Today in the New York times, there was a brilliant article reminding us of the failure of the last decade. I highly recommend reading it.
The entire article can be summed up in a few words from Socrates:
“The most dangerous person is the one that thinks they know things they do not know.” -Socrates
A few weeks ago, I called one of the most significant companies in Canada’s history, simply because I wanted to do business with them. They did their background check, and called me back. Since then, I’ve been going over the pitch repeatedly in my head… I couldn’t help but escape the single phrase that I knew would come out of my mouth at some point in the meeting… “I do not know the best strategy. No one does. It’s a new world out there.” As suicidal as such a sentence might be, I knew every fibre of genuineness in my being was going to scream it at some point. “I DO NOT KNOW.”
I’ve been seriously struggling with this, because -as much as I love genuineness- I have a family to feed. A management consultant on CBC radio recently stated that his practice consisted entirely in simply offering the feedback that his clients wanted to hear! It would be easy to criticize someone for such a lack of leadership, but his honesty is actually testament to his experience. He’s more than likely had a few bills that went unpaid on the basis of telling companies what they actually needed to hear. No one wants to be in his position! He started his career getting kicked out of boardrooms by providing strategic insights that would help companies. He’s now just doing what every good lawyer does, by charging exorbitant amounts for boilerplates.
After reading that New York Times article (which, by the way was posted on Facebook by one of my most respected mentors and colleagues, Sabaa Quao -thanks mate), it was a stunning reminder of the horrible company you keep if you become “one of the experts”.
The people responsible for trashing entire financial systems, destroying countless families, and eroding the financial wealth of millions are the experts. They cannot do what they do convincingly without thinking that they truly know. They really are the people Socrates warned us about.
My prediction this decade is that it will happen again. People will become experts, get promoted, lead the world up a steep hill of false hope and bring it all down to another crashing heap of ruin. Then the experts will quietly disappear with many millions of dollars to be replaced yet again with leaders who are not accountable for their lack of leadership.
I’ve decided that I’m going to buck the trend in that big meeting. I will tell them that I am not an expert. I will tell them that I only know as much as any other literate human being. I hope that 2010 and beyond brings a higher degree of this sort of maturity and lack of ego. Then we can all get to work, make some money and have some fun.
Perhaps social media will enable us all to become a little more human, and a little less expert. Thoughts?
Happy New Year’s Everyone.