Why does it seem that information gets a fresh coat of varnish as it passes up through the company ranks?

I know I've seen this happen too many times to count. The front-line grunts know that things are bad, that there's no way that the project will be done according to the current schedule (or worse). The conscientious and courageous ones let their managers know, in frank, honest terms, that there are major problems.

But reality seems to have a hard time leaking past certain levels of management. Are their managers liars? Are they inherently dishonest? I think not. I think this is due to human nature: the desire to avoid embarrassment, to avoid seeming negative, to avoid being viewed as "Chicken Little".

Bruce Webster, in an excellent post titled The Wetware Crisis: the Thermocline of Truth, argues for the existence of a natural, predictable barrier to honest communication between those nearest the problem and those most distant: the thermocline of truth. (A thermocline is a sharp thermal gradient between the cold water near the bottom of a body of water, and the warmer water at the top.)

He describes the factors that contribute to the existence of the truth gradient, and how it moves upwards depending on how bad things really are and the inability to continue hiding the truth from those above: if reality is about to assert itself (for example, something is supposed to be shipped next week, and there is no way it can possibly happen) the truth now moves up the chain, where before, hope and wishful thinking prevailed.

Webster's article is thought-provoking and worth a read. Now go read it!