I like Patrick Lencioni’s books. I like them because he tells a story (a la Ken Blanchard), and because he limits his points to four or five things. I’m a pretty simple guy, but I can remember four or five things.
One concept that seems to run through all of his books is that “It is more important to be clear than it is to be right.”
Is it true that being clear is better than being right? At first I didn’t think so, but what I have found, especially since I’ve been married, is that if you are clearly wrong you tend to find out sooner that if you are generally right. Our goal, especially in the current economic environment, should be to fail early and fail cheap. You’re not always going to be right, and if it is more important for you to be right than clear, you tend to muddy the waters. You create goals for yourself and your company that leave room for ambiguity. You delay decisions until you have that one more piece of data (and there is always one more piece of data).
I would be interested in your thoughts. Do you agree that it is better to be right, or clear (I know it is better to be both, but if you had to pick one)?
