STFU #82 - When Emperor Forgot to Wear Clothes and When Hanuman Cried - How to Solve Groupthink of Founders & other startup-ers

-- The Emperor’s New Clothes --

Once upon a time, there was an Emperor who was obsessed with fancy new clothes and spent lavishly on them. He was so obsessed with clothes that it came at the expense of his daily work.?

One day, two con men posed as weavers and visited the emperor.?

They offered to make one of the most beautiful pairs of clothes for him. The specialty of these clothes - they were not visible to anyone who was stupid or incompetent or?those who were unfit for their positions.?

The egoistic emperor hired them.?

The con men set up fake looms and pretended to make ‘real’ clothes. A series of officials, starting with the emperor's wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visited them to check their progress. Each saw that the looms were empty but pretended otherwise to avoid being judged ‘incompetent’ or stupid.

Finally, the weavers ‘completed’ making the emperor's new clothes. They pretended to dress him up and praised his looks.?

He then set off in a procession before the whole city. He imagined wearing these invisible clothes in front of everyone while actually walking naked in front of the entire public.

The public, even though uncomfortable, played along, worried about their self-image. The emperor kept walking around in style flaunting his ‘new’ clothes!

Suddenly, one small child blurted out, “The emperor is naked. The Emperor is naked!”

The emperor was startled. But he continued to walk in style and denial, both together.

-- Hanuman Crying for the world! --

It was an early morning in 2017. Meerganj, a small locality in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, was just waking up to the chanting in the temples and the chirping of the birds.?

In a small Hanuman Temple in the locality, the main priest Rajbhawan Pandey aka Bhola Pandit started performing his daily ritual.?

Suddenly, he noticed something that shocked him.?

He?spotted what appeared like ‘tears’ flowing from the eyes of Lord Hanuman’s idol! He went around and shared his shock with a few locals around.

The news spread like wildfire.?In no time, there was a commotion near the Temple. Devotees started arriving from near and far, queuing up to visit the temple and get a glimpse of their ‘weeping’ Hanumanji.

In a few hours, loud chants of?‘Hanuman Chalisa’, Ram Dhun, and other devotional songs became a prominent sight. So much so that Police had to be called to keep the crowd in control.

Some wanted to witness the miracle. Some saw it as a bad omen, claiming that God was unhappy with the state of affairs in the world.

In this ‘miracle’ world, no one challenged the irrationality. Everyone played along!

Scientists, however, said the development could be the result of a chemical reaction. The rational beings?attributed the tears to the presence of mercuric oxide in ‘sindoor’ (vermillion) applied by devotees on the idol.?

Mercuric oxide can absorb water without dissolving in it. Once saturation point is reached, the excess water starts rolling down the idol which may be taken as ‘tears’. However, the process will be visible for a short duration

Did this change anyone’s point of view?

Over the next few years (till as recent as Feb 2024), similar incidents happened in Kanpur UP, Gujarat, Hubli (Karnataka), and Sendhwa (Madhya Pradesh), with news of ‘tears’ resulting in crowds rushing to the spot, and chanting hanuman chalisa lamenting the state of affairs that the God was worried about!

-- Emperor and Hanuman-led Groupthink --

While the Emperor was in his own world till a child ‘uncovered’ the truth (literally!) for him, the ‘tears’ of hanuman spread as a believable story, even though illogical.

Both are examples of how groups tend to make irrational and poor choices just in order to ‘conform’ to each other and avoid challenging the norms. This, in psychology, is called ‘groupthink’ - a classic concern with most teams, as they get used to each other - when friends and colleagues start overlapping, one avoids speaking the truth due to the fear of judgment or social pressure.?

In one case, power or authority makes you keep quiet while in the other, friendship or social pressure stops you from speaking up.

A startup founder usually has a point of view in almost all matters, some qualified, most unqualified. On the other hand, his team does not want to appear stupid for fear of being judged or being disrespectful and hence does not dare to say anything.?

In that challenge, they let the founder stay delusional in his own worldview.?

So not firing an ‘OK’ team member, not challenging ‘unrealistic’ targets, ignoring the flaws in thinking in team meetings, or not killing the biases of ‘seniors’ - all these are examples of letting the emperor walk naked.?

What is the solution? When you spot something wrong, challenge it and call it ‘wrong’?

As Warren Buffett tells his team and CEOs of his businesses,??“When you find bad news, I say get it right, get it fast, get it out, get it over.”

Get It Right -?Admit the mistake and take full ownership of it. Don’t play the blame game.

Get It Fast -?Rather than doing damage, address the problem quickly and intelligently.

Get It Out -?Take action to resolve the issue—don’t let it linger!

Get It Over -?Put it in your rearview mirror as soon as possible. Refocus on where you’re leading your business.

At True Elements, I have been a victim of wearing new clothes a lot of times. Thankfully, have to rely on some smart team members to call out the biases. However, as you build structure in the team and move from startup to scale-up, new clothes keep getting added, and people struggle to talk about it.?

Sometimes, one has to prod others to speak up.?

At other times, group think has engulfed all of us as a team when we have believed in something and stayed obsessed with it, even though the market and our customers have been shouting otherwise. Some products fail but we still persist, some pricing is off, but we stay rigid, and some costs of doing business are extremely high, but we still go ahead. All of it stays till some scientist among us comes out and calls our bluff.

And that is when we follow Buffett’s advice with utmost agility - Get it Right, Get it Fast, Get it Out, and Get it Over.

In summary, have a childlike curiosity to challenge everything around you - as only children are not worried about being judged or penalized. And when you see everyone nodding around you, assume something is amiss - take it as a bad omen! :)

For the Founders who believe that they know a lot more than most around them, check your ‘birthday suit’

For the ones who take unanimous agreements as a bad omen,

STFU

References: Wikipedia, Hindustan Times articles, Google Images,?"The Emperor's New Clothes" Fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen