Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:
What follows but cannot change something we know to be true, although it can reveal why we are reluctant to accept what that truth requires of us. The challenge is recognizing when we are genuinely reconsidering what we know and when we are simply creating enough room around it to avoid acting on it.
As I contemplated what to write about today, my eyes landed on Around the Year with Emmet Fox. I read today’s entry and this statement jumped out at me:
“If truth is true, there are no buts.”
I decided to explore what it was about this that got my attention.
This is an uncompromising statement.
When we say that something is true and then add but, we can effectively negate the very truth we have just declared. We acknowledge it with one part of the sentence and then give ourselves a reason not to fully accept it with the next.
- I know this is not working, but we have already invested so much.
- I know I need to have the conversation, but this is not the right time.
- I know the numbers are telling us something, but we have always done it this way.
- I know I cannot continue at this pace, but there is too much to get done.
What follows the but can sound perfectly reasonable. That may be precisely why it is so persuasive. We are not necessarily denying what we know. We are creating enough room around it to avoid what knowing it requires of us.
But is more than just a word.
It can become the place where we dilute our own clarity. Where we give an old assumption another chance despite the evidence. Where what we have already invested becomes the reason we keep going, even when we know something is not working. Where we continue to accommodate a pattern we have already recognized needs to change. Where we postpone a decision because acting on what we know would require something of us that we are not yet ready to give.
How we keep but alive
Once we have recognized what is true, we can continue to give our attention to everything that appears to contradict it. We keep looking for evidence that perhaps the strategy will work after all. We explain away the recurring problem because this particular occurrence seems different. We focus on the one piece of information that supports what we want to believe and give less weight to everything that does not.
In doing so, we can keep alive an explanation that the evidence no longer supports.
If it is true, what follows should align with it.
The real test of what we say we know may be what we do next. If we say something is not working and continue doing it, if we acknowledge that a pattern needs to change and continue accommodating it, or if we recognize that an assumption is no longer valid and continue making decisions based on it, then our actions are giving greater weight to what came after the but than to the truth we declared before it.
This is not about having perfect information or never changing our minds. We can discover that something we believed to be true was incomplete or simply wrong. New information can change what we understand and that is different from saying I know this to be true and then immediately introducing a reason to behave as though it is not.
This is what makes Fox’s statement so uncompromising.
If we are prepared to call something true, we cannot simultaneously give its contradiction equal authority. At some point, what we say we know and what we choose to do have to come into alignment.
We must practice listening to ourselves. When we hear ourselves say, I know…but, it may be worth paying attention to what comes next, because they may tell us something other than what we think they are telling us.
They may not be telling us that the truth needs to be reconsidered. They may be telling us why we are having difficulty accepting it.
Strategic Reflection Prompt
Where are you putting a but after something you already know to be true, and what is that but allowing you to avoid, preserve or postpone?
About Giselle
Most costly decisions begin with a wrong read of the situation.
I’m Giselle Hudson — The Pre-Fixer. I help leaders see the real problem before they act, in my writing and in my work. I don’t fix; I pre-fix. Most advisers jump to solutions before they’ve found the real problem. I find it first — the part that isn’t fully visible yet. Once we see that clearly, everything else falls into place, and confident, right action can follow.
Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, and the patterns that shape organizations — helping leaders make sense of complexity before they commit significant time and money to the wrong thing.
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