The Goopy vs. The Brutal Facts

Friends,

When people sign up for RFL, I ask them to tell me a little about what their leadership challenges are. And when someone unsubscribes from Reading for Leading, I also invite them to tell me why. Last week I got a pithy reply. The reader said I was, “too goopy, rah-rah, righteous.” I loved his candor and laughed at the poetic sound of his language. And does he have a point? In some respects: YES!

Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great, is often quoted for his “goopy” stuff, like his homage to the “level 5 leader,” who combines great resolve with personal humility. But one of the aspects of Collins’ book that gets quoted the least is Chapter 4’s admonition “Confront the Brutal Facts.” Collins argues that organizations that treat themselves to wishful thinking are in trouble. Instead, he says that facing hard facts is especially important in this age, where customer demands and outside competition change faster than ever before. (The same need to face “brutal facts” is vital in other domains; for instance, when responding to symptoms of cancer in an individual, or indications of the spread of disease among people or animals.) Great visions, positive attitudes, and goopy, rah-rah righteousness, won’t will away such real challenges.

So, when we lead in these fast-changing worlds, we have to face the brutal facts. Collins offers dependable practices to get to those facts. First, lead with questions, instead of answers. Why? What do questions do? Why ask questions, if you know the answers? Were this a classroom, I would stop and listen to your replies to these! Questions open up to data. Questions lead to the realities that people closer to the customer, the shop floor, the competition, or the symptoms will see. Questions generate a culture where it’s okay to ask, to be ignorant, and where you model a desire to learn. It’s not so easy. Sometimes, as a parent we feel like we’re supposed to know it all, or as a supervisor we think they need us to be always in control and in the know. So, we tell, more than we ask. And that tells people that we may not really want to hear “the” truth - just our truth. And we miss out.

Collins parallels this point about question-asking by arguing for post mortems. When a project is over - especially if it didn’t turn out as you had hoped - ask, “Why?” Not to assign blame, but to move to constructive solutions. Such inquiries lead to a deeper understanding of some of those brutal facts and heighten the chances you’ll get it (more) right the next time. You might consider doing such a post mortem. You’ll have to fight the urge to get to the next project. We know the result of that haste, right? We tend to repeat our mistakes, continuing to rely on assumptions which have been undermined by changing realities.

So, as the week begins, you might ask yourself, “Do I create a culture that is fearless about the facts?” Or, if that’s too goopy, you might ask, “How can I create an organization that looks at the brutal facts all the time? What can I do to invite greater awareness of the changes and challenges that affect our work?” If you can get folks to look at what Collins calls the brutal facts, you’ll improve your organization’s ability to learn, to evolve, and to thrive.

Lead, or as a reader suggested to me last week: Learn, with your best self,
Dan