Ron Carucci, author of "To Be Honest"

Entelechy Leadership Stories

In today's episode, we chat with Ron Carucci.

Ron is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, having 35 years of experience working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries, he has helped some of the world’s most influential executives tackle challenges of strategy, organization, and leadership. From start-ups to Fortune 10’s. He is also a bestselling author of 9 books. Recently, the award-winning book, "To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice and Purpose" was selected by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of 2021's Best Books.

Ron and his team did a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 3,200 leaders. These included thought leaders, scholars, and world-class leaders. He wanted to give people hope that there are organizations and leaders out there living the things they want, modeling and behaving in the ways we long to experience. They aimed to understand what conditions make people lie, cheat and serve their own interests first. He thought, if he could predict/isolate the conditions that make people dishonest, then he could proliferate the conditions that produce honest behavior, and prevent the conditions that produce dishonest behavior?

Based on that, Ron shared four conditions within organizations that tell us how the story's going to go.

These 4 conditions include:

• Companies need to have a clear identity.

Companies all make promises in their missions, visions, values, brand promises, their purpose statements turn out that if those words are not real lived experiences within the organization, meaning they are three times more likely to have people be dishonest.

• Transparency & governance

At a meeting, there is transparency in the exchange of ideas. People believe that their voices and ideas are welcomed and they matter. If they want to offer a dissenting view or an alternative interpretation of data, they are free to do so. This means the company is three and a half times more likely to have people be honest and tell the truth.

• Accountability

If the systems of how you measure and talk about contribution are seen as fair and dignified. Everyone has as much chance of being successful as anybody else. This means, if the systems are seen as fair dignified, people are four times more likely to have people be honest.

• Cross-functional rivalries

Across companies, every system/department has healthy tensions in it, but if those tensions have nowhere to go and conflict remains unresolved and people have nowhere to reconcile those seams, the company becomes fragmented. On the other hand, if there is coherence in that organization, if the seams are stitched well, then people are able to collaborate in a way to resolve decisions or conflicts. That means they are six-time likely to have people behave, honestly, because they are now part of the same story.

In conclusion, Ron suggests this action:

Taking your company's promise, or mission statement, or value statement, and asking your team hard questions such as “ How well do we embody this promise? How well do I embody this promise? If somebody followed us around with a video camera all day long and a day in the life of our team, could they use that video as a training program for this promise? Ask yourself, the hard question of who is your they? Who's the person in another department that you're required to collaborate with, that when you see them in the caller ID, you roll your eyes and go, oh, what do they want?

You can reach Ron at

Website: Navalent.com

TV Series: Roku TV-Moments of Truth

Youtube channel: Moments of Truth

LinkedIn: Ron Carucci

Twitter: @RonCarucci

Book: To be honest lead with power of truth justice and purpose

Ron’s newest book and passion, To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice and Purpose, is based on 15 years of research with more than 3200 interviews with leaders around the world. To Be Honest explains how four factors (Clear Identity, Accountability, Governance and Cross-Functional Relationships) affect honesty, justice and purpose within a company. When these factors are absent or ineffective, the organizational conditions compel employees to choose dishonesty and self-interest. But when done well, the organization is 16 times more likely to have people tell the truth, behave fairly, and serve a greater good. Ron’s passion shines through as he recounts the stories of the exemplars he studied and interviewed, and you can sample some of that in this introductory video and this webinar video as well.

To Be Honest shares the stories of leaders who have acted with purpose, honesty and justice even when it was difficult to do so. In-depth interviews with CEOs and senior executives from exemplar companies such as Patagonia, Cabot Creamery, Microsoft and others reveal what it takes to build purpose-driven companies of honesty and justice. Interviews with thought leaders like Jonathan Haidt, Amy Edmondson, Dan Ariely, Michael Sandel, Arthur Brooks, and James Detert offer rich insights on how leaders can become more honest, just, and purposeful. You’ll learn how Hubert Joly took Best Buy from a company on the brink of bankruptcy to one that is profitable, thriving and purposeful, and you’ll learn how Satya Nadella is instilling a rich sense of purpose and accountability at Microsoft.

Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, working with CEOs and executives pursuing transformational change for their organizations, leaders, and industries. He has a thirty year track record helping some of the world’s most influential executives tackle challenges of strategy, organization and leadership. From start-ups to Fortune 10’s, turn-arounds to new markets and strategies, overhauling leadership and culture to re-designing for growth, he has worked in more than 25 countries on 4 continents. In addition to being a regular contributor to HBR and Forbes, and has been featured in Fortune, CEO Magazine, BusinessInsider, MSNBC, Inc, Business Week, Smart Business, and thought leaders.