I read a post on Nature.com which talks about lessons to be learned by governments about communications and trusting the public with hard truth. You can read the entire post titled “Covid Lessons: Trust the Public with hard Truths” here.
I believe that the lessons are as much valid for business leaders as much for the governments and the public. Bureaucracy is usually a result of not trusting our employees to do the right thing in any given situation. Every time we see an employee make a mistake, the tendency is to create a policy around it so that, that very same mistake doesn’t happen again. In the words of Netflix founder Reed Hastings, we try to dummy proof the system. When we do that, all we get in the systems are dummies.
When we treat our employees as responsible adults, we usually get responsible adults. Sometimes, we will also get not so responsible adults. When that happens, it is usually best to either ask them to change and if that doesn’t work, remove them from the system rather than make the system dummy proof.
I remember one of my mentors say to me –
“People usually stoop or rise to the level of expectations from them”.
In his post on Nature, Michael Bang Petersen shares his message to the Danish government as an advisor was
Dont assume that the public will panic. That assumption is counterproductive, and not borne out by research.
Michael Bang Petersen on Nature magazine
The same holds true for our employees as well. The same goes for our teenage son’s and daughter’s as well. The same goes for our customers, partners and all other stakeholders as well. The same goes for our competitors as well.
Do not assume the worst from everyone. Know that people will behave according to their best interest, give the information they have at hand. So, there are only two levers here – their best interest & the information they have at their hand. Use them to drive the behaviour that is best for all concerned.
You will have a smart and responsible workforce and more importantly you would have earned their trust and respect. Two things that are more important than anything, if you intend to lead them to realise your vision.
