Unlocking your unknown knowns through external reviews

Donald Rumsfeld famously said: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

But what he didn't talk about is the unknown knowns - what you don't know that you do actually know.

Still with me?

Let me go back a step or two.

Imagine that you are on the Board of an organisation going through crisis. You want to understand what's happening, but no one person has the full picture.

But your organisation as a whole, does.

One of the things I do a lot is piece together what a charity - as a whole - knows. I talk with people at a range of levels and gather together the jigsaw puzzle pieces to find out what is going wrong - and this helps figure out how to fix it.

This is really hard - if not impossible - to do internally. Hierarchical structures, history and taboos work to stop information flow going upwards, leaving most Boards - and many CEOs - out of the loop with what people really know and think.

So external reviews, where there is real empathy, experience, and understanding, can be transformational in unlocking what you don't know that you know across an organisation.

This might be in a range of situations:

• To understand problems that lurk beneath the surface, long before they become reality.
• To identify what's really going on with your Board functioning, so you can take the necessary steps forward.
• To identify the causes of a crisis, so that any solution doesn't immediately put you back at the risk of repeating it.
• To resolve siloes, cultural issues, and staff dissatisfaction, so you can deliver meaningful opportunities to bring your staff team together effectively.

It's important for those at the executive and Board levels to be open to external reviews - even if there's a risk that the findings may not reflect well on those at the top.

By recognising the amount of information held internally, and the value of that to resolving a wide range of challenges, you can unlock your unknown knowns and turn them into known knowns!

Only then will you have the full information and be able to make the right decisions.

Felicia Willow is a charity consultant and interim CEO (8 appointments and counting) working on strategy, governance, culture and crisis. She delivers a range of options to unlock unknown knowns, including health checks, crisis reviews, governance reviews and culture activities. Her website is www.willowcharityconsulting.co.uk and you can contact her on [email protected]. She delivers a range of options to unlock unknown knowns, including health checks, crisis reviews, governance reviews and culture activities.