chapter 5
How do you create transparency and openness?
- Increasing transparency between team members within the team and with others
- Increasing levels of openness across the team and into the organisation
‘No legacy is so rich as honesty.’ William Shakespeare
Self-assessment
Before reading the chapter, do the following quick self-assessment.
How would you rate the following in your team?
George, the angry CEO
George, the CEO, had a temper. His volatility was well known and created a certain cautiousness when people were around him.
Noel didn’t know how to break the news to George that he was £500K below their forecasted revenue. This was due to an incorrect prediction, which had only just been noticed by Noel. As George was known for ‘shooting the messenger’ when bad news hit, Noel didn’t really want to be the one who got shot. George would behave very aggressively when anyone came to him with bad news. Noel needed to tell him there had been an error in the numbers that they couldn’t fix, but he didn’t dare. He decided to leave it until next month, hoping that it would somehow miraculously resolve itself. The next month it was £1 million, so much worse, and he knew he should do something so he went to talk to Theresa, another senior member of the team.
Theresa looked serious as Noel finished his story.
‘Yes, this should be addressed, but maybe it could wait a bit longer. You know, just as I do, how much George has on his plate right now with the takeover looming. He’s preoccupied and he is not very receptive to anything that’s not directly related to that. I also wonder if the numbers could still improve as the last month is trending more positively. Given that George is such hard work, you may get into trouble unnecessarily. You saw how he ripped Tom apart at the quarterly review last week, didn’t you?’
Theresa’s question needed no answer and she fuelled Noel’s fear and made him convinced that it would be more prudent to wait again.
‘Yes, you are probably right. He is a bit of a tyrant, isn’t he? Tom did try to tell him in a really good way and he had reasonable arguments, and George’s response just shut everyone down. Did you notice how uncomfortably quiet it went after that?’
‘Yes, I did. I felt myself wanting to melt into the background. I mean, who wants to be the next target after such a public dressing down! Hmm, I wonder if he has any idea what effect his outbursts have on others. Does he think it makes him powerful to behave like that? Well, it doesn’t. He may shut people up, but he doesn’t get the truth and he doesn’t look like a great leader.’
Noel had to agree. It was becoming increasingly hard to work with George.
Well guess what; the next month it was £2 million and hiding was no longer an option for Noel. With a heavy heart he walked the corridor to George’s office with his imaginary armour on, getting ready for an angry confrontation.
The predicted explosion occurred and George demanded to know why Noel hadn’t come forward with this information sooner.
Noel mumbled something about trends and changing markets and not worrying George unnecessarily, none of which was particularly well received.
As he left the office, exhausted from the exchange, he was amazed that George didn’t understand why he hadn’t been approached before. Well, I’m certainly not going to tell him, but somebody needs to!
Exploring the problem
In the example, Noel is fearful of telling his CEO the truth about the budget. From a rational perspective he understands that he should speak up, but his fear pushes the logic away. With Theresa’s help he even finds reasonable excuses not to tell George. This only delays the inevitable, i.e. talking to George, which makes George’s reaction even stronger when Noel finally does talk to him.
Feeling threatened
George’s anger is caused by him feeling threatened, threatened by the possibility of him looking bad as a leader if the budget is not met. By being defensive, he hinders any sensible conversation that could have been had. He points a finger at the messenger thereby making the messenger defensive, closing down any potential solutions.
And if it’s a recurring event, it creates a very non-transparent culture of ‘cover my a**e’, where everyone defensively looks out for their own interests.
Fear
By not telling George directly, but instead going behind his back to Theresa, Noel is unwittingly creating a ripple effect of fear and non-transparency. Others will hear the story and think twice before approaching George with bad news.
George is at times a very fun and inspiring leader, but his occasional outbursts make his behaviours inconsistent. This causes people to not feel at ease with him as they don’t know what his reaction will be. George is therefore in danger of surrounding himself with only ‘yes-sayers’, fearful of challenging him or bringing him bad news.
