C H A P T E R 18
The Whole Truth, and Nothing But
TRUTH IS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES inside many contemporary organizations. People who surface problems or issues are often told that they aren’t “team players” or are being “too negative.” And the old adage about killing the messenger, or at least resenting the messenger, still holds. Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling clearly did not want to hear about the problems that might cause Enron to miss its financial projections. So Sherron Watkins was basically told to leave the company after she brought the unwelcome information to Lay’s attention, while Andrew Fastow was rewarded handsomely for massaging the numbers. But it’s not just in places like Enron. This tendency to want to hear good news is extremely widespread, ...
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