The Price for Lying

Does the Truth Set Me Free...Really?

Noted author and consultant John Berling Hardy poses a provocative question about what we say, how we present ourselves in our work and personal life. In his blog post, The Price for Lying, he offers this observation:

"Living in a talk world as we do, the temptation to lie is great. First impressions count for so much, there is a huge incentive to embellish our self-representations."

After I read Hardy's piece, I got reminded of how I used to "embellish" my accomplishments and "story" when I was back in College (last century, you know). Upon reflection in some solitude later on, I would shame myself, shake my head and wonder why I couldn't get out of the habit of lying, yes lying. I wasn't so elegant to call it something else -- embellishment, grandiosity, exaggeration -- I knew what I was doing and why: to make me look "better" in the eyes of the listener. As if. (That phrase is, I think, now replaced with "whatever.")

Businesses, being driven largely by fear, create cultures that sustain and support misrepresentation; the outcome is more fear and lost opportunities for raising performance.  People taking credit for ideas they didn't generate, essentially plagiarizing others: for what?  Prestige and status?

My post-adolescent embellishments cost me some guilt and shame -- pretty instructive to have a conscience loaded up -- but not necessary because...I didn't need to lie in the first place. Didn't need it at all.  Give it up.

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Raising Performance: Three (Not So) Easy Steps

We Can Do This: Raise the Bar

I'm going to share an easy three-step process for raising performance in organizations.  Why consider this?  Because we've got to demand more of ourselves; we can work smarter.  We can be more effective.  Scroll down to the three steps if you don't want to read the setup, the preamble, the case. 

Preamble, Setup, The "Case:"  As I work, I'm watching: I see people, good people, engaging in some irrational behavior: I see people engaging in habitual tasks which, seemingly, have little or no value to the enterprise.  So, the idealist in me is struggling to comprehend the level of fear, resistance that pervades the culture and climate of the bulk of organizations today; it is indeed akin to pushing the ball up the hill. 

I wonder: Is it job security -- the terror of being unemployed -- that has everyone hamstrung into "staying below radar," avoiding innovation, with all our behaviors?  Rhetorical.  (As a Consultant since 1983, I've been unemployed at least half of my time in the last 25 years: I'm being a little sneaky: no Consultant can bill 100% of his time.  Lawyers, yes. 110%!  But, not Consultants.)

I am revisiting the theme of taking risks now -- raising the bar, pushing the envelope of comfort -- in an effort to create some new models that will better serve the organization and its constituents both now and when we have a more robust economy.  (Could it be any less robust?  Yes!)

I am advocating for more vibrancy, more "buzz" as one of my clients calls it.  At a time when reinvention is being demanded of us, we're succumbing to the weight, the burden of "the work."  The stuff that grinds and, perhaps, now pays  the bills but...is increasingly showing its cracks, its flaws, like a 16th Century Michelangelo painting.  What I see organizations doing, many of them, doesn't seem to have much punch, value to the customers and constituents.  Enough preamble.

I have a cure for this common ailment; it involves three steps (isn't that quaint?):

1. Forget the past, live in the now (ooh, Zen!)  OK: I have to admit: a little too squishy.  Forget that one.  Let's try another first Step (this is, sort of, the three steps in action):

Step 1 (Reinvented): Look Up: Stop Working.  Leave your office.  Go outside (after you finish reading this whole post).  If you can't leave your office: stare out the window or stare at the ceiling without the intent to do anything but stare.  Breathe.  Take it all in: the good, the bad, the ugly.  No one is going to die.  This is the precursor to "evaluation."

Step 2: Become a "Good" Investigator: find the things you and your people are doing that are positive, successful, productive.  List the "base" items like "showed up for work today."  I know this sounds crazy but it has an aim: to change what your brain focuses on: better brain "food," better brain function: a mind that sees possibilities. Make the list big: "Rescued a customer today...didn't yell or get angry at ___who made a mistake..." 

This is a precept of a relatively new process called Appreciative Inquiry that seeks to find the underlying strengths in groups and organizations.  Check it out.

Step 3. Become a Scientist: Experiment.  Take what you've learned from Step 2 and find new arenas in which to apply those assets: leverage.  Archimedes would be proud.  ("Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”)

Experiment: try some new methods; change policies; ask customers what they would like to see from you right now.   (See Dyson's [the cool inventor guy] video on encouraging creativity: he talks about "silly" ideas that end up having some value.)

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” -- Albert Einstein

Machiavelli had a technique: built on domination, it was effective.  But, it is a method that has seen its day: it may have worked in crustier times, but it can't work now.  Collaboration and creativity flourish in an atmosphere of experimentation. 
 
James Dyson on Encouraging Creativity - MarketWatch Video

I like to feel inspired about my work; you know, invest some passions for greatness, for doing something memorable, novel, innovative.  I have no aspirations to reinvent Edison's light bulb, but...I like incremental improvements that are mined out of my imagination and desire for excellence.  It's inherent in everyone: tap it. 

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