I am surprised how often senior managers express surprise about what has been going on in their organisation. “No one told us.” “We were kept in the dark.” “We took it on trust”. “We were given reassurances that progress was being made, issues were being addressed, a plan was in place.” Whether or not you believe they really had no idea what was going on or how bad things had become one thing is clear they were not curious. They were content not to know. What’s more those they managed knew this.
You would expect senior managers to know enough about the business and culture of their organisation to ask questions that would cut through the smoke and mirrors but all too often they failed to ask the right questions.
Strange as it may seem many agreed they were aware of rumours, some spoke of a feeling something wasn’t quite right but nothing specific or concrete they could act on. So they did nothing.
What is true of CE’s and senior managers is even more true for board members they are even more likely to claim they were kept in the dark or feed a stream of positive, reasuring messages. What is striking is the lack of curiosity, no desire to learn more , examine explainations or explore assumptions. If they asked questions it wasn’t the right questions, the questions that get beneath the spin, identity the underlying assumptions and expose the unknowns and the over optimistic forecasts.
It would be surprising if board members had not heard the same rumours that every one else had. In view of there serious nature why were they so content to dismiss them as ,”just rumours” ? Could it be they just didn’t want to believe them because of the ramifications for the organisation if there was any truth in them.
CE’s and board members don’t like surprises. The best way to avoid the nasty kind is to encourage a culture of curiosity where people are encouraged to find out more, where the reasoning behind decisions are made transparent, where discussion and debate is encouraged so assumptions are open to questioning and where there are no dark corners or taboo subjects.
