silence-comes-from-the-stupidity-of-the-crowd

When the Adlon reopened almost 20 years ago, I was the first hotel manager there.

You can imagine the pressure that was on all of us: in the first few months, the hotel had to show that the revived legend Adlon could meet the high expectations. That the immense effort that had been put into the reopening had paid off. No Cigars for Bill Clinton Nine months after the reopening, we get the ultimate opportunity to prove it. We have the President of the United States of America as a guest: Bill Clinton. The highlight of the visit is supposed to be the grand state banquet held in his honor. Everything is going perfectly until dessert. But then suddenly my head waiter Karl comes up to me with a serious expression and takes me aside: "Carsten, I think we are about to make a big mistake. We need to cancel the planned cigar service. Bill Clinton is sitting there. The photographers are there. If we serve cigars now - which photo will make the headlines tomorrow?" A Narrow Escape It suddenly dawns on me. The Lewinsky affair is currently making headlines. A cigar plays a significant role, to say the least: the main role. I'm sure you remember the headlines. For us, that evening at the Adlon, having Clinton with a cigar would not only be the worst-case scenario in terms of press photos. Much worse would be the breach of trust as hosts. We would greatly embarrass our guest of honor. And signal to all other state guests: Adlon is not really good at discretion. We almost let it slip through. If Karl had kept quiet out of fear, we - meaning me, as I had planned the cigar service - would have made a serious mistake. Freedom of Speech instead of Silence Spiral That's why we need employees who dare to speak up. Not every company has such openness. Not wanting to stand out, not pointing out mistakes to superiors out of fear of reprisals, blaming others out of self-protection: Many companies led by Corporate Monkeys have a culture of silence where a culture of learning from mistakes should be. Nothing is more constructive than an open approach to mistakes - especially our own. Silence is a consequence of herd stupidity. The herd instinct trains us to lose attention. Freedom of speech, especially an open culture of learning from mistakes, signals appreciation to employees. And in the age of real-time digital customer feedback, it gives us a much-needed advantage: if we don't openly discuss mistakes with each other, our guests will. Article by Carsten K. Rath. He is one of the Top100 speakers. Find his profile here!