What cliff is your business headed for? Are you listening and are the right people talking?

This paper addresses one particular type of cliff edge – “Unknown Knowns” that organizations are often headed for and suggests ways in which it can be avoided.

The paper reports lessons learned through the author’s experience and draws on relevant literature.

Apparently unforeseen cliffs are actually well known about, deep in the organization, well ahead of time and either nobody is talking or nobody is listening.

People need to change their cultures to ensure that the “Cassandras” (people who can be seen as “negative” and problem rather than solution focused) are genuinely listened to.

New scandals break every month. At the time of writing, the latest is Volkswagen (VW) emissions testing, itself a classic example of an unknown-known cliff.