As I mentioned in last Monday's post, one of the themes from the session Jeff and I did at Great Ideas was "Be Open." I was quite excited when Chris Sacca, formerly with Google and now part of Twitter, had "Be Open" as a theme of his presentation at the Technology conference. I think the issue of transparency is getting a lot of attention, and deservedly so. In 2008, Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman and James O'Toole (three big names in leadership) teamed up for a book on transparency. I've also seen several articles in Harvard Business review.
At one level, transparency isn't particularly a choice any more. People have access to information, and the conversations that are happening spread too quickly. The days where you could really control your image and what people do or don't know about you are disappearing. So it's less about a decision to be transparent, and more about how to prepare yourself for a world where transparency happens and is more and more demanded by stakeholders.
But I also don't think reactive preparation is enough. I think organizations should embrace transparency and move towards it. It feels risky, I know, but I think the payoff is significant. Here's my logic:
- Transparency breeds trust
- Trust enables speed
- Shaping the future requires speed
When you share information about yourself, people will trust you. When you expose yourself–literally make yourself vulnerable–it is both at once an act of trust and something that makes you more trustworthy. Withholding information reduces trust, even if it makes some sense to withhold it. It comes right down to control. Too often we choose the path of most control, but that is often the path that generates the least amount of trust.
Why does that matter? Because trust enables speed. Steven M.R. Covey's book, The Speed of Trust, documents very clearly how high trust environments increase speed and reduce costs. Where trust is low, Covey describes a "trust tax" that adds to the cost and time it takes to do nearly anything in the organization.
Why does that matter? Because shaping the future requires speed. It's actually getting a bit old to point out that the world is changing at a rapid pace. That trend isn't reversing. Being nimble isn't something to aspire too–it's now a plain old requirement. Part of the capacity to shape the future is speed.
So what do you do about it? At the very least, take a look at your organization and examine where you could be more transparent, and simply ask why you are not. During the session I gave the example I blogged about not too long ago–making public everyone's salary information. This was met with a lot of resistance, and honestly it's going to vary system by system so I don't have a rigid opinion, actually, about publishing salaries. But I think everyone should know why they choose to keep some things private. Why is my salary nobody else's business? Would publishing that information really invite micromanaging by the Board? There are assumptions there that need to be tested. In exploring those assumptions we might open up possibilities for increased leadership capacity.