People Would Rather Not Accept the Truth

by Dave Kahle

Recently, one of my clients recommended that I compile a series of posts on the most important lessons I’ve learned over my 30-year career as a consultant, working with over 500 different organizations.  This is one of those lessons:  Most people would rather believe a comfortable lie than accept an uncomfortable truth.

       That sounds so harsh, and perhaps it is.  It is, however, an observation that I have made and affirmed over and over again.

       Here’s an example. In my work with B2B sales organizations, I have occasionally been involved in an exercise in which we calculate the ‘net profit’ per customer.  This is an arduous effort that requires allocation of all the company’s internal costs to each customer on a fair and equitable basis.  So, the cost of the buildings, executives, advertising, etc. are all allocated to each customer and that number subtracted from the gross profit realized from that customer to yield a ‘net profit per customer.’  It’s a great way to evaluate each customer and make decisions about your relationship with each.

       In one case, my client was a several hundred-million-dollar supplier of one category of product to a selection of big box stores.  The company served hundreds of stores operated by 11 customers. 

       When the exercise was completed, it revealed that only one of those 11 customers were profitable. The others were subsidized by the one profitable account.  I attended the board meeting when that report was presented.  

       What did the board do with this incredible piece of information? Absolutely nothing.  They tabled the report and refused to consider it. The consequences were just too great to actually embrace it and do something.  They had just built a 300,000 square foot warehouse, for example.  Any action that they would have taken would have reflected negatively on the decision to build that warehouse. The consequences of accepting the truth were too great. Instead they chose to intentionally engage in self-deception.

       While that may have been the most dramatic example of this truth – that most people would rather not accept the truth – it is only one of countless other examples I’ve encountered in my career.  

       Here’s another.  The owner of small distribution company was approaching retirement and brought one of his children into the business to succeed him.  One of his salespeople had been with the company for thirty years, and the new second generation owner suspected that the salesperson had parleyed his longevity into a position where he was not accountable to anyone accept the retiring owner.  The younger manager suspected that that salesperson was taking advantage of it.  So, the new manager installed a GPS tracker into his company car and tracked his actions.  The GPS revealed that, while the salesperson was claiming to be working his territory, he was spending two working days a week at his cabin on the lake.

       The retiring owner’s response?  Maybe the salesperson needed more vacation time. He refused to accept the truth – that the salesperson was taking unethical advantage of the owner – and instead chose to persist in a deception.

       The dynamics at play are the same as the earlier, corporate board example. Someone becomes so invested in what was a firm belief... CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE