Management Behavioral Essentials - The Facebook Edition

I have written a lot about management, culture, skills and other soft stuff. It is critically important for any leader to have what it takes. Not just on a sunny Sunday afternoon, but specifically when there is trouble, turmoil, bad press, angry employees, scandals and other major headaches. As you may have read in my articles a few times, I am big on things like ownership, accountability, autonomy, responsibility and other grown-up traits. Because that is how it works. You are not just an old school boss that yells commands, you are supposed to be a visionary leader, right?

From experience with interviews and business meetings, I look at this model as often as possible when trying to understand the person in front of me trying to make a point.

Are they the owner of the problem? Accountable for consequences? Acting responsibly?

Let's look at the recent turmoil at Facebook. We can measure the actions and words of the leadership against the OAR<>BED model. Does the leadership team own the topics of foreign influence on US elections, the Cambridge Analytica troubles and general privacy concerns? Hmm that is what they say. But actions speak louder than words, and every time the company gets caught, management change their behavior after. Like when the NY Times found that Facebook was actually using a dodgy PR firm to spread stories about their competitors. First Facebook denied having used this PR firm for deviation tactics, but caught the ties with the firm. That is reactive behavior, not proactive.

Are they accountable? Well - in their own words they are, but their deeds speak differently. They have not really taken control, they have not solved the core issue, they have not changed the culture. It's all pretty devious to say the least. The behavior of people is that of those involved in a cover-up. Not very grown-up. Are they acting responsibly? Do they "see it - do it - own it?" Au contraire.

Now let's take a look at negative behavior. The "below the line" part. Blame, excuses and denial. I have written a lot about that, fed up with years of stories told by people, including myself, looking for a quick way out.

A post in March '18 says Facebook made mistakes in handling the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it was so mealy-mouth and free of any apology that it was clear to many people this was a case of "had to say". Mummy made me apologize for breaking the neighbor's window. A comic edit to this low-effort response was quickly provided. There is an element of denial here. About the implications, about Facebook's responsibility, and ultimately about the CxO's role in this.

It is said that behavior, especially bad behavior, gets more instinctive when the heat gets turned up. Well, well - what have we here. The CEO blaming his operations chief - Blame #1. A reflex to have a PR bureau write stories about competitors - Blame #2 and Denial #1, because "the company's leadership remains convinced that its recent crises are primarily public relations problems". Making up excuses is even hard. Here is one: "Computer says no". Facebook blamed AI limitations for not being able to respond to bad actors on its platform. But artificial intelligence is not a solution for shortsightedness and lack of transparency. The NY Times has read the OAR-BED behavior model as well and calls Facebook's below-the-line approach "Delay, Deny & Deflect". Ouch.

What should the Facebook top do? More PR, spin doctors, crisis control meetings and mitigation strategies? No. They clearly failed to learn from Wells Fargo. Nobody believes the sob stories anymore until the bad actors are gone and the bad culture has been destroyed with fire. With the force of public outrage (a Facebook core product - irony), the leadership will be forced into more drastic measures. If the CEO as ultimate boss stays in blaming mode, he will fire Sandberg and a few other people. Since that does not work (it will not fix the underlying issues), Facebook will continue to struggle and fall from one scandal into another. At some point of time it will become clear that Zuckerberg is not part of the solution, but part of the problem, and his own behind will be on the line. But he is smart enough not to have things deteriorate that much. Maybe just not empathic enough.