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Today's leaders have been facing two pandemics: COVID and a "cultural virus" characterised by "our individual and collective willingness" to ignore and distort facts, authors say.

In the face of the post-truth, fake news "pandemic", leadership consultants Simon Jones and Alan Watkins advocate for a new "net zero" in business: zero lies.

In their book Lie-Ability, they talk about how lies emanate from institutions such as the media, government and business, and about how telling small lies and bending the truth "has become currency for virtually all of us".

The world, they say, is "drenched in lies". Even when an issue is non-competitive, such as climate change, leaders often let commercial advantage trump working together for the greater good. The crisis calls for leaders to act decisively, using emotional and social intelligence to improve decision-making and relationships...