We recently purchased a new home and immediately started adding to the garage.

The day the bricklayers came to add brick to the addition, something didn’t seem quite right…

I looked at it, thought it must be my eyes and walked away.

Then I turned around and came back out, looked at it again and it still didn’t seem quite right.

So I took a picture and then I was sure!

I forwarded the picture below to a few friends and didn’t tell them what to look for and just asked them what they saw.

Most of them saw it too…

Do you see it?

The new brick on the left side of this picture clearly does not match the brick on the house!

It could be redone, so not the end of the world right?

Except everything that needed to happen next was hinging on the brick being done. If the brick was not completed now– there would be a massive domino effect and we’d miss our targeted completion date. And then more domino’s would fall.  As I imagined the impact of each one falling, my adrenaline soared.

Trying to understand what happened, I imagined multiple scenarios:   

1. Did the contractor order the wrong brick?
   • They said no. They were certain they ordered correctly.
2. Did the brick company supply the wrong brick?
   • They said no. They were certain they supplied correctly.

…Except everyone agreed that it didn’t look right.

3. Even if the brick on the house had faded, it was still darker than the new brick. So that didn’t explain anything.

But wait a minute the brick in stacks, that were not on the house yet – did match the house.

4. So maybe the factory mislabeled one stack of the brick – and that just happened to be the stack that went on the back of the addition?

And then we washed the brick.  And guess what? It was indeed the right brick.

And now my brick wall will forever be a reminder that there will be times when:

1.  The truth is camouflaged.  

• I’ve met more than one executive that could not see the truth about the behavior of those closest to them – even when others tried repeatedly to tell them.
• In the book Picking Cotton, Jennifer Thompson Cannino and Ronald Cotton tell the story of her rape, and his false conviction. Because of what the truth “appeared” to be.  Ronald’s build and facial features were similar to those of the actual rapist.  So it was easier for everyone to believe it was him, than to spend more time thoroughly investigating all possibilities.

2.   We need to breathe first, take our time and examine the issue from every angle. 

• Companies have collapsed when titled leaders have been unwilling to dig into issues that took time, and made them uncomfortable.
• Individuals have been falsely accused and imprisoned because broken systems and those in power would not allow a DNA test to be performed.
• Entire groups of people have been treated as if they are less than human because of widely spread urban legends that are believed instead of being investigated.
• Innocent people in our society and in politics are often victimized because it is easier to believe the thing we fear.  And so much harder to dig deeper.

When something interrupts what we expect, we need to ask ourselves what matters more: The truth, our comfort or our ego? And then be willing to consider the possibility that we might be wrong and do a bit more research.

3.  We should own our mistakes, apologize if necessary, learn from it and move on.

• Sometimes humble pie serves as reminder not to assume the worst about a situation or the outcome. Encouraging us to remember to dig deeper and to control our own thinking and behavior while we are digging.

Please share: Have you ever been 100% sure that you were right – and then discovered that you were wrong?  What did you learn?