---
id: "quote-tower-of-babel"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ Flaw #3: It's difficult to communicate.", "¶1"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-are-your-companys-ai-nightmares"
source_title: "What Are Your Company's AI Nightmares?"
tags: ["communication", "policy-failure"]
related: ["concept-agentic-ai-governance-gap"]
quote: "Collaboration around the tower of Babel is impossible."
speaker: "Reid Blackman"
speakers: ["Reid Blackman"]
sources: ["governance"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-governance"
originDay: 7
articleStem: "hbr-cl-82-ai-nightmares"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-are-your-companys-ai-nightmares"
sourceTitle: "What Are Your Company’s AI Nightmares?"
---
# "Collaboration around the tower of Babel is impossible"

> "Collaboration around the tower of Babel is impossible."
> — Reid Blackman ([[entity-reid-blackman]])

Captures Flaw #3 of the standard approach: dense, jargon-heavy AI policies prevent the cross-functional communication that AI risk management actually requires. It is the communication half of [[concept-agentic-ai-governance-gap]] and the reason plain-language "nightmares" ([[concept-ethical-nightmare-challenge]]) outperform policy language. Contrast with the shared-language argument in [[claim-cross-functional-necessity]].