“West Michigan Nice” Hard at Work

I was working with a leadership team to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System into their organization. In the beginning, things seemed cordial, but as sessions progressed the West Michigan Nice toxicity reared its ugly head.

During a break, the Head of Finance told me that the owner strongly disliked accountability and would do anything to sabotage this process. I said, “Great, let’s put this on the issues list.” His response, “Oh no! I would be out of a job if that happened.”

One week after our Vision Building session, the Head of Operations told me that the Head of Sales didn’t really care about executing on the goals she agreed to. I said, “Great, let’s put this on the issues list.” His reply, “We could, but it’s not really an issue.”

Shortly after our 2nd Vision Building session, the owner was worried about the Head of Marketing’s ability to interact with other team members with respect. Before I could say, let’s put it on the issues list, the owner proceeded to share that it’s something that he intends to avoid because it’s useless to talk about.

In my mind, I was counting the dollars of wasted time this leadership team must have spent talking about shallow irrelevant topics. I was imagining the rest of their employees acting the same way their leaders were. I was afraid for this company’s future if no one was willing to enter the danger zone. Who was going to talk about the lack of accountability to profitability? Who was going to ask the owner to step up and lead? Who was going to push for what was right?

Using Honesty to Solve the Problem

After all this toxicity took place, the team came together for another session. I began the session by saying, “Today we need to evolve as an open and honest team. We need to expose the true condition of this company because only then can we really create progress.”

And this time would be different, someone decided to expose the truth. In one brief moment of courage, the Head of Finance added the issue about the owner’s lack of buy-in. A few moments of truth later, Operations confronted Sales and the owner called out Marketing. The conversation was riddled with conflict, sparking emotions, and debate.

The result was a team entering the danger zone, a team willing to discuss the tough subjects, and ultimately, a team ready to start spending time on truth. The team had resolved a majority of its dysfunction in just a few short hours. At the end of the session, they rated themselves, but this time the ratings were the highest they had ever been. The common thread in the positive feedback for the session was the team’s appreciation for the truth.

This is us. This is “West Michigan Nice” in the workplace. Although it feels civil and safe, it’s costing us time, money, and frustration. So, my plea to West Michigan professionals: let’s quit deceiving each other, step up and own our roles, expose the truth, and get some real earth-shattering progress.