fact sheet

Acting with Integrity

Transparency (1/2)

A manager cited in a study on transparency spoke of the “mushroom management” at his

company: “People around here are kept in the dark and fed manure.”
There are many aspects to acting with integrity at work (please see Acting with Integrity
1), but one key aspect that you may not think of immediately is transparency. Letting more
sunshine into the workplace, even in those dark and embarrassing corners, can make working
there more efficient and engaging.

1. Why am I reading this?

Most of the corporate problems in the news
recently, from environmental cheating to
sexual harassment to “cooking the books”,
are related to cover-ups and a culture of
secrecy. At the same time, research has found
that many employees complain of feeling
disoriented and disengaged due to the lack
of information available to them about their
company. This information asymmetry creates
distrust in employees and the fear they are
being monitored because their employer lacks
trust in them. In fact, a survey in the UK found
that about 25% of employees have quit a job,
or know someone who has, due to insufficient
transparency: only 10% of those surveyed were
aware of company developments in real time.
On the other hand, a Harvard survey found
that 70% of employees feel most engaged
when senior management is transparent
about communicating and updating company
strategy.
Keeping employees and customers informed
about a company’s decisions and actions can
seem difficult and burdensome in an age of
uncertainty and information overload, but
it’s key to building trust, image, and market
share. In fact, transparency has been shown
to increase customer value and satisfaction
along with employee trust and engagement.

2. What is transparency?

Transparency means making as much information
as possible available to as many people
as possible, even when that information is
unflattering or incomplete. It’s a prerequisite to
good decision-making: without access to the
full information, decisions become exercises
in guesswork. Transparency means letting
the customer know there’s a potential quality
issue, letting your manager know you’ve made
a mistake, letting your team know that there
are upcoming shifts in senior management.
But transparency, when done correctly, isn’t
just a data dump: it gives stakeholders the
tools to process and make meaning from
the information and helps them envisage the
next steps to be taken given that information.

3. How can transparency help my team?

Transparency builds trust: it shows that you trust
your team to handle sensitive information and
have confidence in them to help solve problems
and create new ways forward. Transparency
unites and aligns your team because they have
a clear understanding of their common goals
and values. It also reduces the stress inherent in
uncertainty and can cut back on the unproductive
gossip that results from speculation. When
your team is transparent about their feelings
and intentions, and understand yours, they can
engage in healthy debate rather than playing
political games.
fact sheet
Acting with Integrity
Transparency (2/2)
4. How can I be more transparent at work?
Don’t hide mistakes. The problem with
transparency is that it sometimes involves
delivering unpleasant information about
mistakes you’ve made or work you’re not
proud of. However, to build trust and trans-
parency, you need to be able to own up to
what you’ve done, express the appropriate
level of remorse, and explain what steps
you’re going to take to avoid that mistake
in the future.
Be clear and direct. Information can be
easily lost or misunderstood when you use
shorthand, jargon, or indirect language. In
fact, a lot of business jargon can be used
to obfuscate bad news. “There were a lot
of moving parts, so we just weren’t able to
move the needle and get buy-in” is not a
transparent way to say, “The client rejected
our offer.”
5. How can I be more transparent with my team?
Separate knowledge from power. Managers
often want to hoard information because
they worry that sharing it will make them
lose their edge. However, sharing information
will provide you the power of effective
collaboration and engaged team members.
Certainly, it’s important to keep some
strategic secrets, but generally not as many
as you might think.
Link transparency to trust. Make it clear to
your team how you expect them to handle
the information you share with them, and
that you trust them to do so. And as your
team becomes more transparent with
you and each other, show you trust your
team to bring concerns to you rather than
monitoring them for problems.
They can handle the truth. Transparency
becomes difficult when the news is bad
or uncomfortable: you’ve made a mistake,
you need to deny a request, the team is
going to be reorganized, the company is
undergoing difficulties. Your willingness to
share this information and allow your team
to process it will end up reducing their stress
levels because they’ll know they can trust
you to share bad news and that no news
is thus good news—not covered-up bad
news.
Learn more: If this topic interests you, you might also like: Acting with Integrity, Communication,
Managing uncertainty, Alignment.
Don’t shoot the messenger. Your manager
needs to know you will handle good and
bad news with maturity and professionalism.
Especially when your manager shares com-
pany strategy and other matters decided
by senior management, it’s important that
any disagreement you have with policy be
detached from your communication with your
manager. Ask questions and voice concerns
as necessary, but in a way that shows you
appreciate your manager’s willingness to
share information openly.
Emphasize quality over quantity. Some might
feel that transparency is undesirable because
it might involve more meetings, more email,
more meaningless communication. When
you’re sharing information, be careful to
share it in the most efficient way possible
with the right people.
Make information opt-in. Some of your
team may be quite motivated to learn all
the details about company developments,
and for others, it may be enough to know
they can access that information. Putting
the information at their disposal on the
company intranet or another easily accessible
location provides transparency without
information overload.
Say what you can’t tell. Sometimes your
company will be engaged in a strategic
move like a merger that requires secrecy.
Your team is still going to sense unusual
activities, however, so be clear about what
you can share, what you can’t share, and that
you will update them as soon as possible. If
you have built up trust with your previous
transparency, your team will accept this
need for secrecy and work with you to get
through this uncertain period.