Friday, March 20, 2020

Pandemic #1: No. More. Bullshit.

For decades I've been thinking about the many ways overselling and spinning positive undermines trust. Like to the point I imagine it could be our undoing.

I've watched it erode business relationships in the corporate world. It's abundantly clear with PR and politics and white-washed history.

I talked about it with my college students as they built arguments in their research papers. In the classes I teach now at the jail, we discuss the difference between saying "I will never use again" and "I am committed to staying clean and these are the things I'm doing to help me."

Don't even get me started on the challenge of selling VWs when direct competitors are offering smoke-and-mirrors discounts on the radio non-stop!

And how here we are dealing with a pandemic.

I understand the desire to play down the negatives when so much is at stake. But it is precisely because there is so much at stake that we need the truth, straight up, no bullshit.

We need expectations properly set.

Especially from the top.

Please. No more bullshit.

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