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Three luxurious condo towers are under construction, overlooking the blue ocean north of Miami.

On the hoardings against the sidewalk, an immense sign advertises "The Visionaries" who were wise enough to invest in the apartments.

You can recognize their enormous photographs from blocks away: Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and others.

At that spot, at four o'clock every afternoon, something quite remarkable happens.

Ironic Juxtaposition

Hundreds of construction workers stream out of the half-complete buildings to wait for a bus and go home. They stand exhausted, hardly speaking, with their hardhats, dusty clothes, and empty lunch buckets.

They're tiny, compared to the clean, fresh Visionaries above them in their suits and ties. But these anonymous laborers, mostly black or Hispanic, whose photographs will never appear on a hoarding, are also potentially the visionaries of the towers.

We'll return to them in a moment.

Feedback Does Change The Picture

People sometimes ask me and my colleagues, with apprehension, whether 360-degree feedback might provide some dissatisfied worker the opportunity to hurl abuse at the boss. Could it undermine the very structure of the workplace, the respect, the deference, that holds people metaphorically under their bosses?

The answer is that in extremely rigid workplaces, such a possibility exists.

In settings where truth cannot be told without repercussions, frank feedback can change the equation. Wherever people's wisdom has been ignored, dialog can shake things up. The towers of power will not tumble, but they will be changed.

Which is exactly why progressive companies use 360-degree feedback. They want to encourage the free flow of ideas. They want their leaders to understand how effective their efforts are, not just hear easy platitudes.

They value a workplace of continuing growth. They trust an open atmosphere, where information flows freely, not restricted to certain authorized channels.

They recognize that such a workplace has a major competitive advantage.

They also realize that those who best know the skills and weaknesses of managers are often the very people who report to them.

Feedback Trumps Rigidity

Glance again at the construction workers, as they clamber into the bus, looking forward to a cleansing shower and dinner.

Most of them would never think to abuse Mr. T or Mr. C., their Visionaries.

But if someone offered them an opportunity for anonymity, they might be willing to say whether their leaders appear to understand the needs of the work site.

Whether they are treated decently.

Whether they are safe.

Whether anyone listens to their suggestions for improvement or greater productivity.

Feedback can help towers rise a little faster. It can increase their profitability. It can improve the quality of workmanship, meaning fewer costly complaints later.

And it can increase the satisfaction of labor, both for workers and for bosses.

That's how the construction workers can be truly visionary.

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