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Integrity of Communication 153

through layers of confusion, clarified what was happening, and de-
cided what needed to be done.

Integrity of Communication: The Basics

In a new venture environment, every choice sets a tone and initiates
a pattern. What is talked about, what is avoided, how tough issues are
raised and resolved, all of these decisions plant seeds for your future
culture, which will eventually grow into a force beyond easy control.
“As a parent, or as an entrepreneur, you begin imprinting your beliefs
from Day One, whether you realize it or not,” writes Howard Schultz,
founder of Starbucks. “If you have made the mistake of doing busi-
ness one way for five years, you can’t suddenly impose a layer of dif-
ferent values upon it. By then, the water’s already in the well, and
you have to drink it.”2

Instead of directly tackling tough issues, many venture teams sur-
render to a psychological pressure to do the opposite. A kind of beg-
gar’s mentality takes hold of new founders, who are so grateful for
support from partners and investors that they shrink from delivering
bad news or raising thorny topics. They want to seem—they want to
be—on top of things, so a lot of energy goes into posturing, instead of
seeking the truth. The paradoxical result is that the most critical topics
are the least likely to see the light of day. As Ken Macher observes,
“the thing that people feel most sheepish about bringing up is often
the very thing that needs to be discussed.”

Numerous books and careers have been dedicated to the practice
of healthy human communication. But a few core principles, outlined
below, will determine whether you create early patterns of open com-
munication and plant the seeds of a high-integrity culture.

DON’T CONFUSE GOOD FEELINGS WITH PROGRESS

One by-product of entrepreneurial passion—and the Motivational
Media that feed it—is that too many founding teams behave as if
positive emotion indicates forward movement. If we walk out of a
meeting feeling great, the thinking goes, then things must be on track.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org