How to Get Bad News to the Top
Fast Company, September, 2002 by Scott Kirsner
There's been a lot of bad news in business lately. And almost all of it is a result of leaders who ignore bad news -- until it turns into worse news. It turns out that what you don't know -- and don't even want to know -- can and will hurt you. Ask the folks who have worked for Enron, Andersen, Global Crossing, Merrill Lynch, Tyco, ImClone, the FBI, the CIA, the Catholic Church . . . you get the idea. What exactly is it about bad news that makes leaders want to ignore it? "There's a bias for optimism in humans and in organizations," says Chip Heath, a professor at Stanford Business School who studies how bad news circulates. "Individuals don't ever go looking for bad news, and we don't like telling it to others. So bad news is unlikely to get to the people who can actually do...
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