Entrepreneurship & Business
Alex Bäcker
2006
1 min readThis article discusses the phenomenon of people believing information presented by leaders, even when it contradicts facts, citing examples from American public opinion on Iraq and Al-Qaeda. It then pivots to the business world, arguing that successful startups require employees who prioritize evidence over blind faith, referencing the book "Act on Facts, Not Faith" by Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton.
At the time of writing (August 2006), half of all Americans believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the time of the second Gulf War, despite the fact that there is no evidence to that effect, that Iraq has been combed for them day in and day out for years and that Hussein went into hiding without ever using any. Americans believe this because they were told so by their elected leader. Similarly, a large fraction of Americans (36 to 49% in June 2004) believe that Saddam Hussein's regime was cooperating with Al Qaeda, despite the fact that not a shred of evidence to that effect has been found, and the 9/11 Commission found no such link. Psychologists explain these phenomena by noting that when the facts don't fit the frames that people have and like, the facts are ignored and the frames preserved (see George Lakoff's Don't Think of An Elephant --Know your Values and Frame the Debate, for example).
Corporate America is no exception to the power of frames over facts and a sometimes quasi-religious credulity of what CEOs say, whether it fits the documented facts or not. And yet start-ups, if they are to be innovative and successful, require people to leave their preconceptions behind and act on facts. Which means that, as an entrepreneur, you need people in your company who are likely to act on facts, not faith.
Such is the title of a recent book:
Act on Facts, Not Faith How management can follow medicine’s lead and rely on evidence, not on half-truths by Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton. Read the article, or get the book.