“So often at work, people have issues they they can’t resolve because they won’t talk about it.” (sic)
– Paul English, CTO and Co-Founder of Kayak.com in Bloomberg Business Week
“People make things complicated because they’re afraid to look at the simple issue.”
– Patrick Lencioni, author of a series of business fables, all of which are worth reading
Ain’t it funny how often the simple issue is elephant-sized, and right there in the room with us, and ain’t it funny how rarely we talk about it? Um, maybe it’s not funny at all. Maybe it’s scary, and sad, and dopey and difficult.
So, why don’t we talk about it? Are we that averse to conflict? Even constructive conflict? Is it because we fear the pain of conflict, no matter how constructive it might be? Does it really hurt more to resolve the conflict than it does to sit beneath the weight of the elephant? How much of what kind of pain are we willing to sign up for?
The Business Week article offers a fun and simple way to ease the pain (hit the link above) and resolve the conflict, but even if it still hurts, what if we committed to talk, productively, about the elephant-sized issue in our businesses?
Would it make a difference?
Danny Smith says
Great subject Steve. It’s amazing how we are blind to so many of the elephants…until it starts pooping. My friend and author Dave Moore writes about this in his book “The Last Men’s Book You’ll Ever Need.”
I’ll check out the article.
Would it make a difference? Sometimes, but there’s so many “sacred cows” that we don’t. Should we? Yes, because the cows will eventually be crushed by the elephant.
Steve Heston says
Love the mixed animal metaphors, Danny! Takes me back to the farm AND the zoo….both fitting analogies for bidness!