The reasons for people not being transparent and open
Don’t dare to tell the truth
Fear of punishment or backlash can stop people from telling the truth, just like Noel in the story.
Don’t think others can handle the truth or want to hear it
They may know from previous experience that the other person won’t listen to the reality, so they withhold that nugget, thinking that it will be easier not to tell them the truth.
Not being heard by leader
If a leader is not listening to people or taking in their views, people will stop providing that input as it’s not perceived as valued or welcomed. In the story, Theresa suggests not talking to George due to his preoccupation with a takeover, thinking that Noel wouldn’t be heard anyway.
Don’t want to be blamed
Blame is not a good word; no one wants to be blamed. But if they have been blamed a few times, it will stop them from putting themselves in the firing line. They will worry that their remuneration or career prospects may be negatively impacted, so they won’t be keen to share information that isn’t positive, thinking they might get a finger pointed at them.
No other outlet
As shown in the story, if we avoid talking directly to the relevant person and go elsewhere, it becomes gossip. Noel went to Theresa as he desperately needed an outlet, which is natural, as he didn’t feel he could go to George. The act of talking behind someone’s back though, which is what gossip effectively is, makes other people wonder when they will be talked about in the same way. A culture of gossip is born.
No culture of transparency
If talking openly about things, including issues, is not the norm, it will take focus and courage to break with that tradition.
Cultural differences
In an increasingly global workplace, different national/regional cultures can have different views on transparency. What’s OK to be open about in one culture, could be potentially damaging in another. One such example is feedback: in some countries it’s OK to give open and honest feedback to your manager, whereas in others it is not. This perceived ‘cultural minefield’ can make people hesitant to be open and transparent until they’ve worked out the local playing rules.
Can’t share because of change
If there is organisational change going on, complete transparency may not be possible. This is natural in times of change, where certain information needs to remain confidential for various reasons, and where answers are yet to be formulated.
The impact of lack of transparency and openness in teams
When transparency is missing, crucial exchange within the team is not happening:
- When team members suspect that someone is hiding something, it makes them cagey and suspicious, which can create gossip and talk behind each other’s backs.
- If you don’t get the truth in the team, you will look for it elsewhere. This means you spend more time trying to find out the whole story. This is inefficient use of team time, especially if the information was already available somewhere within the team.
- When the truth is not accessible, it’s not uncommon for people to fill in the communication gaps with their own hypothesis. This causes assumptions that can be way off track, fuelled by fear and exaggerated speculations. This kind of gossiping is time-consuming and takes the team away from what they are supposed to be doing.
- A team where people gossip and talk behind each other’s backs won’t be well perceived outside the team. Others can usually pick up on the undertones easily and the team’s credibility is negatively affected, as is the credibility and prospects of its individual members.
The impact on the business, customers, employees and stakeholders
There is a growing expectation for organisations to be more and more transparent. There has always been some level of expectancy of openness within organisations, but the transparency that is now being demanded is of a new nature, due to factors such as less hierarchical structures. On top of that, the external world of stakeholders insists on having a greater insight into the inner world of how the company is run. Higher international standards for corporate governance are another influence that feeds more openness. This means everyone’s actions and behaviours, particularly leaders’, are more closely scrutinised and judged. Everyone is constantly ‘on display’, ‘on stage’. Actions and behaviours are seen and can have consequences. Everyone wants more openness and accessibility to the truth.
Let’s look at an example of a company that lacked the practice of transparency.
The company in question has expressed that they value being open and transparent.
Its sales leaders predict the sales results for each quarter. When it then gets to the end of the quarter, there are a lot of surprises as the achieved numbers don’t match the predicted ones. The reason for this is that sales leaders have been hiding information and not including it in the prediction, in order to exceed their targets and get better bonuses. So in reality the culture is not that open, and these behaviours make the non-transparency even more inherent.
The impact on the direct reports of the sales leaders is that they feel they have to exceed their predictions. This encourages them to hide information too.
