Don't You Think So, George?

Something we’ve been thinking about

In November 1938, Franklin Roosevelt called a meeting at the White House to pitch his plan for building ten thousand military aircraft. He went around the room, and everyone agreed. He turned to the deputy chief of staff, George Marshall, who was new to the room and the most junior person there, and said, “Don’t you think so, George?” Marshall, who disliked being called by his first name almost as much as he disliked being managed, said, “I am sorry, Mr. President, but I don’t agree with that at all.” Several others in the room walked out of the meeting thinking Marshall had just ended his career. Five months later, Roosevelt named him Army Chief of Staff, promoting him past thirty-three senior officers.

How we see it through leadership economics

Honest counsel is the hardest problem inside the Information function. It is what economists call a public good: It costs the speaker something and benefits everyone. Therefore, the team will normally get less honesty than it needs. The default in a room like that one is the answer Marshall did not give. The interesting move in the story belongs to Roosevelt, five months later, when he remembered. He noticed who had been willing to pay the price of dissent in a room set up for consensus, and he paid them back in promotions and access. The conditions that produce honest counsel are the leader’s responsibility. The conditions are set through the culture and the rewards for honesty (or consequences for withholding important information). Building your team’s belief that you value the truth takes time, and it takes many repeated interactions. It also takes a leader with confidence in their own ability to adjust to reality instead of hiding from it. And finally, it requires humility in front of your team to accept bad news and criticism.

A line we’re sitting with

This self-deceit, this fatal weakness of mankind, is the source of half the disorders of human life.

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments