“You can’t handle the truth!”

A Few Good Men

There is a memorable scene during a military court martial trial in the film A Few Good Men when Navy Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) challenges Marine Colonel Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) to respond to a question asked. When Kaffee exclaims “I want the truth!” Jessep angrily responds, “You can’t handle the truth!”

I was reminded of that scene as I read Lynne Olson’s recently published book, Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour. In Chapter 4, she focuses on President Roosevelt’s reluctance to explain to the American people how desperate Britain’s situation had become. “The people as a whole simply do not understand that a Hitler control of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the high seas would put us at the mercy of the Nazis for about 25 essential resources, “ Chet Williams, a federal government official and friend of [Edward R.] Murrow’s, wrote to the broadcaster, “Facts like that have not been explained.”

Citizens of London

Here’s where it really gets interesting. “Belle Roosevelt, the wife of Eleanor Roosevelt’s cousin Kermit, and a close friend of the president and his wife, confronted FDR about his reluctance to educate the public. ‘Why don’t you tell the American people the facts, no matter how grim they are?’ she demanded. ‘Can’t we take the facts, and if we can’t, isn’t it all the more essential that we, as a nation, should learn to face the actuality? Isn’t it part of your job to teach us to face the truth?’”

This is one of the most common (albeit underestimated) forms of denial, all of which Richard Tedlow examines in his recently published book, Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look at the Facts in the Face – and What to Do About It.

Only when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and then declared war, as Germany did soon thereafter, did President Roosevelt believe that he could speak frankly to the American people about what needed to be done – and what it would require in terms of personal sacrifice – to defeat the Axis powers.

Denial

Throughout history, the most effective leaders prepare those for whom they are directly responsible to “handle” the truth, however unpleasant, indeed frightening it may be.

Interview: Tom Butler-Bowdon

Tom Butler-Bowdon

The 50 Classics concept is based on Butler-Bowden’s belief that every subject or genre will contain at least 50 books that encapsulate its knowledge and wisdom. By creating a list of those landmark or representative titles, then providing commentaries that note the key points and assess the importance of each work, he hopes that an increased awareness of these key writings will include readers who may not otherwise have known of their existence. The series was introduced with the volume that focuses on the subject of self-help. 50 Self-Help Classics was followed by 50 Success Classics(2004). The third, 50 Spiritual Classics (2005), explores some of the famous writings and authors in personal awakening, and has been translated into ten languages. 50 Psychology Classics was released in 2007 and has been translated into 12 languages. As for Butler-Bowdon, he earned a BA degree in politics and history from the University of Sydney and a Masters degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. He is based in Oxford, UK, and travels frequently to Australia, the United States, and throughout Asia.

Morris: Of all the non-religious works that were composed before (let’s say) the 20th century, which one of them were you most surprised to find is relevant today?

Butler-Bowdon: My personal favourite of the 19th century is Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help, published on the same day as Darwin’s The Origin of the Species in 1859. Smiles was a Scottish doctor cum journalist who had begun giving inspiring talks to working men in the north of England, drawing on many of the Victorian success stories of his time. The book is a wealth of examples of people who beat the odds and did something great with their lives, and although it is dated to the extent that he included almost no women, it is still a brilliant motivational work that deserves a bigger readership today. During his lifetime Smiles was quite famous, and it was said that many homes only had two books: the Bible and Self-Help. It was also the inspiration for Orison Swett Marden, the founder of Success magazine in the US and the author of books like Pushing to The Front.

Morris: To me, “spiritual” has always been an elusive term to define. What did you decide when selecting and then discussing the works in the 50 Spiritual Classics volume?

Butler-Bowdon: First, it was never going to be 50 Religious Classics. I was less interested in famous theologians or works of orthodoxy than whether a book had deeply moved or inspired people, whether it was written five or five hundred years ago. And I wasn’t bothered if some writings would be seen by others as sacrilegious (I wrote about a book on Wicca, for instance) or even a bit ‘trashy’. I was very keen to highlight that this has been a golden era in terms of modern spiritual writing, with books like The Celestine Prophecy, The Power of Now, Conversations With God and The Way of the Peaceful Warrior representing a new canon that lay totally outside established religion. Again, as with the previous 50 Classics books, I wanted to show that, even though many of them had been huge bestsellers, and people’s lives were being changed by these writings, they had not been given due critical recognition.