The impact on the sales team is them not being trusted by the rest of the organisation as they appear not to be honest, and working in their own interest.
The potential impact on the customer is one of perceived misalignment of company representatives. If this becomes visible to customers, it could damage the company’s reputation. The impact on the organisation is not being able to accurately forecast and shareholders can become uncomfortable that the company is not well led.
The opening story ‘George, the angry CEO’ is an example of the serious implications that these non-transparent behaviours can have on the bottom line.
A recent news story from the world of business tells us how senior executives have used the corporate jet for travel with their spouses. It might not mean that any rules have been broken but if the actions go against what the company says it stands for and the executives are not forthcoming with information when asked, then the reputation and therefore the value of the organisation can be damaged.
Solutions
Let’s face it, transparency is increasingly becoming the expected norm. You know you need to do it. And you know when people do it and when they don’t. Transparency, or the lack thereof, is transparent to others.
Like any skill, transparency needs to be practised to become an effective habit.
Let’s get specific on how to do it.
Solution 1: Tell the truth
Demonstrate courage by telling the truth. It sounds simplistic, but it’s not always easy to be forthcoming with unpleasant truths, as the story of Noel points out. However, by telling the truth, it’s not just easier to remember what you’ve said, it’s also demonstrating your integrity.
Think of someone you know who is very open and authentic, who shows who they really are, not just their polished work persona. What positive impact are they having on you? And could you do more to model that and have the same effect?
Solution 2: Reward transparency
When you notice that someone is being transparent and authentic, recognise it, reward it – to encourage others to do the same. You want to reward people because it shows them and others how important transparency is. The reward can be anything from a pat on the back to a more formal reward. By recognising that someone has been transparent, you can create a positive ripple effect where others want to do the same. You are starting to create a culture of openness.
Solution 3: Leaders = role models
Leaders are role models, whether they realise that or not. So if you are the leader, do this quick self-reflection to see where the potential issues are regarding transparency and what you need to focus on.
Which of these reasons are hindering you or your team from being transparent and open:
- Don’t dare to tell the truth
- Don’t think others can handle or want to hear the truth
- Not being heard by leader
- Don’t want to be blamed
- No other outlet
- Not a culture of transparency
- Cultural differences
- Can’t share because of change.
Solution 4: Actively reach out to stakeholders
Consider your key stakeholders. Work out who your stakeholders are by plotting them on this mind map.
Figure 5.1 Mind map
Then ask yourself: What are they interested in? What do they need you to be transparent about? Whatever it is, this is what you want to be proactive about sharing, because if they have to chase you for that information you will automatically come across as non-transparent at best or as actively hiding something at worst.
For more detail on stakeholder management, go to http://www.leadingteamsbook.com/
Solution 5: Transparently answer a question
In times of change it’s not always possible to be transparent, as the answer may not yet be known or not yet possible to communicate. Transparency is then being honest about that. Follow these simple recommendations:
The four principles of answering a question transparently
- Answer the question.
- If you don’t know the answer, say so.
- If you cannot answer the questions now, make a commitment for when you will and honour it!
- If you know the answer but cannot say currently – say so – and make a commitment to share the information when you can.
Solution 6: Have a value of transparency
An organisation has a number of values that make up the culture. Preparing for current and future demands, one of those values should be openness and transparency. You may already have something like it in your company values.
The next step is to clarify what transparency means in your workplace – at an individual, team and organisational level. You need to clarify: What does that mean for us? How does it translate to us?
It could sound something like this:
- Individual: I share my views in a helpful way, even if they are an opposing viewpoint.
- Team: We tell each other what we do and know (our work secrets), so there’s no need for secrecy!
- Organisational: We invite other stakeholders to see how we work and operate
Be aware that being open and transparent almost always requires courage, especially if transparency is not yet part of the culture.
Solution 7: Make transparency mandatory
What is measured gets done!
