Many CEOs and leaders think that silence is indeed golden, that consensus is bliss. It is - sometimes. But more often what it signifies is that there are no respected processes for surfacing concerns and dissent.

All businesses and jobs depend on a vast number of people, often unnoticed and unthanked, without which nothing really gets done. They are all human and deserve respect and gratitude.

A thinking partner who isn't an echo chamber... How many of us dare to have such collaborators?

Noise is a buffer, more effective than cubicles or booth walls.

Phones and soundtracks and Muzak and fountains replace genuine and unpredictable human contact with a seamless soundtrack from a bad movie and a cliche that makes us believe we must all be happy.

There is no more powerful weapon for change than honesty.

The truth won't set us free until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.