The “Baghdad Bob” syndrome

Gene Mage

Welcome to week 8 of the “Elephants in the office” series. To catch up on installments 1-7, visit www.makingitwork.com.

One of my clients uses the acronym DRIP to describe the state of decision making today: data rich and information poor. Good decisions begin with good information. Good information comes from the people closest to the action and flows along the highway of trust.

When mistrust overshadows an organization, information stops flowing in two critical dimensions.

1. Vertical blockage. Leaders and workers make informed decisions when information flows freely in the vertical dimension. But I regularly hear top managers complain about how difficult it is to get their message out to the troops. “Our executive team spent months developing a strategic plan, but most of our employees have never seen it,” commented one frustrated CEO. “Information seems to get bottlenecked one layer below me.” When the top-down flow of information stops, workers feel uninformed, and tend to view the leadership as secretive.

But the bottom-up flow of information is equally critical. “Our leadership is clueless,” noted one front line nurse. “They don’t want to hear bad news, so we do not bother speaking up any more.” When subordinates filter data on the way up, leaders only hear what others think they want to hear, and end up flying blind. You might call this the “Baghdad Bob” syndrome where everyone in the world knows what is really happening except the leadership.

2. Horizontal blockage. Teamwork, cooperation, and customer service all run on horizontal information flow. The other day I called a tech support help line with a question. After navigating through four layers of voice mail prompts, I finally reached a live person who asked questions to obtain the pertinent facts about my situation, and then transferred me to a technician. When I reached tech support, the perky Gen-Y computer expert asked me the same questions again. Fortunately, the tech support rep knew his stuff, and was able to solve my problem. Poor horizontal information flow frustrates both employees and customers.

When I teach conflict resolution in the health care environment I like to set up an experiential learning exercise that simulates interdepartmental conflict. We always ask, “So, does this ever happen in your workplace?” The answer is inevitably a room full of head nods and nervous laughter as participants acknowledge that many departments are not even on speaking terms with one another. When horizontal information flow stops, conflict abounds.

At the root of these information blockages you will find an underlying mistrust. Mistrust stems from the actual experience of workers and leaders over time, as they have reaped negative consequences from sharing information.

From the top down, leaders have noticed that when they engaged their team to discuss the strategy, workers got busy resisting or undermining the plan.

From the bottom up, workers noticed that those who spoke up about bad news were often shot on sight.

Employees watched as their ideas were appropriated by unscrupulous superiors and taken without credit.

Between the organization and the outside world, customers noticed that their vendors played fast and loose with their proprietary information.
Suppliers noticed that customers used the information provided as ammunition for exacting price concessions.

Departments and functional groups within an organization found themselves the object of finger pointing when something went wrong.

Is it any wonder people do not trust each other?

To rebuild trust, leaders and workers must do three things well.

Listen non-judgmentally. By our willingness to hear all points of view, we open the door to getting the information we need. People trust those who really listen without judging or retaliating.
Invest in relationships. Strong relationships are the foundation of trust. It takes hard work, time, and patience to get to know people, and build interpersonal rapport with others.
Be trustworthy. When we keep confidences, and act consistently, others feel safe around us.

Syndicated columnist Gene C. Mage is author of the book Managing for High Performance. To contact Gene, visit www.makingitwork.com.

Return to Column Archive