It’s been called many things by many people: "The Elephant in the Room", "Blind Spots", to name but a few but essentially we are talking about people being free to voice their concerns within and about organizations of which they are members. Without worrying about its political correctness, or managing equation within the network of influence.
There’s even a cautionary tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes that are told to children but I think the point has been lost and it’s hurting businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Instead of people contributing their experience and commonsense in a collaborative way, there is now a culture of smiling sweetly, being "agreeable", not "rocking the boat" and "being a team player", "scratching each others back " that is disabling organizations across the industries and geographies; making them less competitive, flabby and complacent.
After all, if you’re in charge and everyone keeps telling you things are going great why would you spend time pondering your strategy or plans?
Great leaders develop a network of trusted advisors over time to compensate for their blind spots and fill in skill gaps – helping them to do the right thing right – and do it quickly.
To know and not to do is the same as not knowing. The modern equivalent of this is having a problem brought to your attention and then spending a year or longer doing studies, making strategy, raising a budget, playing to the gallery, restructuring team, reviewing planing but not acting on ground zero – or fiddling while Rome burns (there’s another tale).
Whether the crisis is a rising tide or a sudden shock event, we need to develop an organizational structure and systems that can quickly establish facts, consider options, decide what to do, then delegate and GET ON WITH IT.
But if you shoot people down for bringing issues to your attention? The first thing you know will be the last thing you know.
What organizations or society need today is people who not only believe but practice Candor, which many still consider as bluntness or nonprofessionalism.
There’s even a cautionary tale about the Emperor’s New Clothes that are told to children but I think the point has been lost and it’s hurting businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Instead of people contributing their experience and commonsense in a collaborative way, there is now a culture of smiling sweetly, being "agreeable", not "rocking the boat" and "being a team player", "scratching each others back " that is disabling organizations across the industries and geographies; making them less competitive, flabby and complacent.
After all, if you’re in charge and everyone keeps telling you things are going great why would you spend time pondering your strategy or plans?
Great leaders develop a network of trusted advisors over time to compensate for their blind spots and fill in skill gaps – helping them to do the right thing right – and do it quickly.
To know and not to do is the same as not knowing. The modern equivalent of this is having a problem brought to your attention and then spending a year or longer doing studies, making strategy, raising a budget, playing to the gallery, restructuring team, reviewing planing but not acting on ground zero – or fiddling while Rome burns (there’s another tale).
Whether the crisis is a rising tide or a sudden shock event, we need to develop an organizational structure and systems that can quickly establish facts, consider options, decide what to do, then delegate and GET ON WITH IT.
But if you shoot people down for bringing issues to your attention? The first thing you know will be the last thing you know.
What organizations or society need today is people who not only believe but practice Candor, which many still consider as bluntness or nonprofessionalism.
