# The first survey results that changed everything: 'We would rather know than not know'

- **Episode:** [127](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/127.md) (2024-09-12)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** survey-results, company-culture, transparency
- **Time:** 33:20–35:19 (start 2000s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/127?t=2000](https://truthliesandwork.com/127?t=2000)

---

[33:20] Leanne Elliott: You are going to get it. But I think our— we've settled on we would rather know than not know, because at least if you know, you can do something about it. So, you hear the term, like, quiet resignation. You know, people are miserable sometimes, sat in their jobs, hopefully not at MAP, but a lot of people are really miserable, and they don't have the outlet to be able to be honest about how they're feeling, and the things that are making their job a challenge. If you are brave enough to give your team that format to be open and honest about how they're feeling, Yes, some of it will be tough, but at least then, you know, if you don't know, then you can't help and you can't make improvements. And then you're just always going to be chasing your tail of people leaving, you're going to have to recruit, and you're never fixing the root of the problem. You just stick your plastering over it and hoping for the best
[34:15] Al Elliott: I think that's the case in entrepreneurialism generally. Like, the best entrepreneurs I see are— they are seeking the risks and the weaknesses in their business. They're constantly in sales mode talking about how good their business is. They're, they're interested in the detail and they're interested in the perception, not just the reality, as Amanda talked about before. So, you know, you might say you've got a great culture and you, you always put people above profit and you believe that, but it's the nuances of like what— why people are giving those answers rather than the answers themselves. Because if you focus on the answers themselves, that's when you start to get emotional about it. And you feel that you're being hard done to because, you know, we knew that that wasn't the case. But it's then digging a level deeper and saying, okay, what can we understand where that has come from? And it could be something really, really tiny. You know, it could be a word that you're using or a report you're producing or something that you're doing that you could just change in an instant. And that's why I think once the surveys are done, you need to go a level deeper and understand what's behind those answers. Yeah