Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor

Chapter 1. CREATING A CULTURE OF CANDOR

Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and Patricia Ward Biederman

In the spring of 2007 something unprecedented happened in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen. In a nation notorious for keeping citizens in the dark, word got out that a petrochemical plant was to be built near the center of the lovely port city. The factory would have produced toxic paraxylene, and residents who learned of the plans were understandably alarmed. A decade ago, concerned Chinese citizens could have done little to stop the plant's construction. But this is a new age, not just in China but throughout the world. Via e-mail, blogs, and text messages, word of the plan spread and a protest was organized against it. As the Wall Street Journal ...