Forget "CYA"
Forget "CYA" - Speak Out and Move Up!
Often in our PowerSpeaking® and HighTechSpeaking® programs we'll hear people say, "Well this is great, but I could never speak out like this where I work. The culture wouldn't permit it. In my company, CYA (or, in the vernacular, 'cover your ass') is how you survive."
In today's world things are moving so fast, management needs information and viewpoints from all sides in order to make the right decisions. The old adage from childhood, "Silence is golden," is a very bad idea. Refusing to speak up denies key decision makers your valuable insight. In business today, silence isn't golden, silence is career-limiting.
CYA at the U.S. Public Health Service
The year was 1964. I had my first job out of college with the very interesting job title, "Venereal Disease Epidemiologist." They called me on the street, "Clap Cop." I was a federal employee working at a local health department in Berkeley, California. My job was to help run the VD Clinic at the health department and to do outreach into the community to reduce the spread of VD. To help do this we distributed brochures which we got from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.
In the spring of that year, there was a major public health conference in Los Angeles which I attended along with 600 other public health officials from the western United States. On the agenda was a review of the brochures used for the outreach program. The slant of the brochures was toward white, heterosexuals. In the Bay Area where we worked, and I suspected in most other major public health arenas, we saw a rainbow of people in our clinics, including a lot of cases of VD transmitted through homosexual contact.
Toward the end of the two day meeting, the officials from the CDC asked for feedback about the outreach program. I was amazed that out of the 600 people, no one said a word. It was clear to me that the outreach program was flawed and needed revision to include the broader range of our patient base. Surely others must have noticed this, too. I waited for more senior people to speak up. Nothing. Not a sound. A lot of CYA going on.
With my heart pounding like a jackhammer, I slowly raised my hand. I could see the terrified looks of my own management team as they thought, "Oh my God, what is he going to say?" I stood up and shared my concerns for about a minute, and sat down with my heart still pounding. I thought, "Now surely, others will speak up too." Not a word.
When the meeting was over, a big burly man from the CDC headed up the aisle to where I was sitting. I thought, "Well, my public health career is over. I'm being fired on the spot." Instead, he introduced himself and congratulated me for my thoughtful comments. He then offered me a job in Atlanta working for the CDC with a serious promotion. He said, "We need people who think like you do."
No CYA for John Houbolt
The year was 1961. The Russians had just orbited a man in space. The American space program was reeling. In May, John Kennedy gave his famous vision speech to congress, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." A little known engineer in the space program named John Houbolt had been arguing for what was called the "Lunar Orbit Rendezvous" approach. He was not part of the powerful Wernher VonBraun team that favored landing a huge rocket on the moon directly. Houbolt was an outsider. Between 1959 and 1961 he gave 16 presentations to NASA brass arguing for his LOR approach. They gave him little credence. He was characterized as "pushy" and "annoying."
Just after the Russian success, with the competition heating up, Houbolt took matters into his own hands and wrote directly to the NASA Associate Administrator, Dr. Robert Seamens. In doing so, he bypassed five levels of management. A month later, the decision was made to go with the LOR approach. It became the way all Apollo moon landings were carried out. John Houbolt thought outside the box. He did not believe that "silence is golden." He did not believe in the CYA career strategy.
Knowing the skills of effective delivery and clear message organization is just the beginning. Far more important is our passion, our commitment, our willingness to take action-sometimes in the face of strong opposition. What needs to be said where you are? You have the skills. Now step out of the box.