The 'everything is fine' habit is a flaw of Brazilian management: the example of the zika virus

Defining and understanding what is normal and what is abnormal should be everyone's concern. And everyone should be able to know at every moment how things stand relative to what is expected and what must be done to correct them, if necessary.

But depending on our basic assumptions, the answer can be very different, even when looking at the same reality. We have x number of defects. Or our level of complaints is at y. Normal or abnormal? Problem or all fine? You choose.

But it seems that the Brazilian way of thinking tends to minimize problems and to consider normal what should not be, both in companies and in society.

Let's look at a situation in the country that is drawing global attention. The arrival of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro has been attracting more and more interest from all over the world. But it is not the sporting side as such, for example, who is preparing to break which records, which team is being better prepared, who might be the new star of the event, etc. Nor the delays in construction works, or even the works promised and not delivered.

The headline of the newspaper with the largest circulation in the United States last week carried the following on its front page: “On Patrol with Zika Police”, together with a photo of Brazilian army officers with clipboards in hand and a health agent wearing gloves holding materials on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

Right at the beginning of the article, it quoted a Brazilian health authority saying that this alarm about dengue, chikungunya and zika has been exaggerated in the United States. And that, for the Olympics, everything will be under control. That may even happen. But this is a typical Brazilian reaction: “Relax. Everything will be fine!!!”. Feeling good seems to be more important than acknowledging bad news.

But then the newspaper shows the mobilization effort of the Brazilian government, sending troops and health agents (almost 300,000 people) to fight an epidemic in the streets, which reveals a real concern that does not match the authorities' words. The World Health Organization itself states that this is a very worrying situation.

This way of thinking, of underestimating problems, of believing that things are always fine, is present in society and in most companies in Brazil. Kicking the can down the road seems to prevail. The few that are not like this need to fight internally to change employees' mindset, starting with the executives, and to change the way of thinking in the companies.

I had the opportunity to witness a dialogue about this epidemic problem between Brazilians and Americans. The Brazilians said that “everything will be fine for the Olympics because, in winter, the mosquito does not proliferate”. When the Americans retorted that “the problem can be very serious, seriously affecting pregnant women and newborns”, the Brazilians, minimizing the problems, said “just use repellent”. And the Americans warned that “it is necessary to deepen knowledge to understand what is really happening”.

For many of us, problems tend to be underestimated and minimized, whereas for many of them it seems evident that problems must be exposed and an effective solution sought. Two contrasting ways of thinking.

It is not just a matter of believing in political manipulation on one side or conspiracies on the other. It is a matter of fundamentally different ways of thinking and acting.

To effectively improve companies (and society), we need to be less tolerant of situations that are clearly problems, but that our way of thinking tries to hide and neglect.

So when an American news outlet talks about this, they are saying that this situation is not normal, that it is not acceptable and that something must be done to solve it and prevent it from happening again.

By hiding our problems, we are doing nothing to solve them and to prevent at least these from happening again. Others will arise, and we must be capable of facing them.

This is the basis for companies to start looking at their performance and results, always with challenging eyes. A quality problem, a threat to an employee's safety, a late delivery and so many other events like these in companies' day-to-day cannot be considered normal.

Believing that problems are normal does not help organizations and society move forward and keep improving, but exposing and solving them, one at a time, makes all the difference.