hat he had witnessed real plants without inventory because that is how Just-in-time production systems worked. Albert Einstein once wrote: “Our theories determine what we measure.” He was right, because the evidence pointed to theories of relativity and quantum mechanics for many years – before it was ‘discovered.’ This is a universal problem, captured in the fables. We have all read the story of the Emperor without Clothes. People did not see the Emperor for what he was. This raises pressing questions for these uncertain times: What do we see? And what is there really to see? Are we merely seeing what we want to see? All the evidence points to the EMPLOYEE being the most important stakeholder, but we hear, see and believe it is the customer.All the evidence point to retailers not meeting customer needs being the cause of the failures, but we hear, see and believe that it is ‘online’ that is causing the problems.All the evidence point to the fact that we should embrace, even reward, failure, but we are congenitally incapable of admitting failure, never mind celebrating it.All the evidence point to the fact that people don’t buy on price, but every promotion is a price-promotion and we seem compelled to keep discounting. What does this flaw in our nature mean for the things we (think we) believe on all the topics we need to address in order to build sustainable business success? What does the evidence say about brand, markets, margins and distribution? The reason we come to believe in some of the things we do, is because once upon a time they worked. But we ended up treating them as a magic formula revealed by ‘our experience’, when in fact they were just a set of conditions that applied at a point in time. The challenge with dealing objectively with our assumptions, heuristics and mental models, is that they are essentially self-reinforcing: we see what we want to see, creating a confirmation bias that eventually solidifies into unshakeable beliefs. It is time-consuming, difficult and it may even mess with our sense of identity when we start questioning long-held beliefs. There seems to be very little incentive to embark on that journey. The only reward will be discovering the truth and in the era of ‘alternative facts’ the truth seems to be over-rated. The reason this is all so hard is because, forgive me for being blunt, we lie to each other and to ourselves. Some people keep two sets of books: a real one, and one for the tax man. We do the same thing with our beliefs: We have espoused theories of how the world works. The theories and explanations are offered to all who care to listen. This is what we SAY we believe and tell others what we believe. Then we have our actual theories of how things really work. Which we don’t share for fear of ridicule or a desire to avoid conflict or whatever.  This is what we ACTUALLY believe. What are leaders supposed to do about this? Like any ‘change’ initiative, the starting point is that of ‘mindset’. Leaders need to develop a different mindset about their company. When a company is run by people with a management mindset, the focus on planning, organising and controlling. When a company is run by leaders, the focus and energy is directed towards establishing vision, growing a culture and promoting an openness to learning. You know a company is run by a LEADER by culture that reveals a willingness to challenge existing mental models. Managers treat their companies like organisations, leaders treat their companies like an organism. And that is a difference real leaders will know is worth thinking about. Dennis Price: Co-Founder at WWW.YEARONE.SOLUTIONS