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Integrity of Communication 157

driven culture, which attracted even more high performers. J.C. soon
realized that the high level of talent at D1 had the unexpected effect
of reinforcing open communication and accountability. “The danger
of hiring very smart people,” he says, “is you can’t ‘spin’ things to
them even if you want to. You are held accountable.”

Likewise, as a new founder, you can lessen your susceptibility to
the passion trap by partnering with the smartest, most talented people
available, people who are driven to succeed, who can discern fact from
opinion, who will tell you the truth, and, most important, who care
more about the good of the venture than keeping you comfortable.
These benefits are additive to the more fundamental fact that the qual-
ity of your core team will drive your ability to create value over time.
“Your biggest challenge will be building a great team,” says John Doerr
of the powerhouse VC firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers. “In
the world today, there’s plenty of technology, plenty of entrepreneurs,
plenty of money—what’s in short supply is great teams. Focus on the
team. Teams win.”5

It helps to include a few cage-rattlers on your extended team, peo-
ple who will speak in unedited language and who don’t suffer fools
gladly. Cage-rattlers are not the savviest communicators, but you will
always know what they think. “It is very difficult for the strong-willed
entrepreneur to really listen to critics,” writes Daniel Isenberg, pro-
fessor of management science at Babson College. “If you find people
who will be painfully honest with you, get them on board.”6 These
might include co-founders, team members, prospective or actual in-
vestors, advisers, mentors, or old high school buddies who have seen
you at your worst, as well as early-adopting customers who relish the
right to complain about your offerings after surrendering their hard-
earned money. Whatever their role, the cage-rattler’s essential quali-
fication is an unedited propensity to poke holes in your plan, ask tough
questions, and raise worrisome possibilities.

RAISE THE QUALITY OF CONVERSATIONS

Building on pioneering work from the field of organizational learning
by theorists and practitioners such as Chris Argyris, Peter Senge, and

American Management Association • www.amanet.org