Jim Whitt, Contributing Editor

Good News, Bad News and the Twilight Zone

Wife: I have some good news and some bad news.

Husband: What’s the good news?

Wife: The good news is I found a picture that’s worth $500,000.

Husband: Wow! That’s wonderful! What’s the bad news?

Wife: The bad news is that the picture is of you and your
secretary!

This story proves news may be considered to be good or bad depending on the eye of the beholder. Consider this real-life good news/bad news story. In my last real job, I scheduled a meeting with the management of the division I worked for. I was a marketing manager and decided I needed to inform them of the direction my group’s segment of industry was headed. The bad news was that our company currently wasn’t headed in the same direction as the industry. The good news was that I had a plan for what I thought we could and should do to be successful.

The gentlemen in the room listened politely. After I made my case, the division vice president thanked me for what he called a very enlightening presentation. He didn’t dispute the fact the industry was headed in the direction I had described but simply said we (the company) were not going to go in that direction. End of meeting. History has since validated my assessment of the industry’s direction — and the V.P.’s assessment of the company’s direction. The industry went one way and the company went the other — the division of the company I worked for no longer exists.

Bad news is sometimes, in reality, good news. For example, you’re driving along the highway on a pitch black night and encounter a sign that warns, “BRIDGE OUT AHEAD.” Now, you can’t change the fact that the bridge is out. Would you rather see a sign that lets you know the “bad news” so you can change your course or would you rather have no warning sign and drive blissfully off into the Twilight Zone?

We don’t want to hear bad news because that means we have to deal with it. It requires us to engage in that most difficult of human behaviors — change . Change is hard. It requires effort and struggle. It’s much easier to engage in another behavior — delusion . Maybe the bridge isn’t really out. Maybe it was repaired and they forgot to remove the sign. Maybe ... maybe … wait … I think I hear a voice … it’s saying something … oh, no! It’s saying, “Welcome to the Twilight Zone.” This behavior enables us to avoid the thing we don’t want to do – turn around and head in a new direction. In psychological terms this means developing a new pattern of behavior. Traveling down the old road is much more comfortable because we are addicted to the old pattern. It feels good — because it is the path of least resistance — but it’s a wreck waiting to happen. That’s the real bad news.

As consultants we often find ourselves in the position of having to tell clients there’s a bridge out ahead (we’re sorry but we have some bad news). That’s when the fun begins. Some want to argue the point. That’s OK. It initiates a discussion of the facts. After all, we might be wrong. But one of the things we bring to the party is objectivity. Our vision isn’t clouded by the emotion that comes from being involved in the day-to-day operation and some of the other issues (such as those you might find in family businesses) that can create blind spots for a client. But if the facts validate the bridge is indeed out, the client then has a decision to make. The choice is to change course or engage in delusion.

We spent several months working with a business that might best be described as still trying to sell buggy whips in a NASCAR world. They were so chronically unprofitable that they faced extinction. We created a leadership team within the organization to help us chart a new course for the future. We came up with a plan that the entire team agreed would turn things around and get the organization headed in the right direction. The plan was unveiled at a meeting and received with much excitement. That was the good news. Now, the bad news — the meeting was barely over when the CEO (who had just enthusiastically endorsed the plan) started finding sacred cows that must be spared. Cows that all agreed must go to the great roundup in the sky if the business was to survive, let alone thrive. As the CEO continued his process of rationalization, I could imagine Rod Serling walking into the room with his ever present cigarette in hand announcing we had just entered the Twilight Zone where people are forever riding in the horse-drawn carriages of yesteryear . The CEO was a third-generation buggy whip manufacturer who, rather than change, preferred a Twilight Zone delusion where buggy whips were still in demand. Reality, however, will demand a much different fate for the business. It will crash because the delusion doesn’t change the reality that the bridge is out.

That experience made me think about my meeting with the management about the direction of the industry and the company nearly 20 years ago. Six months after that meeting, I quit my job. The bad news is – because of my propensity for sharing bad news (sometimes known as reality) with my bosses — I haven’t had a real job since. The good news is — because of that same personality trait — I now get paid to do that very thing as a consultant. I thought the management’s decision not to change course was bad news. But it was good news — because I decided to change course .

See, sometimes bad news really is good news.

Please e-mail comments to Jim Whitt at jim@whittenterprises.com.

Cargill Animal Nutrition is proud to sponsor the “Whitt and Wisdom” column which offers business management and leadership advice from management consultant Jim Whitt. Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services.