No Lies, No Surprises
The Operating Standard for Teams You Can Trust
Two rules, and they run in both directions. Tell the truth. Deliver bad news early, while there is still time to do something about it. A short, practical book on the one standard that separates teams people trust from teams people manage around.
Inside the book
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The standard, stated plainly
No lies means no shading, no spin, and no convenient omissions. No surprises means the people who depend on you hear about a problem from you, first, and early. The book defines both rules at the level where they actually operate: the small team, where one person's silence becomes everyone's problem.
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The good early report
Most people stay quiet because they do not know what a useful early report sounds like. The book gives a four-part template, status, change, containment, and ask, that turns "I think we have a problem" into something a leader can act on in under a minute.
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Why capable people go silent
Silence is rational when speaking up costs more than it returns. Drawing on the research on psychological safety, the book shows what leaders do, often without noticing, that makes bad news expensive to deliver, and what it takes to reverse it.
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What high-reliability organizations already know
Aviation learned decades ago that safety depends on people reporting their own mistakes, and built a reporting culture to make that possible. The book takes the principles that keep aircraft flying and applies them to the ordinary work of a team.
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Bonus chapter: the same standard at home
The rules do not change when you leave the office. A closing chapter shows how no lies and no surprises work in the relationships that matter most.