Don't Look Up: When Appearance Matters More Than Reality - Blair McPherson

If you had irrefutable scientific evidence the world was facing an imminent extinction-level event unless immediate, dramatic, collective action was taken, how would you expect governments, the media and big business to react?

In Don't Look Up, the Government's reaction is denial. "Are you sure?" "You scientists are always predicting the end of the world."

The media makes fun of the scientists on breakfast television.

Big business cautions against hasty action, arguing that this may not be a disaster at all but an opportunity to create jobs and profits.

The film is intended as a satire. Yet in many ways it is an accurate portrayal of how organisations react to uncomfortable and threatening information.

You can almost hear the conversation in the boardroom.

"The auditors have exaggerated the problem."

"The employee survey is always negative."

"They would say that, wouldn't they?"

The leadership reaction is familiar. Organisations have always been reluctant to embrace information that threatens their competence, reputation or preferred narrative.

What is different post Covid is the psychology of employees.

The old organisational defences remain largely intact. The emotional response of the workforce has changed.

Covid forced people to confront uncertainty, vulnerability and loss of control. It prompted many to reassess their priorities, their relationship with work and the extent to which organisations could be trusted to look after their interests.

Many organisations emerged from the pandemic determined to restore normality.

Many employees emerged from the pandemic seeing the organisation differently.

That gap matters.

At the heart of Don't Look Up is the growing gap between appearance and reality. The comet keeps coming, but attention shifts elsewhere. Political leaders focus on messaging. Media organisations focus on entertainment. Business leaders focus on opportunities.

Reality and appearance drift steadily apart.

Many organisations now face a similar problem.

The language of wellbeing becomes more visible while employees feel increasingly exhausted.

The language of listening becomes more sophisticated while difficult messages remain unheard.

The language of flexibility becomes more prominent while workloads continue to increase.

Appearance matters because appearance is easier to manage than reality.

The danger comes when managing the appearance of progress becomes a substitute for making progress.

Employees notice.

Their reactions are revealing.

Some respond with humour. Organisational humour has always been a survival mechanism. Increasingly it takes the form of dark humour, sarcasm and private jokes. Humour becomes a safe way of expressing truths that cannot be voiced directly.

Some respond with panic. In low-trust environments every rumour acquires significance. Every restructuring, budget pressure or leadership departure is interpreted as evidence of a deeper crisis.

Others respond with opportunism. Like the billionaire entrepreneur in the film who sees commercial possibilities in catastrophe, some employees focus on their own prospects. They build networks, update CVs and prepare for their next move.

Distraction is another common response. In the film celebrity gossip and media spectacles divert attention from the approaching threat. Organisations have their own distractions. New initiatives, revised priorities, fresh strategies and endless activity can create the impression of progress while avoiding more uncomfortable conversations.

Others react with anger. Anger at leaders who appear disconnected from reality. Anger at decisions that make sense on paper but not in practice. Anger at hearing positive narratives that bear little resemblance to everyday experience.

Some choose escapism. Sometimes they leave physically. Sometimes they remain but withdraw psychologically. They attend meetings, answer emails and deliver results, but emotionally they are somewhere else.

Others retreat into tribes. When confidence in the wider organisation weakens, loyalty shifts towards smaller groups. Teams become tribes. Professional identities become stronger than organisational identities. The organisation becomes less a shared enterprise and more a collection of competing communities.

People still trust those they work with. They are increasingly less certain about those who lead them.

Yet perhaps the most significant post-Covid response is neither anger nor cynicism.

The most significant post-Covid organisational emotion may not be anger but numbness.

It is emotional desensitisation.

After years of crises, restructures, transformation programmes, staff shortages and repeated demands for resilience, many employees have stopped reacting.

Announcements that once would have generated debate now generate little more than a shrug.

This is not because people do not care.

It is because they are emotionally exhausted.

Accumulated Emotional Disappointment

And for some that exhaustion evolves into something deeper.

This is not employee disengagement, negativity or cynicism.

It is accumulated emotional disappointment.

The gap between what was promised and what was experienced.

The gap between being asked for commitment and feeling genuinely valued.

The gap between being consulted and feeling heard.

The gap between organisational rhetoric and organisational reality.

Over time disappointment hardens into emotional withdrawal.

The uncomfortable truth is that many leaders are not deliberately creating these conditions. They too are under pressure to project confidence, reassurance and certainty. They too can become trapped in managing appearances.

That is the real lesson from Don't Look Up.

The film is not simply about denial. It is about what happens when institutions become more focused on managing perceptions than confronting reality.

In the film the tragedy is not that the evidence was hidden. It was visible to anyone prepared to look up.

The same may be true in many organisations.

Employees can see the exhaustion.

They can see the loss of trust.

They can see the widening gap between rhetoric and reality.

The danger is not that nobody sees it.

The danger is not that employees don't look up.

The danger is that they do look up, see exactly what is happening, and conclude that nobody in authority wants to hear it.