You’re probably familiar with the phrase “elephant in the room.” In the unlikely event you’re not, it refers to a difficult topic about which everyone is painfully aware, but that is so uncomfortable that nobody is willing to mention it publicly. It’s like the flask Aunt Sadie carries in her purse — everyone has seen it, but nobody will ever admit to that.
Companies and organizations are often vexed by their own elephants. Maybe it’s a bothersome deficiency in a product. Perhaps it’s a significant technology advantage that a competitor has. Maybe it’s a past mistake or a scandal in the management team that left a stain on the organization’s image.
Far too many organizations handle those situations the same way the family deals with Aunt Sadie’s flask full of “sweet tea.” They act as though it’s invisible. “If we pretend it isn’t there,” they reason, “the outside world won’t notice it, and we can go out without having to confront it.” Guess what? Everyone sees the elephant. For crying out loud, it’s an elephant! How could anyone miss it?
Pretending that the elephant is nowhere in sight won’t make him go away. In fact, there’s something strange about this particular species of pachyderm. They feed on avoidance. The more you try to distance yourself from them, the larger they grow, and the more embarrassing they become.
These annoying elephants have also discovered a treat that helps them grow even larger in less time. It’s called social media. Nobody needs to whisper about the elephant when they can post messages pointing to its existence. And still, companies turn away and whistle nervously, hoping that the elephant will have vanished when they look back.
In some cases, time will make the elephant shrink to an unnoticeable size. Now and again, someone will point to the petite pachyderm and remark about him, but most people won’t perceive his presence. Unfortunately, it takes many years for elephants to achieve that kind of shrinkage. Just ask anyone connected to a particular national charitable organization about the lingering effects of the high-visibility scandal it suffered three decades ago. Or the automaker that took nearly a quarter-century to regain its prestige after one negative TV news report. (I’m not mentioning their names, because I don’t want to reawaken their elephants.) Waiting it out is generally not a very effective strategy for doing away with an elephant.
The most effective way to make those vexing elephants shrink beyond recognition is to admit that you (and everyone else) can see them, explain exactly what you’re doing to eliminate them, and then move on.
Candor is the best elephant-killer around. Once you admit to the elephant’s presence, those who would speak against your company lose a very powerful weapon. It’s hard to call someone to task when they’ve already done it themselves. Just look what happens to national political figures when they confront an accusation directly, compared to when they think they can sidestep and outmaneuver it. Imagine if a presidential candidate said something stupid in a debate, and instead of trying to dance around it, he opened his next press conference with, “Look, you heard what I said, and it was stupid. It wasn’t what I meant to say, and it wasn’t what I believe. We all make mistakes sometimes. I just happened to do it on national TV. Let me tell you what I really think about that issue …”
That last sentence contains the other critical elephant-killer: what you’re going to do next. Simply admitting that the elephant has been following you around isn’t enough. You have to explain exactly what you’re going to do to get rid of him. For example if all of your customers know that Model XP1’s reliability has been less than stellar, admit it and tell them what you’re going to do. “It’s no secret that model XP1 has fallen short of our standards. Our engineering team has listened carefully to our customers’ concerns and addressed them in Model XP2.”
In 1982, Johnson & Johnson faced the greatest threat to its hard-earned reputation when someone laced Tylenol capsules with cyanide, killing seven people. Instead of letting an enormous elephant surround one of the world’s most trusted products, Johnson & Johnson immediately went public. They recalled the product from store shelves and urged consumers to discard any Tylenol in their homes. They quickly rolled out tamper-resistant packaging. Their candor not only saved Tylenol’s reputation, but quickly returned it to the number one position in the marketplace.
The third part of the elephant-killing advice — the admonition to “move on” — is also critical. Many elephants are kept alive by internal paranoia rather than external memories. I remember working with a company in which a key official had been the victim of a horrific, highly publicized crime a decade earlier. When talking with the company’s executives, they expressed concern about whether marketing efforts would call attention to the crime. The outside world had long forgotten the lurid details. If anything brought the case back into the spotlight, it would be those internal whispers. Does your team continue to fret about something nobody else remembers? If so, you’re the only ones who are keeping that elephant alive.
Be bold and speak the plain truth, make believable promises, and then walk right past the elephant. Once you own up to his presence and look him in the eyes, he’ll stop getting in your way.