Most leaders don’t wake up and think, “How can I create a dishonest workplace today?”
They do something more normal (and more damaging): they build a system where telling the truth is expensive.
Then they’re surprised when they stop getting the truth.
They call it “lack of ownership.”
They call it “low accountability.”
They call it “resistance to change.”
But a lot of the time, it’s simpler than that:
Your people aren’t lying because they’re bad. They’re lying because your system trained them to.
And no framework fixes that.
The lies I mean (and why they show up in good companies)
These aren’t cartoon lies. They’re the polite, professional ones:
- “We’re on track.” (We’re not, but I don’t want the heat.)
- “Yep, that’s clear.” (It isn’t, but I don’t want to look slow.)
- “No blockers.” (There are, but the last person who raised one got blamed.)
- “Sure, we can do that.” (We can’t, but saying no feels unsafe.)
- “We learned from it.” (We didn’t, but we need the meeting to end.)
If you’ve ever wondered why problems only surface at the last minute, this is usually why.
People aren’t hiding issues because they don’t care. They’re hiding issues because they care about their reputation, their job, their team, and not being the next person to get labelled “negative.”
The contrarian take: “accountability” often becomes a threat
Many organizations say they want accountability.
What they actually want is compliance with a plan that was never realistic.
So “accountability” turns into:
- Status theatre (pretty slides, ugly reality)
- Late escalation (because early escalation gets punished)
- Performative confidence (“we’ve got it”)
- Heroics (because the system can’t handle the truth)
This is why adding more agile doesn’t work. If your system punishes honesty, you’ll just get faster at hiding.
How leaders accidentally train dishonesty
Here are the most common “truth killers” I see, especially in growing SMBs and scaling product teams:
1) You reward certainty and punish learning
If leaders only celebrate confident answers, people stop bringing messy information. They wait until they can package it.
That delay is where your delivery dies.
2) You ask for estimates, then treat them like promises
If every estimate becomes a commitment, people inflate numbers or stop being honest about risk.
3) You make bad news a personal failure
When a slipped date becomes a character judgement, people will protect themselves first and the work second. That’s human.
4) You keep decision rights unclear
If people don’t know what they’re allowed to decide, they’ll either:
- Escalate everything (slow), or
- Decide quietly (risky), or
- Do nothing (safe).
None of that is “lack of ownership.” It’s a system with missing rules.
What “fewer lies” looks like in practice
This isn’t about being harsh or “radically candid” for sport.
It’s about building a system where truth is useful.
Here are a few shifts that change everything:
- Replace “Are we on track?” with “What changed since last week?”
- Replace “Who dropped the ball?” with “Where did the system make the wrong behaviour the easiest behaviour?”
- Replace “Give me a date” with “What do you need to make a confident call?”
- Replace “Why didn’t you tell me?” with “What did my reactions teach you last time?”
If you want people to speak early, you have to make early truth feel safe and valuable.
This is exactly what the Stop Competing™ System is built to fix
When we work with teams, we’re not installing a new set of labels.
We’re installing an operating system that makes honesty functional:
- Clearer priorities
- Clearer decision rights
- Feedback loops that don’t punish reality
- Leadership behaviours that reduce fear and increase follow-through
If you want the overview, start here: https://berriaultandassociates.com/stop-competing-system/
If you want to start smaller and build the leadership behaviours and team habits first, the Baseline work is here: https://berriaultandassociates.com/stop-competing-baseline/leadership-and-team-development/
And if you’re trying to figure out what’s actually driving the friction in your org before you commit to anything, start with the roadmap: https://berriaultandassociates.com/start-here-org-index-roadmap/
What to do Monday (no re-org required)
- Run a “truth audit” in your next check-in Ask: “What’s one thing we’re all pretending is fine?” Then don’t punish the answer.
- Make one decision rule explicit Pick one recurring decision (scope changes, priority swaps, quality gates) and write down who makes the decision and what “good” means.
- Change how you respond to bad news Your first 30 seconds matter. If your reaction spikes, you’ll buy silence for weeks.
- Stop asking for certainty you haven’t earned If the work is uncertain, let it be uncertain. Create a learning plan instead of demanding a fake plan.
A question worth sitting with
If your team told you the full truth about delivery right now…
Would it help them or hurt them?
Because if it would hurt them, you don’t have a performance problem. You have a system problem.
Start here if you want to see it clearly and fix it without burning people out: https://berriaultandassociates.com/start-here-org-index-roadmap/