Quotes About Transparency

You are the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency, your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end, and remain purely as a means.

Allowing ourselves to become a nation of silent, secretive, timid citizens is likely to result in a system of democracy and justice that is neither very democratic nor very just.

The point is, don't lie about who you are, Sloan. Own it in all its sordid, live, loud, and proud way. It might not be what everyone labels correct, especially the women in your life, but at least it's honest.

Looking through this intimate window, readers have a choice about their own lives. Will they guard their own internal landscapes or lay themselves bare for others to see?

I dislike secrecy intensely... It is deceit, and it deserves no place among the honest and honourable doctrines of Fair War. Secrets are volatile and unstable. They are never stored safely. When they emerge, the mere fact of them can damage the friends and brothers around us.' - Primarch Dorn

Most of us would never consider getting our car repaired without first receiving an estimate of the charges, but this is exactly what we do when we need to go to a hospital for treatment.

The first principle of crisis communications is that if you have bad news to divulge, you do it quickly and completely. HubSpot

I tell my board as little as possible," he says. "I treat them like mushrooms, I keep them in the dark and feed them shit. I don't want them meddling in my business and telling me what to do.

autonomy without clarity is ultimately a disaster.

The real courage is seeing the truth and speaking the truth to each other.

Spotlight Your Fallibility Early On—Especially If You're a Leader: In any interaction, we have a natural tendency to try to hide our weaknesses and appear competent. If you want to create safety, this is exactly the wrong move. Instead, you should open up, show you make mistakes, and invite input with simple phrases like "This is just my two cents." "Of course, I could be wrong here." "What am I missing?" "What do you think?

Spotlight Your Fallibility Early On—Especially If You're a Leader:

Make Sure the Leader Is Vulnerable First and Often:

This approach extended to the raucous all-employee street hockey games in the parking lot ("No one held back when fighting the founders for the puck," recalled one player) and to the all-company Friday forums, where anyone could challenge the founders with any question under the sun, no matter how controversial—and vice versa. Like the hockey games, the Friday forums often turned into collision-filled affairs.

In any interaction, we have a natural tendency to try to hide our weaknesses and appear competent. If you want to create safety, this is exactly the wrong move.

Deliver the Negative Stuff in Person: This was an informal rule that I encountered at several cultures. It goes like this: If you have negative news or feedback to give someone—even as small as a rejected item on an expense report—you are obligated to deliver that news face-to-face.

He delivers two things over and over: He'll tell you the truth, with no bullshit, and then he'll love you to death.

see note to p. 249), which I can still recommend

Lead with questions, not answers." "Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion." "Conduct autopsies, without blame." "Build 'red flag' mechanisms." In other words, make it easy for employees and customers to speak up when they identify a problem.

the balance of power has shifted—and how we've moved from a world of caveat emptor, buyer beware, to one of caveat venditor, seller beware—where honesty, fairness, and transparency are often the only viable path.

Being honest about the existence of a small blemish can enhance your offering's true beauty.

Asymmetrical information creates all sorts of headaches. If the seller knows much more about the product than the buyer, the buyer understandably gets suspicious. What's the seller concealing?

I don't care where you think your resources are going. If you know, show me the measurements. If you don't, stop wasting my time.

I think by laying it out for the viewer I'm avoiding the issue of bias.