Trustworthy: The Competitive Power of Truth
They must never fear danger or dishonesty.
Sun Tzu's The Art of War 1:1:18
A reputation for honesty is an invaluable part of any competitive position. Sun Tzu described “trustworthy” as one of the five key characteristics of a leader. The Chinese character for “trustworthy,” however, has a double meaning. It also means “trusting.” The idea is those who are trusting worthy also know when (and when not) to trust others.
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Because of the mistranslation of another line in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, people think that success in competition depends on “deception.” I made this mistake in my own translation. In the twenty years since, I have learned that what Sun Tzu was talking about was not “deception” but “perception,” the fact that our perceptions are always different than reality. The hardest thing is is knowing truth about any given situation or person. Our strength comes not from deceiving others, but by using the truth to make ourselves stronger.
Predictions We Can Trust
What determines if people trust us? What points to whether or not we should trust others? It is not simply “telling the whole truth” because we have no clue about the whole truth. There is a simple test that everyone uses whether we realize it or not. People trust us when we accurately predict to future. We trust people when their predictions come true.
The most basic of these predictions are based upon how well our values match up with those of others. Some of this is very basic. Does something taste good when we say it is good? Is something fun when we predict that it will be fun? Is something difficult when we predict that it will be difficult? Is something worthwhile when we predict that it will be worthwhile? The ability to predict things shows our grasp of the world and how well we understand the tastes and values of those with whom we are communicating. This is the beginning of trust.
The next step is more of a challenge. Our most important predictions regard our own behavior. In other words, do we do what we say we will do? Do we do it when we say we will do it? Or are we unpredictable? Sometimes doing what we say, but not consistently. Unpredictability is worse than being dishonest. Everyone soon learns not to trust a dishonest person. We can depend on them to lie. We cannot depend on an unpredictable person at all.
Good Intentions Versus Reality
Many people continually make promises with the best of intentions but continually fail to deliver on them. This continual failure is often because they have an exaggerated opinion of their own capabilities. Or an extravagant opinion of how easily others are motivated. Often their predictions are based on everyone else cooperating with them. When they fail, they blame everyone else. This group might include all the world’s politicians (if we assume their intentions weren’t simply to mislead us all along). Politicians regularly promise to deliver prosperity, equality, and justice. They say that adopting their simple system will lead to Utopia. And, as often as they promise, they fail to deliver.
We must understand that our ability to make predictions always extends beyond our own actions. We all must work within a larger world where one crisis after another interferes with our plans. Practical strategy requires quickly adapting to unexpected events. How well we predict others and “unexpected” events demonstrates our grasp of strategic perspective and our ability to diagnose common strategic situations. It demonstrates our understanding of people and what motivates them. Mostly, it demonstrates an understanding of our own finite resources and limitations.
“A man's got to know his limitations.”
Clint Eastwood is “Dirty Harry” in Magnum Force
The Problem of Dishonesty
The worst thing that can happen to a child is for them to get away with lying. Lying is one of the first innovations that most children invent on their own. Fortunately, very young children do not often get away with it. Their parents can see through their lies, and they are punished for their lies. This is one of life’s most important lessons. It should be enforced consistently. Smart children who get away with lies can too soon make a habit of it. This habit is a ticking bomb, waiting to explode.
We rise and fall based upon our position in the minds of others. Any position build on lies is inherently flawed and must fail. What makes anyone of us so smart that we think we can fool everyone? This is simple arrogance. Like all bad habits, successful lying is rewarding and therefore addicting.
Lies twist our perceptions of reality and make it easier for us to lose touch with what is important. Lies divide our focus forcing us to hide and cover up. Focus and unity are the basis of all strategic strength. Lying weakens us in every way. Dishonesty saps our limited supply of energy. The more we lie, the weaker and more vulnerable we become. The more any society depends upon lies, the more corrupt it becomes. Such societies always go into decline because transactions become more and more costly. The lack of trust acts like a tax on every transaction because every promise must be verified.
Honest people and high-trust organizations and societies are more successful consistently over time because they win supporters. Dishonest people and untrustworthy organizations and societies are doomed to failure. Very large organizations seem unbeatable but they consistently fail over time. One of the reasons is that they grow so large that information no longer can be trusted within the organization. The same is true of societies. Diverse values can lead too easily into a diverse view of the “truth.” Opinions are confused with facts and facts with opinions.
Our self-interest is always best served by saying in touch with reality. Objective facts are the facts that everyone can agree upon. Subjective opinions are where we disagree. Treating subjective opinions and fancies as though they are objective facts is a form of insanity.
There are various ways to interpret any set of data. If we are rewarded for interpreting it in a way that satisfies the fancies of those who pay us, the information tends to be falsified. At first, the differences may be subtle but, over time, they become more and more blatant. This is why more of more of the “research” appearing in academic journals cannot be duplicated. The information is being manipulated to satisfy the popular or desired point of view.
The Longer Term
We can fail honestly any number of times and recover from those failures. If we are honest about what we did wrong, we learn from our mistakes. If we are honest about our mistakes to others, they are more likely to trust us that if we just promote our successes. We become more successful over time because we are learning, and more people are supporting us.
On the other hand, people can build huge apparently successful enterprises founded on dishonesty. What they are really building is a fragile, house of cards. They are often built solely on blind trust. We have seen numerous examples of them in our own era. In time, all of these enterprises fail. Those who started them end up being despised. Unearned trust is never a strategy that can survive the inevitable tests of time.