Wishfulness and Yesmanship (originally posted January 4, 2011)


I just finished reading "Operation Mincemeat" by Ben Macintyre, an extremely entertaining book about a British intelligence coup that fooled the Germans during WWII.  The plot involved planting a corpse, in a Royal Marine uniform, off the coast of Spain.  The supposedly top secret documents carried by the dead man indicated an Allied invasion of Greece, instead of Sicily, in July 1943.  The Germans were duped into believing in the veracity of the documents, and so failed to reinforce the site of the invasion.  But what's this ancient history have to do with us?  Macintyre lays out in fine detail how the Germans were fooled by an elaborate plot because of two common intelligence failures:  "wishfulness and yesmanship."  People analyzing a situation wish for facts to be favorable to their preconceived notions.  And even if they have doubts, they are unwilling to stand up to a superior with a different point of view.  This makes one think about management in almost any setting.  The best-run organizations are also those that allow people across the enterprise to question assumptions without fear of retribution.  Organizations ruled by wishful thinking and "yes-men" are often doomed to failure.  Leadership is often less about convincing your subordinates that you're the smartest person in the room, and more about creating an environment where ideas and discoveries can be aired and discussed openly.  A leader afraid of the vulnerability this kind of environment brings with it should perhaps consider another line of work.

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