Journal: People Science - Human Capital Management & Leadership in the public sector Volume 1, Issue 2 Spring/Summer 2014 | Page 22

MJ: It helps to be clear about the dark itself. There is
dark and there is DARK and a leader needs to know the
subtleties.

board was beginning to shrink. Our COO sent a memo to
the whole organization telling us all the ways we should
cut costs, right down to the paperclips. It was a long
memo and it wasn’t a joke.

For a leader to fall back on that kind of detailed direction
It’s a continuum. There are a lot of decisions that can be
is crazy. Think of the stress that was present for him and
made without complete information. A person can rely on
then imagine the response
the 80-20 rule of knowing
from employees. We ignored
enough to see the trend, the
She said, “… every day, I drive to work and I think, is this
a lot of it. People’s reaction
direction, and the right thing
the day that I’m going to learn about something that I
was, “Don’t try to control
to do. There is also history.
don’t know is going on and I’m going to have to take the
everything I do. If you push
Many decisions are repetitive
fall for it?”
me like that, I’m going to
decisions. Do we close the
push back.” The memo had
government because of
the opposite effect from the one he intended.
snow? This decision is never based on perfect information
but there is a lot of previous experience to draw on. The
The leader’s assertion of micro-control and the
risks are known -- the cost of the closing, the disruption in
organization’s reaction may create a doom loop in which
work, the dangers of commuters being on the road, etc.
the more the leader bears down on the organization, the
more the organization responds by
The painful issue for leaders, though,
not responding. In fact, I’ve seen
is about the risks they are facing
situations where employees make
that they don’t even know they are
themselves invisible. They just
facing. That is the darkest of the
disappear. Or they become very, very
dark. I had a conversation over
parsimonious about what they share.
dinner one night with an executive
So leaders find themselves even
who ran a huge organization that
more bereft of information, and the
required massive and risky decisions.
loop continues.
However, her worry was elsewhere.
She said, “You know, Martha, every
This is really important to
day, I drive to work and I think, is this
understand, that the more you try to
the day that I’m going to learn about
control the information, the more you
something that I don’t know is going
can actually dig yourself into a hole
on and I’m going to have to take the
and have less information.
fall for it?’”
She added, “it’s in my thoughts every
single morning. It’s about the risks I
don’t even know I’m taking.”

PS: It makes sense in a circular way.
It’s easy to see why resentment can
build and information is choked.

Martha Johnson, author and
MJ: It’s one of many ways that
Leaders live in a precarious and risky
former GSA administrator
information is choked before getting
place where it is really dark. There is
to a leader. There’s also the problem of structure. In
a lot going on that they don’t know about and for which
government, for example, the procurement process has
you don’t even have a risk calculus.
many rules and, in most cases when I was Administrator, I
was deliberately excluded.
PS: It sounds incredibly stressful. How do senior
government executives deal with the stress of it and what
For example, GSA was requesting bids for redevelopment
are the ramifications and pitfalls if they don’t?
work on the Old Post Office
“...the more you try to control the information, the building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
MJ: Yes, darkness can make a
more you might dig yourself into a hole and have
This is a building is historic and
leader edgy.
less information.”
was underutilized. I was not
involved in the procurement
When a leader is in the dark, one
process. The rules precluded that and, in addition, as a
reaction is a power and control response. The leader may
political appointee I needed to explicitly avoid asserting
say to the organization, “I want to know more and I want
influence over the procurement decision.
you to tell me. I’m going to control this more. Brief me
every hour.”
When the decision had been made, I was briefed. That
is when I learned that the award was being made to the
I worked at a large company once when we were
Trump organization. It was at a time when Donald Trump
experiencing a lot of foreign competition and our order-

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