

Be Really Real in your Business:  Why Candor Works - ziadbc
http://www.sean-johnson.com/2010/11/24/why-candor-works/

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wccrawford
Candor works because people crave it.

Why? Because they get so little of it right now.

If more people were perfectly honest with their customers, they would stop
craving it so much, and they would turn to wanting businesses to be polite and
thoughtful instead. (Not that they don't want this now, but candor is craved a
little more.)

I'm not saying to lie to your customers. I'm never happy to have been lied to,
no matter how often I get the truth. But it's worth noting that businesses
respond to the market, and that's why you see shifts in things like return
policies and honesty.

~~~
danilocampos
This argument only works to a point. No amount of living indoors will make me
sick of it as a lifestyle – I don't enjoy camping for more than a day or so. I
enjoy living indoors because it's better – no bugs, controlled temperature,
comfortable surroundings, safety, running water, toilets, electricity, on and
on.

In the same way, candor is simply better than being bullshitted. Moreover,
candor vs. politeness is a false dichotomy. You can be thoughtful and honest
at the same time.

I'd say that the shifts we see toward more honest business come as a simple
result of network effects created by the web. Do right by people? Word gets
around faster than ever and you are rewarded with additional business. Screw
people over? Everyone will find out just how bad you are to work with – and
you'll pay for it lost revenues. It's a potent carrot and stick.

~~~
wccrawford
The logic only works on masses of people, not individuals.

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fendale
This post arrived here today just after me getting told off for being honest,
again. I still don't know if being too honest is right or wrong.

I work in a big company (100K employees worldwide), and as such there are
company politics going on that few would believe unless you worked there.

This time I got scolded for telling some of our DBA team members that the
database we were trying to fix was a schema design disaster from day 1 - I
didn't call anyone out, just plainly stated the problems with the design so we
don't make the same mistakes again. Apparently admitting that outside my local
team could lead to bad things happening politically, and I should just say
nothing.

What are you supposed to do? Lie, refuse to comment when asked, sweep the
problems under the rug (which is generally what happens)? I really don't know,
and as a hacker, I am not great at playing the big company games. Maybe I
should say nothing a bit more often, but that doesn't exactly get the
customers served any better. So far I have stuck with the honest approach, but
I still don't know if its correct or not!

~~~
joelhaus
_so we don't make the same mistakes again_ \- I can relate, but generally
there's some element of ego involved. Better to save the critique for the
planning phase of your next project.

Especially in large companies, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the
"good-enough" (bootstrapped startups usually have more flexibility here, but
often use it to their detriment). Supervisors definitely value employees that
get things done without lots of questions... even if the results are not
perfect.

Generally, I think the ability to prioritize is definitely an under-
appreciated skill. This is what makes the whole MVP philosophy so effective
and I think the same thing goes for producing results in large corporations...

P.S. I think your experience is a pretty good example of what drives many
people to build startups.

~~~
fendale
> P.S. I think your experience is a pretty good example of what drives many
> people to build startups.

Yea, this place drives me more and more mad. I have dabbled in my own side
projects, but I am thinking more and more that the time to leave the mega-
corporation will have to come soon, for my own sanity at least!

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brandnewlow
Sean and the rest of the Jelly Chicago crew he and friends have pulled
together are good people because of thoughts like this. If you're full of
smoke, eventually, someone pokes a hole in you and then you're just an empty
bag.

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elptacek
Curious. All of the advice I've read about women in the work place contradicts
this assertion. To wit, that women tend to be TOO candid, and should restrain
this compulsion in order to thrive.

~~~
kilian
I think this is because it's advice for a _corporate_ environment. Candor
works with customers because customers want to know they can depend on you.
However as someone else in this thread commented, corporate environments have
a lot of politics. Other people don't depend on you (or don't perceive it as
such) and, to make a blatant generalization, are more worried about keeping
their own job. So: work with customers? Be candid. Work in corporate? Don't be
candid.

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jhuckestein
IMHO this is one of the reasons online social networks (and to some extent
professional networking sites) don't work very well.

Common weaknesses bond much stronger than common strengths.

