Good to Great #3: Confront the Brutal Facts

What it Means to Confront the Brutal Facts in Good to Great

In Good to Great, Jim Collins explains that successful organizations first start with an honest discussion of the environment in which they exist, what are the brutal facts surrounding your organization? The only way this conversation can occur on an organizational level is to create a culture, a climate, where people feel safe communicating; that they have a tremendous opportunity to be heard. Being heard is different from being able to say what you think, it means the other person listens. Confronting the brutal facts contributes to an effective decision-making process – it’s the only way to allow honest communication. If there is no open communication, problems or obstacles to an organization are rarely fully understood.

Creating a culture of open communication where there is an expectation for people to share their honest thoughts is difficult, especially if there has been a longstanding lack of effective communication. However, Collins lays out 4 steps used by great organizations to create a culture of effective communication.

1. Lead by asking questions.
   Translation: Demonstrate trust and respect by listening to the ideas of others. This encourages the effective communication. Instead of trying to push ideas on to other people, encourage meaningful discussion and debate by asking questions. Nothing positive can come from a leader who is unwilling to listen to the opinions or ideas of others. Not listing leads to ruin, spawned by a feeling of disrespect.
2. Engage in debate and dialogue – not coercion.
   Translation: Seek out debate to find the best answers to problems, don’t force your preconceived solutions on an organization. Some may be afraid of this principle because you can lose face or control if you are seen as being wrong. However, nothing demonstrates more control or authority than guiding your people in a productive conversation that results in a solution.
3. Conduct autopsies without blame.
   Translation: Review organizational failures without putting anyone on “blast” or embarrassing anyone with blame. Being able to openly discuss team failures or inefficiencies with a sense of united team purpose, without making anyone feel like a scapegoat, can be one of the most valuable developmental points for an organization.
4. Build mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored.
   Translation: Accountability and efficiency. Create processes that collect and pass significant information for action. Involving all members of the team in this process ensures collective awareness and participation. Helps everyone feel like part of the team because everyone can contribute to the solution.

The Consequence – The Emperor’s New Clothes

When a culture of open communication doesn’t prevail, it’s like a bad portrayal of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Some organizations have a longstanding culture where open communication is simply not tolerated or permitted. This leads to a false sense of confidence for those who have to make decisions along with other problems like disrespect and high turn over. Since leadership in organizations like this don’t hear anything negative, the perception is that everything is okay. We do a disservice to our organizations and to those we serve when we refuse or are afraid to participate in open and frank communication.

In the many jobs I’ve had, I have worked with great leaders who expected you to tell them when they were making mistakes or how they should improve. I have also worked with other leaders who refused to allow effective communication and as a result often walked around “naked” because no one was allowed to tell them otherwise. The issue, for me, comes down to a sense of pride and fear. As a leader, are you willing to admit you don’t know everything and need the support of others or do you believe you can do/know everything? These can very hard things to admit because very few people in a position of authority want to be portrayed as not having the answers or being out of control. However, as members of an organization, are you contributing to a culture of effective communication or to the Emperor walking around naked?

Love is the Answer

Call me a romantic lyricist, but I think the fundamental problem leadership have with effective communication is a lack of communicating love. The heart and soul of effective communication is love. If a person knows that you love them, you can tell them the hard truth. However, most people respond poorly to open and frank communication if there is no foundation of mutual friendship/love/respect.

When I was in 7th grade I was a naughty little punk, I admit it. I was especially rowdy during history class. The teacher was a relatively young woman who really struggled to control the class teeming with budding hormones. My parents went to the annual parent teacher conference and the history teacher shared her frustrations with my parents about my behavior in class. My dad did a number on this poor woman. He turned the tables on her and said, “does my son know that you like him?” After that meeting, that teacher made a huge effort to communicate her sincere interest in my success and often commented that she liked me.
Not only did this make me love my dad more because I knew that he’d always defend me, but it helped me to improve in class because the teacher helped me understand she cared about my success and wasn’t responding out of simple frustration with my behavior.

We are far more effective in our communication with others when we make it clear our intentions are based in a sincere interest in the other person’s success and happiness. We can engage in the most conflicting or difficult conversations if it is all based in mutual respect and love. Conversations that would often lead to conflict or tension (think politics or religion) could end in understanding instead of hate.

As a father, I’ve seen my children respond so much better to reprimands and difficult consequences when I follow it up by explaining my actions are based in a love for them and an interest in their happiness. Without love, criticism or bringing up “the brutal facts” is just about putting other people down to make yourself feel better. When you put the success of other people or the organization at the root of your communication, you can say the really hard things you need to and people will know it’s because you love them and nothing else.

I’ve had a chance to experience really effective love-based communication in the work place with people who have openly told me my weaknesses. Know why it worked? Because I loved them and I knew that they loved me. I was able to take the comments, some that stung, and write them down as something that I need to improve on. Those moments have been some of the most defining moments of my career as it taught me how to communicate not only with words, but with trust and love. Confronting the brutal facts stopped me from walking around “naked” and has given me the tools to improving some of my greatest weaknesses.