The overall sense of this year is that the brilliant digital minds who told us they were changing the world for the better might have miscalculated.

Dan Lyons, a longtime tech observer and author of the new book “Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us,” recently tweeted: “Nobody in Silicon Valley can solve homelessness or figure out how to hire with diversity, but 11 electric scooter companies have raised VC funding. Oh, and a company that uses robots to make pizza. You wonder why there’s a tech backlash.”

Actually no one wonders that anymore, which is why it’s probably time to think about where the industry goes from here. While I can be hard on tech, I still have hope that it can regain its innovation, inspiration and sunny approach to the future.

To do this, I have five suggestions:

Embrace Transparency

As seen in the Facebook mess, the biggest error of all is the slow dribbling out, and outright covering up, of bad news. There is no greater threat to innovation than this kind of behavior, which suggests a company that wants to hold on to its power rather than be honest about its faults. Google has also failed to be transparent enough in regard to its creation of a search engine in China, its payoffs to men accused of sexual harassment and its work with the Defense Department. At Twitter, it is still unclear how it makes decisions about the removal of hateful content on its platform. And it sure would be nice if Uber would release the full Eric Holder report on how that company behaved or, more precisely, misbehaved.

Hold Leaders Accountable

The fact that no one seems to get fired for anything at these companies is really quite breathtaking. Techies are fond of the obviously false bromide that failure is O.K. If it is so fine, one wonders why no one is being held publicly responsible for anything, aside from the tiresome apology tours that are on replay in Silicon Valley. Privacy breaches at Yahoo and Facebook and Google and everywhere? So sorry. Payoffs to alleged sexual harassers all over the system? So sorry. Questionable financing? So sorry. Yeah, I am sorry that they are so sorry, too, but actions should follow words.

Avoid Groupthink

In early 2017 at an event in Germany, I asked Elliot Schrage, then Facebook’s top policy and communications executive — who also stars in the Times article — if there were any “irritants” among the company’s managers. By this, I was asking if there was a consistent effort to bring out the concerns and worries of staff members and to introduce doubt about the company’s products and efforts. He never answered and I knew the answer anyway: Facebook’s ruling class pushed cohesion over disagreement and chastised those who went against the grain. Witness the experience of Alex Stamos, the company’s security chief, who was apparently yelled at for how he moved forward with exploring his early worries about Russian interference, rather than celebrated for what he unearthed.

Invest in Diversity

Tech companies’ record on diversity is just abysmal and has not budged in years, despite all the promises. They need to increase diversity because it is the right thing to do. But numerous studies have also proven that a heterogeneous staff — including differences in age, gender, race and background — is the best thing for businesses in the long term. Does it happen? It does not. As I have said time and again: Silicon Valley thinks it is a meritocracy, but it is a mirrortocracy.