The Hindu Business Line : <I>See the reality to tell the truth </I>

MMOT is short for the title of a new book by Bruce Bodaken and Robert Fritz: "The Managerial Moment of Truth." MMOT refers to "events in which the manager has a choice to ignore or call attention to what has occurred," explains the preface. "Unearthing the truth accurately is one thing. Telling it is yet another thing."

One option can be not to tell, such as, "not talking openly about performance issues," which only guarantees that things don't improve. You may wonder if `being straight' can backfire.

Before delving into these dilemmas, the authors declare that truth is `the most important competitive advantage'. Does your organisation have `a subtle level of deceitfulness' among your managers? Do they adopt `implicit collective rules' such as: "Never argue with the boss, or never admit your own mistakes, or don't question data, or lower your goals so you won't fail"?

Sharing feelings or spouting opinions isn't the same things as exploring reality, distinguish the authors "Groups that really tell each other the truth are the ones that ask each other questions, seriously seek to understand opinions that are different from their own. They strive to comprehend rather than simply impose their ideas on others."

A pre-requisite to telling the truth is `seeing reality for what it is without the distorting lens of our bias, concepts, theories, speculations, or past experiences.' Study the `unvarnished' reality by presuming to not know what we might find, counsel Bodaken and Fritz.

"If managers spin, editorialise, distort, avoid, and thwart any semblance of an honest look at reality, especially when the facts are troublesome, the subtext is `Don't tell the truth when the news is bad'." Worse, organisations may reward people who lie and punish the ones who tell the truth! "People need to know they can be honest within the organisation," urge the authors. "Too often, the undertone within many organisations is, `Tell the boss what she wants to hear.' This norm makes it hard for the boss to get needed information."

Shall we tell the boss... about the book?

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali