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The Power of Culture
Transparency and Trust at Work
In today’s organizations, the power of culture and what it enables and encourages or inhibits and constrains is an important leadership lever. As organizations and communities grapple with increasingly complex challenges, the need for co-creative collaboration and innovation has never been greater.
Transparency and trust are central to fostering a culture that enables such collaboration and sets the stage for real breakthroughs. Yet, despite decades of research underscoring the benefits of giving people greater access to the information that shapes their lives and work, many organizations still cling to notions of secrecy and information hoarding that undermine trust, stifle creativity, and ultimately hinder progress.
The Perils of Secrecy
Traditionally, many organizations have operated on the premise that restricting access to information is necessary to maintain power and control. This mindset, rooted in an era when sharing information and context was more difficult, has led us to create of systems built on secrecy. From military operations to pharmaceutical companies and compensation schemes, the withholding of critical information has become ingrained in many aspects of modern life. We too often assume that there is a greater advantage to withholding information than there is to sharing it, but too rarely test that assumption.
In today’s interconnected world, these habits of secrecy often serve to disempower and constrain creativity. When individuals are forced to make decisions without access to all the relevant information, the quality of their decisions inevitably suffers. Moreover, the discovery that information has been withheld can erode trust and damage relationships, creating a vicious cycle of mistrust and further withholding. If your team doesn’t trust you to tell them the truth, odds are high that they will be less forthcoming with you too.
When leaders stop hearing the truth from their teams, everyone loses.
The Benefits of Transparency
In contrast to secrecy, transparency has been shown to increase trust among both customers and employees. Research consistently demonstrates that when people understand how things work and how decisions are made, they have greater…
