Yes, you can own the Ugly Truth by keeping your mouth closed, or own it by speaking up! In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn says, owning the ugly truth by speaking up is the fastest way to resolve serious problems. Even when it feels a little scary.
Rob Artigo: Ray, your slogan is … I’m not telling you something you don’t already know. Your slogan is, “Do the tough things first.” Let’s talk about owning the ugly truth first. Do you feel like the fastest way to solve a serious problem is to be the first person in the room to clearly name the brutal reality, not sugarcoating or blame shifting or anything like that?
Ray Zinn: Well, close to doing the tough things first. Of course, if you own the tough things, if you accept the tough things, if you accept the ugly truth, then you’re more likely to deal with it. None of us like going to the dentist or the doctor because we don’t want that ugly truth. The ugly truth, of course, is we have to go to the doctor or the dentist if we want to solve a particular problem that we have. Owning up or accepting the truth rather than, as they say, shoving it under the rug, then we’re more likely to solve it, get rid of it, deal with it. It’s all part of overcoming procrastination. That’s the thing that we won’t accept the ugly truth. We tend to shove it under the rug or, as they say, kick the can down the road. Have you heard that before, Rob?
Rob Artigo: Yeah, sure. And I would think that if you do something like that, you can compound the damage. What’s the real cost? And time, money, trust, morale of letting a problem live under softer language for even at just a short time.
Ray Zinn: As they say, getting off track is easy. Getting back on track is difficult. And because it is difficult, we tend to push it down the road or kick the can. Accepting it, dealing with it, getting it handled, put it in the past as you would. That’s the key to being the successful leader.
Rob Artigo: Have you ever seen a situation where everybody in the, I don’t want to say just boardroom, but in the room are sitting on their hands and biting their tongue and not saying anything. So if everyone in the room already knows the ugly truth, but no one says it, who actually owns the problem and who owns the delay?
Ray Zinn: All of them own it. Everybody in that room, everybody that knows the ugly truth owns it. It’s not just one person. That’s the way a team is. A team consists of a group of individuals that are trying to win the game, as you would. Maybe they’re not always the one that are completing the past and entering the goal zone, but we’re all part of that team. We’re all blocking and tackling and doing our part of the team. So even though we have different roles on the team, we all are working together to accomplish the same goal. And that ugly truth needs to be accepted by the entire team.
Rob Artigo: Well, think about famous company failures like Enron. We’ve talked about them on this program. Enron, WeWork, Theranos. We haven’t talked about Boeing 737 Max, but that’s a huge one. Or just a personal, anything that you might’ve seen in your career. What moment could someone have said the ugly truth out loud and dramatically changed the outcome?
Ray Zinn: Dishonesty. Admitting that they’re being dishonest. I know of a company in the Bay Area back in the day when they were making a disc drives, put a bunch of bricks in their shipping boxes to make it look like they had all this inventory. And when it was picked up by the auditors, it felt like it was full of something. They didn’t open the box because it was sealed. And so they cheated because they wanted to show they had inventory. They cheated by just putting bricks in boxes. And that’s one of the famous ones that I know of.
So generally, the thing that causes the team to break down is dishonesty. If you’re getting a lot of fouls, if you’re getting a lot of yellow and red handkerchiefs thrown, then you’re not being honest. And there’s nothing that’ll kill a team faster than dishonesty. And so you need to fight dishonesty. And that’s the ugly truth is they need to all look at each other in the face and say, are we being totally honest? And that’s the ugly truth that I see that is most difficult for a team and companies to own up to. Are they being totally honest?
Rob Artigo: I think some of the examples we gave when we’re talking about Enron and Theranos, and it seems like there is a point where nobody says the ugly truth, and therefore it festers for so long that, I mean, I believe the problem can become unsolvable.
Ray Zinn: Oh, because they don’t want to solve it. I mean, once you dig yourself in too deep, you tend to say, “Well, let’s see if we can just cover this thing up with some paint.” But ultimately the truth will come out. The paint-
Rob Artigo: Remember the electric truck? And they promoted it. One time they put the truck going down the hill so it would actually just coast down the hill, and it looked like it was driving at 80 miles an hour. And then another time when they were demonstrating it at an event, a major unveiling, they had to plug it into a wall in order for it to work. So like you said, they basically lipsticked on the pig and then had to eat what comes out of the pig in the end.
Ray Zinn: That’s interesting. Well, again, I think the ugly truth generally comes out when people know that they’re being dishonest or not being totally honest. I know it sounds strange because you’re either honest or you’re not honest. How do you be totally or completely or partly honest? But when they can’t look themselves in the eye or look in the mirror, I should say, and say, “Am I being completely honest?” If they can’t do that, then that’s the problem.
Rob Artigo: Yeah. And in the case of Enron, we know that some senior leaders conspired to make the major problems. They had a decent company in most parts, but then they had the one aspect that was doing all this weird shenanigans. Ray, we should have the listeners rate this podcast and build the reputation of Tough Things First, correct?
Ray Zinn: That’s it. Please invite your friends to share this podcast with them. Subscribe, be a participant. We need you.
Rob Artigo: Yeah, that’s right. And if you want to, go to toughthingsfirst.com. Ray has his links for his social media there, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and links to the books too, Tough Things First, the Zen of Zen series one, two, and three, The Essential Leader: 10 Skills, Attributes, and Fundamentals that Make Up the Essential Leader. And on Sale now, joining the series, Zen of Zen Daily. Thanks, Ray.
Ray Zinn: Yeah, please share and subscribe.
