And then also maybe when you express the truth of what you think without trying to get what you want from the conversation, maybe you’ll learn something. Maybe you’ll learn that the truth of the situation is bigger than you thought, but you only learn that because you put your piece in a puzzle, and other people, because you’ve been so courageous and clear and direct with your view on something, feel compelled to do the same because honesty has a way of beginning honesty. The truth has a certain ring to it. When you’re around it, you feel likewise compelled. So maybe you’ll have a better understanding of what reality is, by the way, or maybe you’ll realize what the hell you’re talking about. And that would also be great to be corrected. And that’s why I think on a personal development level, it’s such an important thing to express, to lean in the conversations that you know you need to have. Now, the question becomes, is how do you have it? And this is where I think Jordan Peterson, I’m like, I so much admire, right? I’m not sure he and I part ways here, but I’m at least going to talk about something he doesn’t talk about, because his whole thing is, tell the truth and don’t sweat the consequences.
Not exactly, but he’s like, you have to act with the faith that the best thing that could happen will come from that, even if it doesn’t feel like it in the short term. I think that faith is tremendously important, and it bolsters me in my work with my clients, because they could fire me and they could fire my colleagues easily, because we’re just consultants. But also, maybe we could find a way to do it, which reduces the probability of a bad outcome for ourselves, or it other people. And so that’s where I’ve really focused. I’m not only trying to inspire people to do it, but also I’ve tried to figure out what does good look like under real-life pressure. And forget, theoretically, what good looks like. What does it look like in the real world when you actually step out of the conversation? And that’s what I’ve been trying to explore for 30 years, and I had a lot of ideas about what would work. Half of them didn’t work. I had a lot of thoughts about what wouldn’t work. Those things would work. And when you develop well over 30,000 people and helping them lean into confidently the conversations they need to have up, down, across, and outside their organization, you learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t.
And so that’s, I think, one of the things that my colleagues and I can carve out as our unique contribution to this space is we’ve actually turned it into a learnable skill with clear things you should, strategies you should employ and things you should definitely not employ or use very little or only at your own peril.
