Transparency Ho Leaders Create a Culture of Candor [Paperback]

In Transparency, the authors–a powerhouse trio in the field of leadership–look at what conspires against a culture of candor in organizations to create disastrous results, and suggest ways that leaders can achieve healthy and honest openness. They explore the lightning-rod concept of transparency –which has fast become the buzzword not only in business and corporate settings but in government and the social sector as well.

Together Bennis, Goleman, and O'Toole explore why the containment of truth is the dearest held value of far too many organizations and suggest practical ways that organizations, their leaders, their members, and their boards can achieve openness. After years of dedicating themselves to research and theory, at first separately, and now jointly, these three leadership giants reveal the multifaceted importance of candor and show what promotes transparency and what hinders it. They describe how leaders often stymie the flow of information and the structural impediments that keep information from getting where it needs to go. This vital resource is written for any organization–business, government, and nonprofit–that must achieve a culture of candor, truth, and transparency.

Preface vii
Warren Bennis

1 Creating a culture of candor 1
Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and Patricia Ward Biederman

2 Speaking truth to power 45
James O'Toole

3 The new transparency 93
Warren Bennis

Notes 123

The authors 129

Warren Bennis is Distinguished Professor of Business Administration and founding chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. He also serves as chairman of the Advisory Board of tlã$