By Chairman of the Board, George Foster, CBC

… spankings, lead paint, rusty playgrounds, secondhand smoke, toy guns, no seat belts, no helmets and drinking from the hose.

In fact, when a waiter at a restaurant takes my drink order I’ll ask for water first. He’ll dutifully ask “still” or “sparkled” and I’ll answer “growing up I drank out of the hose.” I’ll either get a startled look or a laugh. No pretentiousness about me.

We’ve survived the worst of COVID thus far. We will survive inflation and the gasoline crunch and our businesses will survive if we’re vigilant … and not complacent. How do I know? Vice Admiral James Stockdale convinced me.

The Stockdale Paradox

The Stockdale Paradox is a concept, along with its companion concept, Confront the Brutal Facts, developed by Jim Collins in his great book, Good to Great. The concept is named after James Bond Stockdale (1923-2005), a United States Navy Vice Admiral and aviator who was awarded the Medal of Honor as a prisoner of war for more than seven years during the Vietnam War.

Stockdale wound up in the Hoa Lo Prison, the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” and spent nearly eight years under unimaginably brutal conditions. He was physically tortured no fewer than 15 times. Techniques included beatings, whippings and near-asphyxiation with ropes.

“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” Stockdale told Collins. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

When asked what was the most important thing that he learned, he said “That’s easy. The optimists …oh they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

What is the Stockdale Paradox? Stockdale told Collins …

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality whatever it may be.”

Defining Your Current Reality

Many successful business owners suffer from survivor bias, a phenomenon that refers to the human tendency to study successful outcomes and ignore the accompanying failures. Or, as Collins mentions in another concept, failure to face the Brutal Facts.

Because of this, we adopt opinions, structure businesses and make decisions without examining all the data which can easily lead to failure.

In a recent presentation, Len Herstein, the author of the book Be Vigilant, discussed how success leads to overconfidence which leads to unawareness which leads to complacency.

He states that “success is not the end goal; keeping it is.” And, that’s where complacency comes in.

Herstein says complacency is not laziness; it’s overconfidence, self-satisfaction, smugness and unawareness of threats. The opposite of complacency is not paranoia, it’s vigilance.

Herstein says the two signs your company is at risk of complacency are:

• You can’t let go and,
• You don’t question success.

Two vigilant strategies to fight complacency are:

• Give autonomy
• Debrief success

You Can’t Let Go

Complacency flows up and down the organization from the C-suite to the front line. All along, discretion has a key role in vigilance.

Discretion in this instance is defined as individual choice or judgment or the power of free decision or latitude of choice within certain legal bounds, i.e., the “the decision was left to his discretion.”

Discretion drives awareness and engagement. A disengaged front line creates an unaware C-suite. The more scripted a role, the more checked out an employee is. Autonomy increases engagement 17%. According to Herstein, 59% of employees report being micromanaged.

So, where do you start? According to Herstein there are five strategies:

• Behaviors/outcomes vs. special tasks. Seek an end result, not define the means to an end.
• Allow for flexibility in performance metrics. Do employees produce just as well from home as they do in the office?
• Shalls vs. Mays. “Shall” is a command; whatever follows after “shall” is mandatory. On the other hand, “may” is discretionary; what comes after “may” is at the discretion of the person making the decisions.
• If you give discretion, allow for discretion. With discretion there will be mistakes. We learn a lot from mistakes. Education can be expensive but worth it in the end.
• Allow employees to manage their timelines. A tough one, but it’s all about the end result.

Question Success

Vigilance is questioning everything even when everything goes right. Success hides the micro failures.

For example, I know in our business (and this is maybe a residual trait from coaching in athletics), I was much more vigilant when things were going great, i.e., didn’t want things (billing, mistakes) falling through the cracks. And, tended to be more supportive of folks when things were not going well.

The benefits of debriefing success are it forces awareness, builds engagement, fights overconfidence, strengthens relationships and protects the success.

Again, Herstein outlines five keys to debriefing success:

• Outcome Independent. You put yourself out there and act based on what you think is right, without knowing what will happen and without hoping for a certain outcome.
• Timely / Frequent. We always debate whether a yearly review or multiple reviews? Same with feedback.
• Titles at the Door. Reminded of the line in the One Minute Manager when the employee comes to the Manager with a problem and the Manager responds: “Good! That’s what I’ve hired you to solve.”
• Structure. How you receive the information can be at the discretion of the giver of the information.
• Share the Findings. Part of the communal effort to build success companywide.

Leave complacency at the door. Let go, debrief success. Remember …

“Success is not the end goal; keeping it is.” -Len Herstein

For 42 years, Foster Marketing has survived and thrived by empowering our employees and never resting on our laurels. You can, too. For more information on how you can create a successful, non-complacent company, call Foster Marketing and we can show you the way.

Call us at 281-448-3435, contact us online or connect with us on LinkedIn.