Organizational Transparency Quotes

I had the gravest forebodings about this organization and warned the President that as set up, neither he, the National Security Council, nor anyone else would be in a position to know what it was doing or control it.

Reports tell you what your subordinates want you to know.

When you have trust and you get that trust in place throughout the company, people are empowered — people are free.

Whenever possible, I like to have the supreme head of a company show me over the works. It is extremely illuminating to note the attitude of workers towards their boss, and equally interesting to note the attitude towards the workers. It is tragic to notice how many chief executives of large concerns are absolutely unknown, even by sight, to the rank and file of their workers.

In a small company, you often see a lot more of what goes on in a broader range of things. And that's good.

At IMVU, we opened up our board meetings to the whole company.

As leaders, we owe it to every employee to let them know where they stand in the organization.

As the funds you will expend have come from many places in the world, so let there be no territorial, religious, or color restrictions on your benefactions, but beware of organized, professional charities with high-salaried executives and a heavy ratio of expense.

The vision is really about empowering workers giving them all the information about what’s going on so they can do a lot more than they’ve done in the past.

We are committed to a continuous engagement with our people to explain government policies, receive advice and criticism.

Every organization should tolerate rebels who tell the emperor he has no clothes

One of the most difficult things is to get truthful people. Nobody can manage well if they don't have a lot of mirrors around them that are honest, that tell them what they're doing is wrong or wrongheaded or misconceived. And in every large bureaucracy on earth, most people are afraid to tell the boss the truth.

Compared to publicity…internal checks upon bureaucratic misbehavior…have but negligible value.

If we want people on the front lines of companies to be responsible for making good business decisions, they must have the same information that managers use to make good business decisions.

SpaceX is a flat organization. Anyone gets to talk to anyone, and the best idea wins - even if it comes from an intern.

The reality is that companies are full of things that are left unspoken. And even when they are out in the open, the CEO is almost always the last to know.

In a world of dispersed authority, the battle for the truth will be won or lost with the employees.

I've been related to everything. Even the production; I knew how much it cost, I knew where the money went. It didn't last long, because hierarchy came back again.

Loyalty is about the party and the movement... if you want a better and more effective party, we've got to open ourselves up much more to our membership and our supporters.

Strategically, a major function of the CEO is to look for bad news and encourage the organization to respond to it. Employees must be encouraged to share bad news as much as good news.

The sad truth is that societies that demand whistleblowers be martyrs often find themselves without either, and always when it matters the most.