Liar, Liar, pants on fire

s EVERYTHING corr,les in threes, my hope is that my first three travel adventures of -cl'2013 bring to an end my mishaps for the year. My first event cost $g00 and 17 hours of travel time-after which I never arrived in Eureka, Ca., for the Humboldt Hoo-

Hoo club crab feed. unlike Archimedes, the pilot could not find his way in the fog.

A few days later, heading for the Intemational Builders show, I placed my shoes on the airport security belt and by the time they emerged from the ,cannir, one oi my shoes had been cut in half. Eighty dollars in taxi fares later, I found the only store open in Vegas -Walmart-and a new shiny pair of 930 shoes. And, the following weekend, while I escaped Boston hours before the blizzafi,, I endured a great bout of seafood ooisoning to kick off the NRLA show. Happy days!

I had something happen to me the other day that made me think about how much lying we see in business. Sometimes people just cannot face you and tell you outright why they did not do something you were expecting. The trouble is so many of these fies are so transparent it creates a pattern of distrust that is difficult to overcome in future negotiations or contact. In a recent survey,257o of executives admitted to lying at work and 39Vo confessed to exaggeration.

Sometimes, it is not the actual lying itself but _ ala' Lance Armstrong-the cover-up that can be more difficult to forgive. Now, I think it true that we all fib a bit. Studies suegest we all bend the truth one to two times a day, mostly at work. some of the lies at work are really a covering up to protect a mistake or something forgotten, but in most cases they create no real harm, unless there is a consistent pattern oi incompetence. In some cases, it may be to give a positive yet unearned affirmation to try to motivate a colleague or employee. But what about those sick days when not really iick? The trouble is that human nature creates a snowball. once you get away with one, then two fabrications,lying can become a habit and those around you must decide when to believe youand at what point to pretty much discount everything you say.

As an employee, while we may not actually think we are lying, a simple act of omission is no different. For example, if we see an employee stealing stationeiy, we are faced with a difficult dilemma: do we do nothing or do we blow the whistle and suffer all the negatives that accompany that decison? How about not announcing a pregnancy at work because of fear of what it might mean? I think most of us would underitand the latter due to corporate behavior. I think the biggest lies I have observed in my career came when state-of-the-art practitioners of sucking up got away with it and were even promoted because of it. Inflation of truth, whether on your resume or telling your boss how great (s)he is when (s)he is not, is in fact a lie.

Over the years, we have all heard of severe fraud within corporations. such as Enron. Even in this industry, BPD's news columns have reported on bookkeepers who have been ripping off their employers for years. But more often it is that above- and belowthe-line stretching of the truth we encounter in dealing with customers and suppliers. While most business actions are transparent, there are a number of occasions where negotiations may not be quite truthful if it means getting the order or not getting it. To be able to negotiate effectively, you need to be able to trust who you are negotiating with. I always try to establish this honesty by asking questions that I already know the answer to. If I come to the conclusion that I cannot trust them, I try to let them know in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways that I know.

But, just as at Enron, if you create a culture from the top down that says nothing stands in the way of business results and personal gain, that everything and anything is okay, and that cheating and lying, both intemally and externally, are acceptable methods of conducting business, be careful. Just ask old Bemie Madoff!

I look forward to being in the safety of my office for the next two weeks, but happy trails to you.

Alan Oakes. Publisher ajoakes@aol.com