Having said this, I was also keen to cover many of the famous spiritual writings by authors such as Augustine, Teresa of Avila and Al Ghazzali. I wanted 50 Spiritual to be a treasury of inspiration covering many centuries.

Finally, my aim was to make this a spiritual book for people who don’t necessarily believe in God. The point I make is that, whether or not you believe in a divine entity, there is an unseen order that moves the universe, and that getting in tune with it provides for a magical, purposeful life. You become a vehicle for this force, helping to advance the universe in a positive way.

If you wish to read the complete interview, please contact me at interllect@mindspring.com.

Also, you are invited to check out this Web site:

http://www.Butler-Bowdon.com/

Interview: Christine Pearson

Pearson is a professor of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management and a business professional with more than 20 years experience and faculty appointments in Europe, Asia and South America. In the course of her responsibilities as a consultant and executive-development adviser, Pearson has assisted companies and organizations including ExxonMobil, PepsiCo, Dow Chemical, Clorox, Transamerica, Kraft Foods, the Los Angeles Police Department, BellSouth (now part of AT&T Inc.), Nortel Networks, and the Red Cross. Her areas of interest include crisis management, workplace incivility, enterprise leadership development, interpersonal dynamics, team building, and dysfunctional behavior in the workplace. She is the author of five books on crisis management, most recently The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It co-authored with Christine Porath in which they make a compelling business case for workplace civility. The book explores the causes and outcomes of incivility and shares strategies for resolving minor situations before they spiral into something major. Pearson contends that companies pay dearly for minor acts of rudeness that go unchecked in the workplace. She has also been published articles in Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Organization Science, Organizational Dynamics, and Human Relations. Pearson earned her Ph.D. in business from the University of Southern California, her M.S. in organizational psychology from California State University, and her B.A. in French and economics from the City University of New York.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of Pearson. The complete interview is also available.

Morris: Opinions are divided about referring to workers as “employees” or as “associates.” What do you think?

Pearson: For me, it’s not the word chosen but the application of what’s implied here. I’ve certainly seen “associates” who are treated terribly, as what sociologists call “non-persons,” (i.e., that they are so discounted and ignored that they don’t even register to the other person as a human being) and I’ve certainly seen “employees” who are fully appreciated. For me, the term isn’t a sticking point.

Morris: Now please shift your attention to The Cost of Bad Behavior that you co-authored with Christine Porath. For those who have not as yet read this book, what are the nature and extent of the verifiable cost of incivility in the workplace?

Pearson: We define incivility as seemingly inconsequential inconsiderate words and deeds that go violate norms of workplace behavior. In essence, it’s mutual respect among co-workers, as played out in words and actions. Some examples of incivility include ignoring colleagues, passing the blame, taking credit for others’ work, not listening, failing to return phone calls, talking down to someone…The most controversial at the moment, I believe, is texting or emailing during meetings. That gets the most push-back when I talk to audiences: about 20% can’t imagine why it would be seen by others as uncivil, another 10% understand why but do it anyway and about 80% (overlapping the 10%, of course) see it as uncivil, disrespectful. The consensus among audiences is that it demonstrates more interest in your texts/emails than in the people at the meeting. I agree.

As to the verifiable costs, let me share just a few of the statistics that we’ve collected from targets of incivility for the past decade. When they have experienced workplace incivility, our respondents across studies tell us that:

48% intentionally decrease their work effort
47% intentionally decrease their time at work
38% intentionally decrease the quality of work they produce
63% lose time trying to avoid the person who has offended them
80% lose work time worrying about the incident
78% lose commitment to their organization
88% do something to get even with their organization in which the incivility occurred
94% do something to get even with their offender

* * *

If you wish to read the complete interview, please contact me at interllect@mindspring.com.

You are invited to check out the resources at these Web sites:

http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/podcasts/2009/05/19/incivility/

www.thecostofbadbehavior.com