One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

Blind Spot Number Two: Near the Finish Line
One of my consulting clients, a large hospital chain that was looking for a new chief executive officer,
illustrates the difficulty in sensing danger when a goal is in clear view. It was a time of upheaval and
crisis in the organization, and the board of trustees decided to hire someone with a decisive, take-charge
attitude. Its members were delighted when they found a qualified, confident candidate. They were so
thrilled to find themselves within inches of the finish line that they did not ask me to perform my usual
evaluation. As the board urgently debated whether to make an offer to this candidate, I was able to intrude
on their deliberations only long enough to ask a single question: “What questions did the candidate ask
each of you?”
The board members could recall almost no questions from the candidate. Instead, she seemed already
well-informed about the company and focused on selling herself and what she had to offer. I suggested
that this was a dangerous sign, as the new CEO would need to listen to many people before deciding what
to do. Her lack of curiosity suggested an unwillingness to listen, a penchant for action over understanding,
and an inclination to demand obedience rather than to inspire. The board members listened to me politely,
but the pressure to act was intense. They quickly offered the job to the candidate, and she accepted.
In the next six months, the new CEO did untold harm. She alienated a highly motivated and talented
staff who felt ignored by her edicts. She issued demands that demonstrated a lack of understanding about
her employees. For example, she wanted weekly reports of how people were spending their time, adding
what the staff perceived as extra busywork on top of their regular reporting forms. In a more disturbing
move, she cut back on the number of nursing assistants, despite protests from her staff. A few weeks later,
a patient died whose death might have been prevented by adequate staffing. The resulting lawsuit and
settlement would have paid the fired nursing assistants’ salaries many times over.
The CEO’s failure to listen and to think through issues—a failure that might have been predicted, based
on the small problem exhibited during her interview—turned out to be a literally fatal mistake. However
inconvenient it would have been to continue its search after having come so far in the interview process
with a promising candidate, the board would have been better off admitting to itself that she wouldn’t
work out and starting from square one.