Warren G. Bennis - Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor

Bennis.ffirs 3/26/08 9:03 AM Page iiiWa r r e n B e n n i sD a n i e l G o l e m a nJ a m e s O To o l ewith Patricia Ward BiedermanTRANSPARENCYHow Leaders Create aCulture of Candor

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Bennis.ffirs 3/26/08 9:03 AM Page iTRANSPARENCY

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Bennis.ffirs 3/26/08 9:03 AM Page iiiWa r r e n B e n n i sD a n i e l G o l e m a nJ a m e s O To o l ewith Patricia Ward BiedermanTRANSPARENCYHow Leaders Create aCulture of Candor

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Bennis.ffirs 3/26/08 9:03 AM Page ivCopyright 2008 by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and James OToolePublished by Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741www.josseybass.comNo part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior writtenpermission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropri-ate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive,Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web atwww.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be ad-dressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 RiverStreet, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online atwww.wiley.com/go/permissions.Readers should be aware that Internet Web sites offered as citations and/orsources for further information may have changed or disappeared between thetime this was written and when it is read.Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author haveused their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations orwarranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of thisbook and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fit-ness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by salesrepresentatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies containedherein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a pro-fessional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liablefor any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not lim-ited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. Tocontact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within theU.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002.Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Somecontent that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataBennis, Warren G.Transparency : how leaders create a culture of candor / Warren Bennis,Daniel Goleman, James OToole ; with Patricia Ward Biederman.1st ed.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 978-0-470-27876-5 (cloth)1. Disclosure of information. 2. Corporate governance. 3. Organizationalculture. I. Goleman, Daniel. II. OToole, James. III. Title.HD2741.B386 2008658.4'038dc222008007570Printed in the United States of Americafirst editionHB Printing10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Bennis.ftoc 3/26/08 9:04 AM Page vCONTENTSp r e fac eviiWarren Bennis1creating a culture of candor1Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and Patricia Ward Biederman2speaking truth to power45James OToole3the new transparency93Warren Bennisno t e s123t h e au t h o r s129v

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Bennis.fpref 3/26/08 9:04 AM Page viiWarren BennisPREFACECertain issues leap to the fore across institutions and start toenter almost all our conversations about organizations, busi-ness, public life, and our personal realities. Transparency is oneof those urgent, increasingly prominent issues.As someone who has devoted much of his life to the studyof leaders, I find myself talking about transparencyand thusabout trust as wellwhenever I talk about leadership. Trans-parency is a central issue whether the subject is global business,corporate governance, national and international politics, orhow the media deal with the tidal wave of information thatslams into us each day. An inclusive and appealing word, trans-parency encompasses candor, integrity, honesty, ethics, clarity,full disclosure, legal compliance, and a host of other things thatallow us to deal fairly with each other. In a networked universe,where competition is global and reputations can be shattered bythe click of a mouse, transparency is often a matter of survival.As stakeholders in many different organizations, we increas-ingly clamor for transparency, but what are we truly askingvii

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Bennis.fpref 3/26/08 9:04 AM Page viiifor? What is the promise of transparency? And what are itsvery real risks? How should leaders and organizations thinkabout transparencyand why is it essential that leaders un-derstand it? In this book, I join with fellow authors and veteranstudents of organizational life Dan Goleman, James OToole,and my longtime collaborator Patricia Ward Biederman to ex-plore what it means to be a transparent leader, create a trans-parent organization, and live in an ever-more-transparent worldculture. This book makes no claims to be the last word on thiscomplex subject. But we believe these three interconnected es-says offer insights that will help leaders think more clearly andact more thoughtfully in matters relating to transparency, anissue that becomes ever more important as this fascinating, dif-ficult era unfolds.Trust and transparency are always linked. Without trans-parency, people dont believe what their leaders say. In the UnitedStates, many of us have lived with the sense that the governmenthas been keeping things from us, and many mistrust the expla-nation that our leaders must do so because the truth would em-power our enemies. Many of us believe the lack of transparencyis the real enemy.Transparency is so urgent an issue in large part because ofthe emergence in the last decade of ubiquitous digital technol-ogy that makes transparency all but inevitable. We live in an erawhen communication has never been easier, nor more relentless.More and more of our experience is being stored electronically,and powerful search engines allow this swelling archive to bemined in a matter of seconds by anyone with Internet access.viiiP R E F A C E

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Bennis.fpref 3/26/08 9:04 AM Page ixThis new technology is literally emancipating millions of peoplewho once lived in isolation within the confines of their villages,and it offers all of us endless new possibilities. At the same time,the new technology has ramped up the ambient level of anxietyin daily life as we increasingly live roped to our personal digitalassistants, cell phones, and other beeping, glowing devices.Paradoxically, greater transparency has brought bewilder-ment as well as enlightenment, confusion as well as clarity. Eachnew revelation, much as we long for it, reminds us that theground is not solid beneath our feet. We are uneasily awarethat the present has no shelf life. Although we know more thanever, we often feel less in control. Our world seems simultane-ously more anarchic and more Orwellian, more and less free.These three essays look at transparency from three differentvantage pointswithin and between organizations, in terms ofpersonal responsibility, and finally in the context of the newdigital realityall with an emphasis on how these relate toleaders and leadership. In the first essay Dan Goleman, Pat WardBiederman, and I explore an urgent dilemma for every contem-porary leader: how to create a culture of candor. We argue thatthe unimpeded flow of information is essential to organizationalhealth. Best known for his work on emotional intelligence, Danhas been doing research for decades on how information flowshapes organizations. He has a longstanding interest in self-deception and how it skews decision making. And he is fasci-nated by the role vital lies play in keeping essential truths fromsurfacing, first in families and later in businesses and other or-ganizations. For my part, I have long considered candor essentialNext page