Hard Truths, Costly Lies

This book is primarily about meaning and accountability in the workplace.  When an organization’s workers find meaning in their work and accept accountability for their own performance, the organization thrives on the strong competitive advantage these dynamics create.  Building that meaning and accountability requires genuine effort from both workers and managers.  If doing so were easy, every business would thrive. 

Those are some of the hard truths to which the title refers.  Sadly, even tragically, many businesses and business people fail to face the hard truths about the health and performance of their enterprise.  People seek to protect themselves from the consequences of facing hard truth in both their business and their personal lives.  This all too human tendency to lie to ourselves is a form of self-protection. 

Some business people lie for various motives, including self-promotion and greed.  We have all repeatedly seen the costs of those lies.  The latest examples occurred in the early years of the 2000s at Enron, Arthur Anderson, and many others, but the pattern has recurred throughout human history in business and politics, and indeed across the spectrum of human enterprises and institutions. 

Yet the vast majority of business people despise lies and lying.  Many millions stay awake at night wondering how to shed the light of truth on what is happening at work and do it safely, without fear of paybacks and accusations like, “You aren’t a team player.” 

Building meaning and accountability, and the competitive advantage that creates, requires maintaining a workplace environment in which telling the truth about business issues is both safe and effective.

To ensure that the reader maintains a framework around the lessons in this book, the lists of hard truths and costly lies below provide a background for all that follows.  Each chapter also ends with lists of hard truths and costly lies. 

Some of these statements will provoke the reader to think, “No kidding; isn’t that really obvious?” 

Yes, some of these statements are obvious to some, especially executives and small business owners.  We have fallen asleep and awakened day after day for years with these hard truths and costly lies as the backdrop of our mindset. 

But we also find that for some workers these obvious but hard truths and less obvious but costly lies fade too far into the background.  And for some people, they have never really been a part of their mindset at all. 

Hard Truths

• There are no business “tricks;” if there were some simple approach to making a business thrive and sustain profitability then everyone would do that same thing. 
• Commercial enterprises must make a profit eventually and at least often enough to make them going concerns.  Otherwise, they cease to exist. 
• However, profitability cannot be the organizational goal.  Profit is the outcome of hard work to execute strategy, passion for the endeavor, and sound core values. 
• Competition is always out there, trying to put you out of business.  So you had better be trying your competitive best to win that competition. 
• Not-for-profit enterprises have to operate like a business.  Otherwise, they cannot fulfill their purpose because they lack the resources to do anything. 
• Competitors will – and should – use every acceptable means to discover what your business is doing and plans to do.  Some will use every means, legal and otherwise. 
• Whether providing products or services, you have to deliver on your promises to your customers.  They always have alternatives that will when you don’t. 

Costly Lies

• Greed is good.  Profit is the only reason a business should exist, its only
  responsibility. 
• Everyone in business lies, cheats, and steals, so in order to compete we have to do it, too.
• The role of business is to provide jobs for the community; or similarly, that employees are entitled to a raise, free benefits, more vacation, or whatever by virtue of the fact that they have been around the workplace for another year. 

Ultimately, the vision is not surviving; it’s building a business that grows because it thrives.  Hard Truths, Costly Lies addresses some of the key facto