People who’ve worked with me know I’m a huge fan of transparency. More than a few times in my career I was accused of being too transparent with associates. Not only does it just feel right, it has the merits of building trust, promoting inclusion, spurring creativity, and generally leading to better results. But not always. Over the arc of my career I came to the conclusion that unbounded transparency has its downside, especially when turning around an underperforming organization. I learned to sometimes temper my enthusiasm for transparency in the service of getting even better results faster.
The Signal and the Noise
I’ve always believed that with more information associates tend to make better decisions on the job, ones that inure to the benefit of the company, its customers, and their colleagues. That still holds true.
But as a 2017 McKinsey Quarterly piece highlighted, “Excessive sharing of information creates problems of information overload and can legitimize endless debate and second-guessing of senior executive decisions.” I experienced that on many occasions. The piece went on further to observe, “The other, and bigger, concern is that people weigh in without relevant knowledge, or without any responsibility to see things through.” I experienced this more than a few times, too.
The key is to stay focused on the signal – well-intentioned, relevant, actionable input from informed and engaged associates – while limiting the considerable noise that can arise from associates, well-intentioned or not, who with too much information can create unproductive if not unhealthy distractions.
“Don’t Overvalue Transparency”
David Brooks offered this advice in a recent column, providing as an example a 2011 study of a public health system. General trust in the health care system actually weakened among ordinary citizens who were given more information about how it allocates its resources, when compared with those who were given no information about the decision-making process at all. It’s just one study, and through the lens of politics not commerce, but I can relate.
Let me be clear: I remain a big believer in transparency and staunchly advocate erring on the side of more rather than less. It’s a balance, of course. Over time I learned to be more strategic in my communications, tailoring the level of information, how it was delivered, and the timing of its delivery to various internal audiences. Keeping associates in the dark is never advisable regardless of level; it’s a matter of judging how much sunshine each associate needs to perform their role well and feel fulfilled doing it.
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