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What cliff is your business headed for? Are you listening and are the right people talking?

Paul Ballman (Vodafone Group Plc, Newbury, UK.)

Development and Learning in Organizations

ISSN: 1477-7282

Article publication date: 29 April 2016

418

Abstract

Purpose

This paper addresses one particular type of cliff edge – “Unknown Knowns” that organizations are often headed for and suggests ways in which it can be avoided.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports lessons learned through the author’s experience and draws on relevant literature.

Findings

Apparently unforeseen cliffs are actually well known about, deep in the organization, well ahead of time and either nobody is talking or nobody is listening.

Practical Implications

People need to change their cultures to ensure that the “Cassandras” (people who can be seen as “negative” and problem rather than solution focused) are genuinely listened to.

Originality/value

New scandals break every month. At the time of writing, the latest is Volkswagen (VW) emissions testing, itself a classic example of an unknown-known cliff.

Keywords

Citation

Ballman, P. (2016), "What cliff is your business headed for? Are you listening and are the right people talking?", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 3-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/DLO-01-2016-0002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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