[CLUE-Talk] interesting home business article - from slashdot

[Kevin Cullis]

OK, let's dissect this a bit.  People don't like total candor becasue
that's what they've been taught and "forced" to "perform" by higher
ups.  It's the old "command and control" from the military and
American's culture has had it "drilled" into us since WWII (most of the
WWII vets went into corporate cultures, now see it? ;-) ). We have
created a culture of fear: fear of being considered or called stupid
(and I've seen it on various lists by various emotional or mental 8 year
olds), fear of doing something wrong or making mistakes (you either
watch someone else make a mistake or you make your own, but cheaper to
learn from others), or many other reasons.  Fear stiffles creativity and
learning!!  There is a mark difference between jokingly ribbing someone
about a mistakes, it's another to harrass someone about it.

The really interesting thing is that most PHBs create the culture that
says "I only want to hear good news so that I don't have to make tough
choices about someone."  But the CXOs are making "good decisions" on bad
info.  Tells you the state of our businesses, doesn't it?  It's easy to
get into the blame game in dealing with people. But then you're dealing
with human beings and we all lie, it's just whether it a big one like
Enron or WorldCom did or a little one saying Linux can do everything
went it can't.

Regarding being too honest, Jeff, how about some of the "too honest"
techies get together and build a company!!  Wouldn't it be great for a
customer to call a company and get honest feedback.  What kind of
company would honest techies create?  A good one compared with what MS
is doing.  It can be done, for sure. The issue is not to let al of this
experience go to waste!

On Sat, 2003-07-26 at 08:23, Jeffery Cann wrote:
> On Saturday 26 July 2003 00:25, Matt Gushee wrote:
> >
> > Another thing is that modern corporate culture doesn't favor scrupulous
> > honesty. Although blatant dishonesty is usually not tolerated (unless
> > you're a top exec), spin and hype are more often than not considered to
> > be marks of professionalism. 
> 
> Very astute observation Matt.  I couldn't agree more.  At my company, managers 
> seem to favor spin - that uncomfortable grey area.  No one seems to want to 
> hide the truth or lie, but certainly everything is said 'in the best light'.  
> I can't tell you the amount of word-smithing I have done in reports for 
> higher level execs.  Something is wrong, but we minimize it to the point of 
> absurdity.
> 
> I'm probably too honest for a corporate culture.  I definitely think that some 
> of my managers don't like total candor.  They'll like it when you're 
> face-to-face with them, behind a closed door.  But outside, there's a 
> political game always playing.  Honest short-circuits the game.   Where's the 
> fun then?