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Lying and Cheating -Are they Ever Right?

Bob Ryan, About Purpose, Inc. ©2004

 

I can't keep it to myself. It's too good to hoard. What is it? It's the best business book I've read in a long time (and I read a lot of good ones). It is Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by Kim and Mauborgne from Harvard Business School Press, 2005.

 

I stayed up late last night, watching Boston tie the American League Championship Series with the Yankees. I don’t have any sports advice for you from the game, but I do have some thoughts about lying and cheating.

 

First, a little background on the game. Boston is ahead 4-2 in the eighth inning. Yankees are up with one out and a man on first. The batter hits a short grounder and the Boston pitcher fields it and runs to first to tag the batter. The batter swats the ball out of the pitcher’s hand and continues on to first, scoring a runner. The umpires eventually made the call that it was interference, called the batter out and recalled the runner to first base. The Yankees were upset and the batter publicly showed his exasperation with the call. But here’s the rub. One of the announcers said something like, “It was a good play by the batter. He’s going to be out anyway, so he had nothing to lose by trying to get away with knocking the ball out of the pitcher’s hand.”

 

A good play? Nothing to lose? The batter cheated. Plain and simple. Then when the call went against him, he lied, claiming the hand motion was nothing more than what was normal in running the bases.

 

Time and time again in business I hear people justifying slightly shady practices, little white lies with “That’s just SOP in our business.” I hear clients say that they have to play by bent rules because that’s how it’s done and not doing it means loss of business. I hear fellow consultants exaggerate their resumés and experiences to impress a prospective client.

 

Are lying and cheating ever justified? Had the Yankee batter been called safe, and the run scored, would it have been worth it? I say, “no.” The world would know that the great Yankees had to submit to cheating to score. Tens of thousands of people would have gotten the message that the end justifies the means. And in business, the consequences are just as dire. Let me list just a few consequences of lying and cheating in business.

 

  1. Lying and cheating are just plain wrong. Maybe that’s not enough of a reason for some people, but your conscious will eventually dog you resulting in guilty feelings and loss of enjoyment and pride in your work.

  2. Lying and cheating can be disastrous to your business. Eventually, you’ll be found out and you will have destroyed the trust of your customers, vendors and employees.

  3. Condoning lying and cheating creates a negative, unstable workplace. Your employees see that it’s okay to lie and cheat in one area, and they will quickly generalize it to the next. Your corporate culture will be marked with suspicion. Honest employees will become jaded and disheartened.

  4. Lying and cheating make you part of the problem, not part of the solution. Lying and cheating is cowardly and perpetuates a system in which lying and cheating seem to prosper. If you can’t succeed in your business without cheating, you’re not good enough to win.

  5. Lying and cheating – even the “little white lies” – lead to bigger problems. Do you really think that the companies getting caught in international scandals were committing their first offense? No, I can assure you that thousands of little lies and “harmless” cheating started an escalating chain.

 

Here’s some free advice. No matter how honest you believe you and your company are, schedule a two-hour discussion with your employees, your partners, your board. Identify areas in your industry, in your company, in your department, that are vulnerable to lying and cheating. Make a plan to immediately stop any lying and cheating that might be going on, and to create safeguards against falling into the vicious cycle.

 

As for the Yankees player and the Fox network announcer, I hope they have an opportunity to really think about the consequences of their actions beyond that one run, one inning, one game. Lying and cheating are never right – not for any reason.