Stewardship, 2nd Edition

Full Disclosure

THE STARTING POINT for the change effort is full disclosure. On the surface, giving people complete information sounds pretty straightforward. Not so. If knowledge is power, then patriarchal governance is very selective about what gets reported, when, and to whom. Being careful about what we communicate probably stems as much from the wish to protect as the wish to control. What people don’t know won’t hurt them. No news is good news. The ancient habit of shooting the messenger is somewhere in the collective memory of each of us. All rationalizations.

Full disclosure is a critical dividing line between parenting and partnership. The things a parent would never tell a child have to be told to a partner. Children will never tell ...