You can't handle the truth!

The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.  ~Herbert Agar, A Time for Greatness (1942)

The infamous line by Jack Nicholson—"you can’t handle the truth"—in the movie A Few Good Men went through my mind this week.  I was facilitating a corporate training session on professional communication for a large global organization.  The 17 or so participants in the class were quite diverse.  Not only did their responsibilities range from IT, to design engineering, to marketing, to administrative support, their ethnic backgrounds included Czech, German, Indian, Polish, Middle Eastern, and of course American.  So, put this combination together in a room learning professional communication and it becomes an interesting experience. 

It didn't take long before I discovered that many times these individuals were in meetings and didn't understand what was being said or presented.  The lack of understanding was stemming from the overuse of acronyms, differing languages, and too much technical talk.  Then what really struck me was their collective apprehension to ask questions in meetings.  They feared appearing ignorant or incompetent. 

I stacked this reality of everyday misunderstanding on top of the fact that many leaders aren't good at accepting personal feedback (or even refuse), and that's when I thought, it's because "they can’t handle the truth."

I came across a white paper by James O'Toole, one of the leading academic authorities on organizational culture.  He shared this story.

I was invited by a large media corporation to meet with their top executives to discuss their corporate culture.  I started the process by asking the group for a few short, descriptive phrases that would best describe the culture of the company.  Silence.  I asked again.  More silence.  Finally, I was passed an unsigned note that read "Dummy, can't you see that we can't speak our minds?  Ask for our input anonymously, in writing."  I did so, and for the next two hours I would ask them a question about their culture, they would write down their answers; then I would collect them and read the responses back to the group.

You can probably guess how that story ends, not well.  I've actually found myself in similar situations, although not quite as extreme, but I have been asked to allow everyone to respond in writing, anonymously, in order to actually garner participation.  There was a fear of expressing their perspective, out loud.

It's kind of amazing, when you think about, the amount of organizational dysfunction and inefficiency due to leaders who simply can't handle the truth.  Employees don't feel comfortable asking questions in meetings, when chances are, they aren't the only one in the room who doesn't understand.  Even something so basic as being able to comprehend what's being presented in a meeting, isn't encouraged.

As leaders, if we want to improve our organizational effectiveness, we all might consider learning how to handle hearing the truth, no matter how trivial or significant.