The latest development in the saga between Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and the United States Treasury/Federal Reserve brings up yet another classic example of the Knowing-Doing Gap gone awry. I’ve been hot on this topic for a few weeks, following a recent lecture by Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer on evidence-based management. He writes:
“Fear helps create knowing-doing gaps because acting on one’s knowledge requires that a person believe he or she will not be punished for doing so—that taking risks based on new information and insight will be rewarded, not punished. When people fear for their jobs, their futures, or even for their self-esteem, it is unlikely that they will feel secure enough to do anything but what they have done in the past. Fear will cause them to repeat past mistakes and re-create past problems, even when they know better ways of doing the work.”
– Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton
Mr. Lewis embodies Prof. Pfeffer’s criticism of management almost to the word. His decisions were short-sighted, and put his fear of his employment (and of the ultimate loss of a deal) far ahead of what would be a good, sound business decision. I would argue that his transaction with Merrill Lynch’s CEO John Thain was an even further example of Mr. Lewis trying to be the hero, versus trying to grow the business in an appropriate way. Frontline ran a special about Ken Lewis and his appetite for deals, and they draw a conclusion that supports Prof. Pfeffer’s theory.
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