The Art of Willful Ignorance and the Modern CEO

When I talk with CEOs and business owners, I like to find out what keeps them awake at night, what intractable issues or opportunities disturb their sense of confidence. Of course, each one has industry-specific or company-specific challenges and they are fascinating.

But there’s one problem common to each one of them. They all know it. Only a brave few will talk about it openly: Ignorance.

It doesn’t matter whether the company is large or small, old or young, high tech or blue-collar manufacturing. The reality is that no leader is fully informed of what is happening on his or her watch.

Ignorance Isn’t Bliss

Of course in theory, this should not happen. The chain of command should ensure that information reaches the top. Daily reports should flag critical issues. Balance sheets should indicate significant trends. And they all do - up to a point. The problem is that none of them works quite well enough.

That’s why BP can run unsafe plants and still be taken by surprise when they blow up.

It is why music labels could be blind-sided by the rise of digital downloads.

It is why soft drink companies were surprised by the popularity of vitamin drinks.

It’s why Lehman Brothers and Enron and Citibank and Merrill Lynch had no idea actually how much money they had.

This is why companies are so anxious about what Wikileaks will publish next.

It Can Happen to You

The most tempting thing in the world is to look at that string of business disasters and argue: it was they, not me. It couldn’t happen here. They were just bad leaders, a few bad apples. But the minute you say you don’t have this problem is the minute you know you do.

The problem is willful ignorance: the human propensity to ignore the obvious. It is not just a business problem, of course. We do it in our private lives when we leave those credit card bills unopened or take on a mortgage we can’t afford or insist that tanning salons really won’t cause us any harm.

There are numerous social, structural, organizational and neurological reasons for willful ignorance and I will be blogging about them over the next few weeks. But in the meantime I’d like to hear from you: in your company or department or industry, where are your blind spots?

Care to comment?  You can post on my blog: 

http://businessmanagementcounselingservices.blogspot.com/

Or, write me at stevehomola@gmail.com

I am always interested in what you have to say.