“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”
So Morpheus warns Neo in The Matrix (1999) of the risks of seeing the world as you think or wish it to be and the world as it really is. Where the blue pill can symbolize idealized dreams, “taking the red pill” has become a popular cultural reference for swallowing the sometimes painful truth of reality. Spoiler alert: Neo took the red pill and it allowed for 136 minutes of movie action and two sequels. (Not a bad leadership move!) These two pills are a useful (if somewhat stretched) model for understanding this same tension in leadership.
Recognition. Leaders begin the journey when they understand that there are two pills. We assume a new leadership position and dream of change; we can imagine an ideal “blue pill” world. It is a core competency of leadership to envision a future that doesn’t yet exist. But our initial expectations and timelines can be unreasonable. Within days or weeks in our new positions we flex our clairvoyance and see what must change in order to make what we imagine real. We attempt to execute the plan to realize our vision of the future as quickly as the vision takes shape.
“What thing that you asked us to do last week would you like us to stop doing so we can do the things you are asking us to do today?” a blunt but exasperated subordinate asked me within a few months of my becoming hospital commander (chief executive officer) a decade ago. I am still thankful for the candor of this young leader. He handed me the red pill. Continue reading
Henry V 4.3 