s easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders th

Do you think the truth has anything to do with change? Really? It does and I’ll show you what I mean. Several years ago I was working a project for a company doing around $8 billion dollars a year at the time when the CEO decided to improve every process ten times … thus the project was dubbed 10X.

It was colossal in its size and scope. They put two hundred people on the project and ninety consultants and planned a mere two years, at the behest of the consultants, to complete the end-to-end redesign of every process in the organization. The advice was that they could do this in one year design and one year implementation. Foolhardy but we all embarked on the journey.

The redesign included accounts payable, receivable, a new handheld computer for the retail side of things, inventory system and you name it. The size and scope made it impossible to complete but what made it worse was the complete absence of truth. Not only did anyone not want to tell the Emperor he had no clothes, telling the truth was punished severely.

Well as you can tell this was a train wreck waiting to happen. The change train was barreling down the track and it was just a matter of time. The operations group headed by my boss was given the project to ‘implement’ at the two year and three month mark. The only problem was there was nothing to implement that actually worked.

One example was the handheld computer. At six weeks before test launch when my partner and I took over the project for implementation we were presented with a balsa wood model. That is not a misprint; we were presented a balsa wood model. At the four week mark the actual unit showed up and was eight pounds instead of the design of four and wouldn’t pass the four foot drop test, only two. Yet, the rollout was destined to be so the new unit passed through the field integration test lab with flying colors.

What do you think happened? In the field it bombed in three days and my partner and I had the train wreck sitting right before our eyes. When we got the design crew together we said, “We have to know what happened. No one gets shot here, there’s a new Sheriff in town so relax and tell us the truth”. It was a classic and silence ruled the room.

After some time a coder who was sitting on the floor of the conference room with his head down raised his hand. I said go and he said, “Pain avoidance!” It threw me a bit and I asked for an explanation. He said simply, “It was easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders the

implementation. Foolhardy but we all embarked on the journey.

The redesign included accounts payable, receivable, a new handheld computer for the retail side of things, inventory system and you name it. The size and scope made it impossible to complete but what made it worse was the complete absence of truth. Not only did anyone not want to tell the Emperor he had no clothes, telling the truth was punished severely.

Well as you can tell this was a train wreck waiting to happen. The change train was barreling down the track and it was just a matter of time. The operations group headed by my boss was given the project to ‘implement’ at the two year and three month mark. The only problem was there was nothing to implement that actually worked.

One example was the handheld computer. At six weeks before test launch when my partner and I took over the project for implementation we were presented with a balsa wood model. That is not a misprint; we were presented a balsa wood model. At the four week mark the actual unit showed up and was eight pounds instead of the design of four and wouldn’t pass the four foot drop test, only two. Yet, the rollout was destined to be so the new unit passed through the field integration test lab with flying colors.

What do you think happened? In the field it bombed in three days and my partner and I had the train wreck sitting right before our eyes. When we got the design crew together we said, “We have to know what happened. No one gets shot here, there’s a new Sheriff in town so relax and tell us the truth”. It was a classic and silence ruled the room.

After some time a coder who was sitting on the floor of the conference room with his head down raised his hand. I said go and he said, “Pain avoidance!” It threw me a bit and I asked for an explanation. He said simply, “It was easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders th

ven the project to ‘implement’ at the two year and three month mark. The only problem was there was nothing to implement that actually worked.

One example was the handheld computer. At six weeks before test launch when my partner and I took over the project for implementation we were presented with a balsa wood model. That is not a misprint; we were presented a balsa wood model. At the four week mark the actual unit showed up and was eight pounds instead of the design of four and wouldn’t pass the four foot drop test, only two. Yet, the rollout was destined to be so the new unit passed through the field integration test lab with flying colors.

What do you think happened? In the field it bombed in three days and my partner and I had the train wreck sitting right before our eyes. When we got the design crew together we said, “We have to know what happened. No one gets shot here, there’s a new Sheriff in town so relax and tell us the truth”. It was a classic and silence ruled the room.

After some time a coder who was sitting on the floor of the conference room with his head down raised his hand. I said go and he said, “Pain avoidance!” It threw me a bit and I asked for an explanation. He said simply, “It was easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders th

gration test lab with flying colors.

What do you think happened? In the field it bombed in three days and my partner and I had the train wreck sitting right before our eyes. When we got the design crew together we said, “We have to know what happened. No one gets shot here, there’s a new Sheriff in town so relax and tell us the truth”. It was a classic and silence ruled the room.

After some time a coder who was sitting on the floor of the conference room with his head down raised his hand. I said go and he said, “Pain avoidance!” It threw me a bit and I asked for an explanation. He said simply, “It was easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders th

s easier to tell them what they wanted to hear than to tell them the truth, it was just too painful”. Herein lies the lesson of truth and change.

Leaders must make it safe to tell the truth. They must create what I call an Umbrella of Safety where it is okay to tell the truth. Why did Enron happen? One reason was that it was not okay to tell the truth. It is always important but during times of change in an organization it is more important than at any other time. In the example above the handheld computer left the field integration testing lab with 187 known defects. That happened because to the leaders the timeline was much more important than the truth. It is a leadership responsibility.

Imagine a continuum running from left to right. Now divide that continuum into a block on the left representing ten percent of the line, and a block on the right representing another ten percent. That will leave you with eighty percent in the middle. The left ten percent represents people like me who will tell the leader the truth, as I or you see it anyway, regardless of the consequences. Now the ten percent on the right represents people who will lie to you no matter what. They lie because they are liars so don’t spend any time on that since liars lie.

Now the eighty percent in the middle represents most people in today’s organization who tell situational truth, they do what I call ‘abuse the truth’. They do that because of the leaders in today’s organization and their need for political correctness and inclusion at all costs. The leader’s job is to move the block on the left, truth, as far right as they can. This means on your continuum you will have thirty, forty, maybe fifty percent who will come in and tell you the truth. You do this by creating a safe environment and seeking the truth rather than the answer you want.

If you don’t create an Umbrella of Safety in your change work you will fail. It will not be a question of whether you will fail; it will be a question of when. The choice is yours.