Chatham Sullivan - The Clarity Principle: How Great Leaders Make the Most Important Decision in Business

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sullivan, Chatham, 1976

The clarity principle : how great leaders make the most important decision in business (and what happens when they dont) / Chatham Sullivan.First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-43466-6 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-62727-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-63068-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-63071-6 (ebk)

1. Leadership. 2. Decision making. I. Title.

HD57.7.S85 2013

658.4'092dc23

2012049785

To my family

Elizabeth, Sophia, Abraham, and Lyra

Introduction

Three hundred senior managers of a Fortune 500 consumer goods company sat patiently in a ballroom of a posh San Francisco hotel. Like me, they were there to hear important news. Leadership changes, restructuring, and questions about the companys strategy had spread confusion throughout the organization. The assembled group hoped for some clarity.

As a consultant, my job was to help the group discuss the implications of the new strategy later that day. The companys senior executives had worked right up to the eleventh hour, and I knew only the bare outlines of what they were going to reveal. I was curious myself to see what would happen.

It started well enough. The morning had been finely choreographed. Professional videographers patrolled the perimeter of the room while a succession of senior executives delivered warm-up speeches for the new strategy. Introduced by tasteful selections of contemporary rock hits, the executives passed by the companys supersized logo which adorned a backlit wall above center stage. Like presenters at the Oscars, the executives traded playful banter at the podium. Some offered heartfelt pep talks about the future. Others shared stories. It was scripted, but good-humored. They seemed to know the right words to say. One executive declared, We have to make big choices.

Good, I thought from my perch in the back of the room. This sounds pretty serious. They might get something started today.

Two hours later my optimism had faded. The trailer had been better than the movie. Beyond the 2 2 that summarized the strategy, the bullet points, and the management speak, the new strategy didnt say much. If anything, it confused rather than clarified. It was vague, equivocal, and short on substance for people in the room. It certainly didnt satisfy the bigger questions that I knew were on everybodys minds.

Sitting at the back of the ballroom, I looked around to observe the audience reaction. I craned my neck to see the expressions of managers in the row of tables directly in front of me. It wasnt good. I saw hints of exasperation and cynicism. People stirred and shifted in their seats, or shot quick glances at one another. The bolder ones expressed their feelings in harsh whispers (Whats really different?); the majority held their tongues, nodded, or else sighed in resignation. Then, as the wagon train of speakers rolled on, I imagined that the assembled managers were already beginning to work out in their heads what they would say to their people back homepeople who were waiting for answers.

As for me, I sank down in my chair and stared into the vast space above the ballroom. My job didnt hang in the balance. I was just a consultant. Still, I felt a mixture of disappointment and frustration. Not because my task for the afternoon had become more difficult, but because I had seen this movie too many times before. It was one more example of a company that couldnt get clear about what it was.