Take six minutes to watch this TED talk given by General Stanley McChrystal, in which he makes the case for sharing information, rather than keeping it secret. He worked for years leading the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq, and he said that THE biggest factor in the success that they had was not due to better tactics, better weapons, or better strategies—it was their ability share information across silos and agencies that had previously been kept secret. “Information is only of value if you give it to people who have the ability to do something with it,” and in today’s world, it has become increasingly difficult to predict who will need what information when so the right action can take place.

That means you need to make it visible. Which is what he did. He caught flack for declassifying some of the intelligence that his command found. But it worked. And yes, sometimes the wrong thing will get out. But he made it clear: he fears the bureaucrat holding tightly to information more than he does the leak.

So iff we can accomplish that kind of transparency in organization that, as General McChrystal said, has secrecy built into its DNA, then what’s your excuse?