An organization needs both. You need someone who can “weave a yarn”, “tell a tale”, “paint a picture with words”, etc. But you also need someone who “lets” facts get in the way of those myths.
Marketing and sales folks need to be tellers of tales. And this does not mean they need to be liars. Just that they often need to look at the glass as half full (and ready to be over-flowing at any moment).
But your finance people and your information security people need to be debunkers of myths. If you find your information security person using the phrase “benefit of the doubt” too often, you should worry.
And when someone moves from being one to the other, bad things can happen. Consider Société Générale trader Jérôme Kerviel. He had worked in a department responsible for internal controls so he was intimately familiar with how to debunk…
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A different case: where the teller of tales seems to have worked hard to hide from the debunkers of myths.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/26/business/ubs-fine/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
From the New York Times today, we have an example where there needed to be at least one “debunker of myths” int he room:
WASHINGTON — Just days before HealthCare.gov went live with disastrous results, top White House officials were excitedly briefing lawmakers, reporters, Capitol Hill staff members and Washington pundits on their expectations for the government’s new health care Web site.
Led by David Simas, a senior communications adviser in the West Wing, and sometimes joined by Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, and others, the fast-paced PowerPoint briefings showed images of a shiny new Web site that was elegantly designed, simple to use and ready for what officials hoped would eventually be a flood of customers on Oct. 1. One lawmaker recalled comparisons to Travelocity, the travel booking site.