plagued by what we call Fatal Illusions.  We can’t help it – it goes with being human.  It doesn’t mean we’re stupid, incompetent, or uncaring.  It’s just really hard to face reality, for a whole host of reasons – ego, misplaced optimism, path dependency, lack of trust, fear of speaking up, just to name a few.  So decisions get made that don’t make sense, because we didn’t take enough time and talk to enough people to ensure that what we’re about to do is actually aligned with internal and external business realities.  Because of this, we end up looking stupid or incompetent or uncaring.

When we’ve done post-audits (or at times, post-mortems), we’ve found without fail that there were voices, usually inside but sometimes outside of the organization, that knew this was a sub-optimal or even disastrous direction.  This isn’t second-guessing or “armchair quarterbacking” – they actually have the documents and data to prove what they knew before the disaster occurred.  They just didn’t get what they knew into the discussion – or to say it differently, the people who were leading the charge didn’t find a way to access all of this priceless information and wisdom.

So what do we need to do?  We can’t go along as an organization that doesn’t bother to align with reality on a consistent basis, and then all of a sudden become hard-core realists when we’re facing a big or game-changing decision.  We have to become a Reality-Based Organization in our cultural DNA – we have to understand and define and face and confront reality as a matter of course.  That means we have forums where all of the truth can be heard, at every step of the process.  We don’t over-value consensus, but rather put a high value on the lone voice that is willing to ask the questions that no one really wants to hear.

The truth is out there.  You’re paying people to learn it and know it.  With some attention to the design of the culture and the decision-making process, you don’t have to miss hearing any of it.  It won’t guarantee that you’ll always make brilliant decisions.  But it will guarantee that you won’t make dumb decisions that didn’t have to be dumb.

Please note:  Terms in italics are trademarked property of Luman International.  All rights reserved.