"People aren't going to talk about it except me and that is communication and the visits I have personally had in our meetings with our store managers saying if you do these things you will be terminated, period"
About this Quote
Power is rarely as candid as it is here: communication, in Lee Scott's framing, isn't a dialogue. It's a one-man broadcast with consequences attached. The line collapses two ideas that corporations usually keep politely separate: internal messaging and discipline. By declaring that no one will talk about "it" except him, Scott isn't just controlling information; he's defining reality. The only sanctioned version of events is the version that travels downward from the CEO's mouth to the store floor.
The subtext is a managerial worldview where silence equals alignment. "Except me" reads like an admission that open discussion is a liability, not a value. And then comes the kicker: "that is communication". It's a redefinition that turns what most people would call intimidation into a leadership virtue. Communication becomes the act of delivering an ultimatum clearly enough that nobody feels safe to misunderstand it.
Context matters because Scott, as Walmart's CEO, operated at a scale where culture is enforced through systems, not charisma. His reference to "visits" and "meetings with our store managers" signals a chain-of-command enforcement model: corporate compliance translated into local fear. The phrase "terminated, period" is American corporate vernacular at its most blunt, designed to travel well in a massive organization. It's not persuasion; it's deterrence.
What makes the quote effective is its accidental honesty. It reveals how power often works in the modern workplace: keep the message narrow, keep the penalties vivid, and call the resulting obedience "communication."
The subtext is a managerial worldview where silence equals alignment. "Except me" reads like an admission that open discussion is a liability, not a value. And then comes the kicker: "that is communication". It's a redefinition that turns what most people would call intimidation into a leadership virtue. Communication becomes the act of delivering an ultimatum clearly enough that nobody feels safe to misunderstand it.
Context matters because Scott, as Walmart's CEO, operated at a scale where culture is enforced through systems, not charisma. His reference to "visits" and "meetings with our store managers" signals a chain-of-command enforcement model: corporate compliance translated into local fear. The phrase "terminated, period" is American corporate vernacular at its most blunt, designed to travel well in a massive organization. It's not persuasion; it's deterrence.
What makes the quote effective is its accidental honesty. It reveals how power often works in the modern workplace: keep the message narrow, keep the penalties vivid, and call the resulting obedience "communication."
Quote Details
| Topic | Management |
|---|
More Quotes by Lee
Add to List
