Why Every Successful Company Needs a Chief Negativity Officer (CNO!)
The Unexpected Benefits of Hiring A Professional Hater
No one likes a hater. They’re ‘bad vibes’ as the kids say. Always the last to compliment and the first to complain. Simon Cowell minus the talent and success. Piers Morgan minus the…attention. It’s draining to have a hater in your personal life and damn near tragic to have one professionally. But what if a hater is exactly what your business needs to take it to the next level?
I mean, this sounds like a hard case to make, right? Besides the obvious social dysfunction of someone who finds happiness in hyper-criticism, haters are just not really fun to be around. Especially at work. All that negative energy must be bad for morale, so why give them an executive-level position? Why even hire them? Why on earth would you need a Chief Negativity Officer? The answer is groupthink. A more formidable foe than any hater has ever been.
In the early 1970s, psychologist Irving Janis popularized the term groupthink.¹ When everyone in a group starts thinking alike, no one disagrees, and no one takes a critical stance.² You’ve probably seen it in your own social groups and workplaces. It happens when we put absolute faith in a talented leader, team, or system, and historically, it hasn’t had great consequences.
Groupthink is what led to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, America’s half-baked secret plan to invade Cuba and topple Castro. It was a dodgy plan from the beginning, but President Kennedy’s usually astute advisers suspended their judgment because they’d begun to believe that everything he did would succeed.³ Historian Arthur Schlesinger wrote, “Had one senior advisor opposed the adventure, I believe that Kennedy would have cancelled it. No one spoke against it.” The results were costly and embarrassing.
Groupthink also happens when a group gets caught up in its own brilliance and superiority. Before the downturn at the famously now-defunct Enron, executives genuinely believed that because they were ‘winners’, they would always win. In one telling anecdote, an outside consultant kept asking Enron where the company thought it was vulnerable.⁴ “Nobody answered him. Nobody even understood the question.” According to a top executive, “We thought we were bulletproof.” Famous last words.
The wisest leaders in history have sought an antidote to this hubris, though. During his tenure as UK prime minister, Winston Churchill set up a special department with the exclusive responsibility of giving him only bad news.⁵ Alfred P. Sloan, former CEO of General Motors, would give his team time to “develop disagreements” then reconvene after a decision was made.⁶ And fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus reported that whenever ancient Persians reached a decision while sober, they later reconsidered it while intoxicated, as liquor loosens the tongue.⁷
Traditional C-Suites may carry positions that attempt to satisfy this need such as the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) or Chief Risk Management Officer (CRMO). Executives responsible for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating internal and external risks.⁸ But what these positions lack are the benefits of ‘hating’. The irrationality of disliking someone or something, biases at full blast. The kind of outlook that not only identifies and analyses weaknesses but may even be able to predict them before they happen. What modern business needs is not just someone who is attuned to risk and prizes objectivity, but someone who appreciates, dare I say thrives on negativity.
Hating may be the antithesis of groupthink. But this is still a job. Without direction, a skillset of this nature is useless, even malicious. The ideal Chief Negativity Officer should be able to tap into the irrationality of the masses, aggregate their discontentment, and distil it into its purified form with a sparkling cup ready for all decision-makers. Let them pinpoint the weaknesses in any plan and find the chink in the impenetrable armour. Let them express these concerns without the threat of social consequences. But only with the clear intention of benefitting the business.
Identifying and analysing risk can be the framework for a CNO but ‘hating’ should be the lifeblood of their operations and the teams they manage. Every major decision can and should be met with at least some amount of resistance. Not just for the sake of being an unwarranted hindrance, but to make absolutely sure that all elements have been considered. It’s not enough to have the throne and sit on it, it also takes work to keep it. And who better to polish your defences than a passionate sparring partner.
Despisers, ill-wishers, enemies, abominators — whatever you want to call them, haters have been around for a long time, and they’re probably not going anywhere. But the world has changed, criticism of your business (justified or otherwise) now spreads like wildfire and from every direction. So why not fight fire with fire. Stop waiting for problems to come to you and have someone go find them. It’s time to get ahead of the game. Get yourself a professional hater today.
References:
[1] JSTOR — Irving L. Janis’ Victims of Groupthink
[3] Google Books — War Planning 1914
[4] Journal of Accountancy — The Rise and Fall of Enron
[5] Falcony — Winston Churchill’s Special Department (To Avoid Groupthink)
[6] London Business School — The Sloan Legacy
[7] PBS — History | On Iranians, Drinking Wine, and Cultural Stereotyping
