The organisational point to be made is, of
course, that there is an understandable temptation to encourage processes which bring
good news and a reluctance, if only subconscious, which can still be just as critical, to
discourage processes which bring bad news.
It is important to recognise that any manager is going to prefer to hear good news than
bad news and the temptation for colleagues and subordinates is to tell people what they
want to hear. In the long term this can of course be disastrous, and managers and
political leaders alike need consciously to recognise the distortion that can occur in
channels of communication and beware of succumbing to it. This can be checked if the
danger is consciously recognised and if the ancient Greek tradition of slaying the
messenger who brings news of defeat in battle is avoided. It may also be necessary to
take independent checks to evaluate the information that is received. It was
comprehension of this point which led some Generals, at the time of the
War, to say that ‘if you want to know what’s going on you have to go to the trenches.’
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