In the court room a bellwether trial is to give both the plaintiffs and defendants a dose of reality. In life we will be confronted with tests both in school and in the life we live. Most people don't like tests. Why is that? Perhaps because it becomes an honest assessment of what we really know rather than what we seem to know. It is an honest assessment about the reality of where we are in the subject matter. People don't live to take tests but in our lifetime they do come. Tests in school can determine whether we pass or fail but tests in life only become pass and fail if we don't receive the results with open arms. Tests in life and work can be the bellwether test we need to give us the dose of reality we have refused to accept so that we can decide to make the corrections or live on in denial and/or rationalization of the results.
Before starting a leadership development program with a company I will ask each person who will be participating if they are trustworthy and why they believe they are or aren't. To date, after 23 years of asking this question, not one person responding has ever said they were not trustworthy. We could draw a conclusion that everyone is trustworthy and honest. But, when I ask the same question of the person or persons led by the participants in our Leadership Reimagined program more than 50% of them would say they don't trust the leader. Why do we have such a trust problem in our workplaces? Just asking this question we already see unaddressed conflict. Just because you don't intentionally do something dishonest doesn't mean you are trustworthy. When you don't follow through or you treat some people better than others, or you say one thing but do another. Those are the things you are judged by. I believe this is a bellwether question or a test so to speak. Who is lying? Is anyone lying? Does it matter if they are lying or not? At the very least we have conflict. Much of the time the conflict is a covert conflict because people will think, just let sleeping dogs lie. Things aren't too bad. We think if we just leave those things alone we will at least not have to take any actions to correct or fix unimportant issues or things.
A transactional company (acquaintance) develops extrinsic, short term fixes that lead to long term problems. A transformational company (friends) addresses job satisfaction and an employees future. A transactional company (acquaintance) addresses attendance in a punitive manner (point system) while a transformational company (friends) provides a redemptive approach to attendance (gamification). One last point on transactional versus a transformational company is transactional companies (acquaintance) wait & see if a new entry-level employee is going to make it (no sense investing in them if they are going to quit) while a transformational company (friends) engages with the employee and shares a compelling vision for the company and a bright future in every aspect of orientation, onboarding, and weekly follow-up.
If you are a company with a workforce full of acquaintances you might want to enlist the help of an outside source to help you sort through the question, Are you trustworthy? I am sure of what your answer is going to be but the bellwether test will start you on a path to forming a great transformational company (friends instead of acquaintances). People prefer coming to a workplace full of friends over one with only acquaintances.
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