Upon entering my first CEO position, I read voraciously. I wish I could track the journal and author to give proper credit, but one statement in an article laid the basis for my entire career. It read: “CEOs are often called upon to make broad sweeping decisions based on very limited information.”  The point of the article is that messages become skewed to the positive as they move up the chain of command. It cited an actual case.  The maintenance crew told their foreman that a critical machine on the assembly line was on the verge of collapse.  By the time word went up through five layers, the story the CEO heard, and told the board of directors, was that all the production equipment was in good repair.

Reading that article made me determined to work from unvarnished truth. However, I did not appreciate how difficult to achieve that.  Personnel must feel very safe in conveying bad news.  I was taken aback by the wall of fear I faced.  Why would that be?

No one likes to give bad news, so people soften the message as they pass the message on.  We must make it very safe for personnel to share inconvenient, information. It’s harder yet to persuade staff to share ideas that may be better than that of their manager.

Top level managers can make informed decisions only if they have accurate information. That means it must come from bottom up. Many managers fear that they will lose their authority by listening to their personnel or are afraid of the consequences of passing on bad news.

Sometimes the best ideas can come from the most unlikely sources. Here’s a real-life example.  A semi trailer became lodged under an overpass.  The police, fire department, and city engineer worked over four hours trying to extricate the trailer without damaging the bridge.. They were about to use a cutting torch when a 7^th grader on his way home from school stopped to observe the commotion.  He asked: “Mister, would it work to let some air out of the tires?”  Once the tire pressure was lowered, the tow trucks easily pulled the rig from under the bridge.

It’s easy to dismiss ideas that come from the “wrong source.”  Effective managers take the best thinking they can find, regardless the source.  Those ideas usually come from people working closest to the problem.  Collaborative management is the art of two-way versus one-way communication.

Please give me your comments on this subject, and I will make every effort to post them.

John Macek