The Usual Suspects

I follow several business blogs, and the content over the past couple months has been relentlessly of a piece -- basically, how not to freak out with the economy in free-fall. And the usual suspects are inevitably 'out there' -- banks, stock market, unemployment, consumer confidence, mortgage failures.... I don't see a lot of owning up to failure; we're all victims, it would seem.

Don't get me wrong -- there are a whole lot of people and businesses who have been victimized by fraudulent and rapacious practices that were willfully ignored by those entrusted with oversight. But also, there are specific people and organizations who caused the destruction of wealth and jobs. These would be the perps.

I met a job candidate last week who is managing the liquidation of a big-box chain store where he has worked for some time. During the interview, he explained the best practices he put in place at his store, and talked about the metrics they used to run the business. According to the metrics the company used, it was all good: 2008 was yet another successful year! Perhaps sensing a credibility issue (if the stores were so successful, why is the business winding down?), he mentioned that last year he'd had a hard time accepting that the chain was dying, when the stores were executing every directive and achieving their operational KPIs. He knew that corporate had made some poor decisions in the past couple years that sped the failure along, but his responsibility to the company was to execute these as well as possible. Despite his and other retail managers' best efforts, the company's decisions continued the unraveling. They were decisions of desperation, which probably did hasten the end. I'd hazard a guess that folks at corporate have created narratives starring the 'usual suspects' who preyed upon the business. Hmm.

As a corporate executive, I am mindful daily that my decisions and direction impact the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of employees and their families. Of course, I collaborate with an executive team and collectively we set policy and make decisions on many matters, but I think it's important that I keep clearly in view my own responsibility to those who report to me. It matters what I see and don't see, what problems I address and don't address, what I understand and the limits of my understanding. I urge myself and my employees to seek not just success but also failure, since we learn so much more from our failures than from our successes. I know how hard this is; like anyone, I'd prefer to think of myself as infallible, so I have to remind myself that that's rot. I try to fail a lot when the stakes are low, so that when we ramp up to the higher-stakes game, I'm less likely to cause a failure that will harm. Regardless, once I make a mistake, I have to own it -- publicly and fearlessly. The reactions I receive have taught me a few things: how liberating it is to see a boss admit to mistakes; how much easier it is to learn if you rid yourself of the shame you unconsciously attach to the experience.

Our culture has created a public ritual for those in high places who have been caught in their misdeeds: the televised acknowledgement, hanging one's head in shame, and the inevitable conversion. I guess we're supposed to feel good about that; it's the dramatic catharsis the audience craves so that everyone can move on to the uplifting next act. Yet in the current crisis, theatricality is only increasing the misery since it diverts us from addressing the real issues. As individuals, businesses, a nation and across the globe, we have to learn and we have to change -- fundamentally and substantively.