The Streisand Effect: Why Trying to Hide Mistakes Can Backfire

In 2003, world-famous singer and actress Barbra Streisand tried to stop aerial photographs of her Malibu home from being published online. The images were part of a huge project documenting coastal erosion, but Streisand’s lawyers argued they invaded her privacy.

At the time, the photo of her house had been downloaded just six times — two of those by her own attorneys. But after news broke of her legal action, the image went viral. Within a month, more than 420,000 people had seen the picture.

The harder she tried to hide it, the more attention it attracted.

This unintended consequence became known as the Streisand Effect: when efforts to suppress information only make it more visible.

The Streisand Effect isn’t just a quirky tale of celebrity privacy. It’s a powerful warning for leaders and organisations.

When businesses try to bury mistakes, silence criticism, or hide uncomfortable truths, the outcome is usually worse than the problem itself:

• Employees lose trust when issues are swept under the rug.
• Customers call out brands more publicly if they sense dishonesty.
• Small mistakes balloon into bigger crises because they weren’t addressed openly.

In short: secrecy fuels bigger problems. Transparency builds resilience.

Nick Leeson: Lessons from a Cover-Up

Few stories illustrate this more starkly than that of Nick Leeson, the trader whose actions led to the collapse of Barings Bank in the 1990s.

Faced with mounting losses, Leeson attempted to conceal them through an unauthorised “error account.” Initially, his cover-up delayed the inevitable. But as the losses spiralled, the eventual fallout was catastrophic — the world’s oldest merchant bank collapsed under the weight of hidden risk.

Today, Leeson reflects on the consequences of secrecy and the dangers of denial. His story is a cautionary tale about how much more damaging the cover-up can be than the original mistake, and why openness, transparency, and robust accountability structures are essential in business.

Joe Garner: The Cost of Leadership Decisions

Another relevant voice is Joe Garner, former head of Nationwide Building Society and Openreach. Under his leadership, controversial decisions around fraud protections left some customers vulnerable — decisions that fraudsters exploited, leading to cases where people lost life savings.

Garner has since reflected publicly on the weight of responsibility leaders carry, and how transparency, accountability, and a willingness to confront hard truths are critical in maintaining trust. His perspective highlights how even well-meaning strategic decisions, if not carefully stress-tested, can have damaging consequences if they’re not openly owned and addressed.

Other Voices on Accountability and Openness

Alongside Leeson and Garner, other speakers bring powerful lessons on the importance of openness:

• Brendan Hall – Round-the-world yacht race skipper who built a culture of accountability, where mistakes were admitted quickly and without blame.
• Bruce Daisley – Workplace culture expert who shows how psychological safety and transparency drive stronger collaboration and innovation.
• Petra Velzeboer – Global mental health speaker who champions vulnerability and openness as key to resilient leadership.
• Jo Salter – The RAF’s first female fast-jet pilot, who emphasises the role of open debriefs and accountability in high-performance teams.

Here are three practical steps organisations can take:

1. Admit mistakes early. The faster you acknowledge a problem, the more control you keep over the narrative.
2. Create safe spaces for feedback. Encourage employees to speak up without fear of blame.
3. Treat mistakes as data. Like Matthew Syed argues in Black Box Thinking, failures are opportunities to learn, not something to hide.

The Streisand Effect shows us that cover-ups rarely cover anything. They often magnify the problem, sometimes catastrophically.

From Nick Leeson’s rogue trading scandal to Joe Garner’s reflections on leadership accountability in banking, the lesson is clear: honesty, transparency, and accountability are not weaknesses — they are the foundations of trust.

Speakers like Nick Leeson, Joe Garner, Brendan Hall, Bruce Daisley, Petra Velzeboer, and Jo Salter bring these lessons to life, showing organisations how to foster openness, avoid cover-ups, and turn mistakes into meaningful change.

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