I have never met a leader who wants to be lied to. Sounds obvious, maybe. Withholding information from leaders can be perceived as dishonest and consultants may be held responsible for the consequences. Telling leaders and organizations what they want to hear is easy. Telling them things they do not want to hear – especially when it could strain your relationship – is hard.
What I am leaving out here is the role of organizational cultures that discourage honesty, punish mistakes, or suppress diverse views. That’s for another time.
Throughout my career, I have tried to share findings with leaders for their consideration – whether those findings are positive, negative, or misaligned with personal views. Delivering news like toxic behaviour of a colleague or executive, or presenting information that challenges someone’s beliefs, is not easy. Doing so requires respect, honesty, directness, and accuracy. In the end, you also need to be prepared to accept the outcome.
A lot of people would agree and say, “of course, this is all obvious.” If so, mass disasters would never happen, technology would do no harm, and there would be no expensive project rework.
Observation
“Oh, oh, Natalie’s asking questions again.”
In my work, I ask a lot of questions. Sometimes too many, I know. I ask questions that provoke discussion about the sacred, or sacrosanct practices, challenge “the way things have always been,” and test personal beliefs.
I do not ask these questions to annoy people – I promise. I ask them to get to the root of the problem, understand its causal factors, and see all sides of an issue. I tend to go deep in inquiry so that I can understand the territory – or develop a systems-level understanding. This includes how things came to be, the current state, where things might be going, and when challenges and opportunities may emerge. This enables creative and transformational problem-solving and design. On the surface it might seem that the solution is a better tool or process, but maybe the solution lies in rethinking the purpose and actually eliminating a tool or process.
Sorry, Not Sorry
I ask a lot of questions and report what I hear because I have made a commitment as an anthropologist, transformation leader, and professional to do what is best for the communities I work with – including surfacing hard truths or conflicts, even when it puts me in the line of fire. Which it has.
This approach is a result of my training, professional code of ethics, and a natural curiosity to understand how things work, why they are done the way they are, and to imagine a better way.
So, I’m not sorry for asking so many questions, having awkward conversations, or refusing to tell you only what you want to hear. In doing so, please know that I have your, your organizations, and your stakeholders’ best interests at heart – and those interests sometimes conflict, creating opportunities for important conversations.
I hope you look forward to the next time I ask: “Can I provoke something?”
Footnote: Contributing to Community Standards
In my role as a co-founder and convener of the national anthropological organization Anthropology in Praxis, I have helped launch a project to draft a code of ethics for anthropologists working in non-academic settings. The community does not currently have an ethics standard, so many of us, including me, draw on other frameworks to navigate the complex and sometimes conflicting work we do in organizations and communities.
The conversations about ethics have revealed a diverse and sometimes troubling list of scenarios anthropologists encounter in their work, including:
- A non-profit leader asking for research results to highlight a specific issue so they can be used to influence public policy.
- An organizational leader asking the design team to remove specific customer sentiments from a report.
- Members of a political party contesting the oral histories of First Nations people to advance their own priorities.
Developing a fundamental code of ethics for our non-academic anthropological community is important and meaningful work. For more information you can follow us on LinkedIn.