Summary

Survivorship, or selection bias when telling company stories, promotes an echo chamber, where the organisation becomes blind to its inadequacies. This happens when companies promote the stories of people who have succeeded (or survived) in their system, while ignoring those who’ve fallen by the wayside. People, particularly leaders and those who have successful careers in the company can end up attributing their success to their merit, while ignoring other factors that may have played a part. It also comes in the way, of being empathetic to other perspectives.

Tanisha left the car shaking her head. What was wrong with her colleagues, she thought? She needed to compose herself after that ride. Flicking her phone screen, she thumbed through the careers section on her company website. There she was, in a video, talking about how great a place this was, to work. She wasn’t alone either. Clicking through to the company’s YouTube channel, she came across videos of people from her leadership development program. Everyone had a beautiful story to tell. Of how the company had helped them grow, cared for them and created opportunities they couldn’t have imagined. Tanisha knew this was the truth. Why wouldn’t it be? This is exactly the message she heard when she applied to the company all that while back. The same message that she heard in her induction training. It doesn’t surprise her, that when she got her offer, she’d screamed with joy. A young developer then, she’d got a job with her dream employer. And today, after seven years in the company, she was already a technical director. There was no way she’d believe anyone who’d call this company unfair.

And yet, until a few moments before this car ride, she trusted the colleagues she shared the vehicle with. Everyone seemed to have major gripes with their employer. Rounak seemed to be the angriest of the lot. After close to two decades in the company, he seemed to have discovered that this wasn’t a fair place after all. Anyone else listening to him would think he was working for another employer; surely not the one Tanisha worked for. Promotion process? Rigged, says Rounak. Access to new roles? “An inside track”, he said. “Only people close to the leadership ever get a crack at those cushy roles”. And this is what Tanisha couldn’t compute. She’d worked hard for her role, done well on her projects, and ticked all the right boxes. What did he mean? How could he say that? But the more Tanisha protested, the harder Rounak argued his point. To where he might have even been making up stories.

Alina seemed to agree with Rounak. She seemed to even think that the work environment on teams was rotten. “Engineering managers don’t know Jack about what their people do. Neither do they have the skills to support their team, nor do they know how to be decent people managers.” That comment hurt Tanisha the most. Until recently, she was one of those engineering managers! No one ever told her she didn’t know her job. Or that her peers didn’t. 

Vineet sounded like the only voice of reason in that car. Pity he didn’t speak up enough. Worse, he seemed to sit on the fence and be a both-sider. And what did he mean, when he said, “Leaders are disconnected from reality”? She was a leader, and reality was the last thing she was disconnected from. A stray view like that meant nothing. Rounak, of course, was one of those disgruntled, old hats. A case of sour grapes. And what did Alina know? She’d barely spent a couple of years in the firm; one of which was during the pandemic. She hadn’t seen this company’s culture first-hand. As she thought about that car ride, a thought solidified in her head. There was a reason stories like the ones she heard in that car weren’t part of the company’s folklore. Even if they were true, they were outliers. Her story, along with the other corporate anecdotes she’d heard, were the ones that represented her company truthfully. 

I want you to think about Tanisha, Rounak, Alina and Vineet’s time together in that car. The reason I told you this story is for you to think about the stories that companies tell, both inside and outside. There’s an element of survivorship bias there. The official storyline; the one that comes through corporate folklore; is always about people who’ve survived in the company - people who’ve been successful, regardless of the odds. Every company cherry-picks these stories to frame the best possible narrative for themselves. It doesn’t mean that another narrative doesn’t exist. 

People who succeed in any company often traverse the happy-path career the employer promises. From the perspective of their anecdotal experience, it’s hard to imagine other possibilities. After all, the company saw their merit, gave them the right opportunities and made them successful. How could another world be possible? And yet, if they were to take the outside view, maybe they’ll find that their experience is more the exception than the norm.

Indeed, as an honest corporate leader, you’ll do well to learn about all kinds of stories, not just the complimentary ones. You needn’t change the marketing spiel but stay honest inside the company. Be transparent with your people about your shortcomings and invite people to solve problems with you.  If all you hear are the cheerleaders, you’ll inadvertently silence the critics. And as my old man always told me, your critics are your best friends.