How can we build better businesses?
The only way to be create change is by asking difficult questions.
This is hard to do when you’re inside an institution.
Stafford Beer wrote that when the Emperor asks for dumplings, you give him dumplings.
When someone in a position of power asks you to do something, however foolish, you can do it. Or you can quit.
If you’re going to question powerful people it’s sometimes easier for them to remove you than answer them.
But in the long term, such actions result in weaker institutions and eventual decline.
That’s why wise leaders need people around them that are willing to speak truth to power.
If you want to build better businesses you have to be willing to question the taken-for-granted ways of doing things now.
You also have to question the products and strategies that are proposed to you to improve the situation.
That’s the Socratic method – assume nothing, and question everything in the pursuit of the truth.
It’s a risky strategy. The famous painting of Socrates shows him still challenging opinions while reaching out for the glass of hemlock that’s going to kill him.
But that’s the only way we can make things better – by putting our thinking to the test.
Handcrafted insight 