Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company” – W. Edward Deming statistician and quality expert
Deming firmly believed that fear was a huge obstacle to creating positive change inside of organizations. So much so that the above quote represents #8 in his 14 principles of a System of Profound Knowledge. He also said, “Whenever there is fear, you will get wrong figures.” People won’t tell you the truth if they are afraid.
Fear can be a tactic of someone trying to drive people to change and while Machiavelli thought it was better to be feared than to be loved, it won’t improve your organization’s performance in the 21st century.
Recently I’ve found a similar believe in an article from AMEX Openforum. In this interview with Tom Rieger of Gallup, he talks about where
fear comes from and how leaders can provide work environments to minimize it. Enjoy reading it.
