Organizational structures of today demand too much from a few, and not much at all from everyone else.

Building human-centered organizations doesn't imply a return to the paternalistic, corporate welfare practices of the 19th century. Most of us don't want to be nannied.

All too often, legacy management practices reflexively perpetuate the past - by over-weighting the views of long-tenured executives, by valuing conformance more highly than creativity and by turning tired industry nostrums into sacred truths.

As human beings, we are the only organisms that create for the sheer stupid pleasure of doing so. Whether it's laying out a garden, composing a new tune on the piano, writing a bit of poetry, manipulating a digital photo, redecorating a room, or inventing a new chili recipe - we are happiest when we are creating.

Never before has the gap between what we can imagine and what we can accomplish been smaller.

Businesses fail when they over-invest in what is at the expense of what could be.

This extraordinary arrogance that change must start at the top is a way of guaranteeing that change will not happen in most companies.