Page 188 - The Voice of Authority

committed until Hitler gave the order, and Hitler was still
sleeping. Rundstedt had to countermand the move-out or-
der. Hitler slept until noon.”
A few hours later after giving his approval—after the
German troops had lost precious time—Hitler walked into
a state reception for the new Hungarian prime minister
and other guests from Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary,
asking them to do even more for the German war econ-
omy.
Then after the meeting, Hitler still could not bring him-
self to tell the bad news. He spread out a map of France
and told Goering, the Nazi propaganda minister, “They are
landing here—and here; just where we expected them!” Al-
though the prime minister had learned of the Allied land-
ings at 0400, he did not dare speak up to correct Hitler’s
outrageous, blatant lie.
So much for the old adage “what we don’t know won’t
hurt us.”
Newspapers carry stories weekly of executives leaving
major corporations to join small start-ups where they can
reshape the culture by communicating their own values
and philosophies. Employees join new organizations for
the same reason: an atmo-
sphere that values an open
exchange of ideas and the
chance to offer input and be Far too often, we’re cir-
heard. culating the unnecessary
We don’t know what we and hoarding the im-
don’t know. But real leaders portant. Not everyone
want to have input in mak- understands the differ-
ing the communication cul- ence between volume
ture better. They want to and significance.
start or join a conversation.

176 The Voice of Authority