What Shutter Island Gets Right About Businesses That Lie to Themselves
I won't spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it.
But the part that stayed with me wasn't the twist.
It was watching someone construct an entire reality rather than face a truth that had been sitting in front of him the whole time. Even when the evidence becomes difficult to argue with, part of him still chooses the story he's more comfortable living in.
I've sat in enough boardrooms to know businesses aren't all that different.
A product that's "still finding its market" two years after the market has already answered the question. A brand story everyone quietly knows has stopped fitting, but nobody wants to be the first person to say it out loud because saying it makes it real. A strategy that's defended with increasing confidence precisely because confidence is all that's left.
None of this usually comes from arrogance.
Or dishonesty.
Most of the time, it comes from people trying to protect work they've poured years into. That's a very human thing to do. It just doesn't make for particularly good strategy.
Funny thing is, markets are rarely sentimental.
They don't care how much time, money or conviction went into an idea. They simply move on. The difficult part isn't accepting that they've changed. It's recognising they've changed before the quarterly numbers turn into an unavoidable conversation.
I think that's why this has become a bit of a professional obsession for me.
It's also why Market Signal Architecture exists.
I keep wondering whether businesses can learn to notice their own version of this before someone from the outside has to point it out. Whether leadership teams can become better at recognising the stories they're telling themselves while there's still time to write a different one.
I don't think I've figured it out yet.
I have theories.
None of them feel complete.
Which probably means I'm still asking the right questions.
WORTH STEALING
The story you keep defending might be the thing you need to question.
NEXT IN WORTH STEALING
MORE TO STEAL
I've stolen the next one.
COMING SOON