So if you want people to be transparent, put transparency into their goals and objectives. Find the dependency, the link between transparency and results. Help people see how their open and transparent way of working, enables them to achieve more. Effective goals are made up of two parts; WHAT to achieve and HOW to achieve it.
Both WHAT and HOW should contribute equally to performance ratings and therefore pay. Transparency is one of your HOWs and needs to be clearly identified as such in the goal process. Make sure you have goals for the HOW.
Talking behind backs can create a culture of gossip. To avoid this in your team:
- Review what is being said by asking direct questions to gain clarity. Do not engage with gossip.
- Provide feedback directly to each other to avoid talking behind each other’s backs.
- Encourage people to say what they want to the person they are talking about – work out ‘how to’ so it is done in a respectful way.
Let’s have a look at what Noel and George could have done instead, had they deployed these solutions.
Noel knew he had to pluck up courage to talk to George. George wasn’t going to be happy about the £500K deficit, but if it went on for longer, the numbers might deteriorate even further.
As he walked into the room, George greeted him with a distracted nod and pointed him to the visitor’s chair.
‘Hi Noel, how can I help you?’
‘I know that you are busy and that you have a lot on with the takeover, but I want to talk to you about something that’s very important to me.’ Noel slowed down towards the end of the sentence to highlight the seriousness of his request.
He now had George’s attention.
‘Thank you. I have noticed an error in the predicted sales figure, which means we are currently £500K under budget. I must admit that I hesitated to tell you as you’ve previously not responded well to bad news.’
George put his pen down and folded his arms.
‘Last week at the quarterly review meeting you shouted at Tom when he was being honest with you, so I did think long and hard about coming to see you today. But here I am, because I know you’re a good guy and I think you need to know about the deficit. And the sooner we can do something about it the better.’ Noel waited for a response.
George was quiet for a bit and then said: ‘I’m not happy about this!’ angrily tapping his pen on the desk. He then waited a few moments, which seemed like hours to Noel.
Slowly, as the moments passed, George’s facial expression changed. He no longer looked as angry as before, in fact he looked tired. George was realising that Noel was trying to help and that he needed to listen to him. He did, and their conversation helped George to see his behaviour pattern and how people felt about giving him bad news. He had had no idea that his reaction was having this effect. So after some more quiet reflection time he decided to be a bit vulnerable by talking to his team, opening up and sharing his feelings of why he reacted that way. He had thought that he was just helping them fix it when he was being aggressive. He thought it was his way of showing power and getting to the results.
Once he had opened up and they told him what it was really like on the receiving end, it had a huge impact on him, it was a massive eye-opener that had previously completely passed him by.
Opening up to his team also allowed the team to review the issue of the £500 K together and come up with a solution. This meant that the deficit didn’t increase further.
Behaviours of team and leader
Under ‘Solutions’ above, we have listed a number of ‘how to’ actions. These solutions work best when carried out with these supporting ‘how to’ behaviours. The actions on their own, will get you only so far. With the right behaviours you can create transparency and openness in the team more effectively.
Thoughts and feelings of team and leader
On average, a person experiences around 70.000 thoughts per day.1
Many of those thoughts are habits that affect a person’s mindset or outlook.
What we think affects how we feel, and how we feel affects how we think.
When wanting to create a culture of transparency and openness within a team, actively replace thoughts and feelings that are counterproductive to that. Here are thoughts from the story, their impact on feelings and how they can be changed.
Summary
Transparency is quickly becoming the expected norm in business and expectations are growing. Increased transparency has great benefits and there are consequences involved with not creating a higher level of openness. If you already have a level of openness then strive for more, it will need to increase as we move into the future.
Consequences
There are consequences of not focusing on getting your team to be transparent, there are an increasing number of stories in the press about organisations where the level of openness is not high. The effect can be catastrophic.
Starts at the top
Personal openness starts at the top of any organisation and the more senior you are the more responsibility you have to role model this. Team members watch this and will take on and emulate what the leader or their colleagues do. This is natural, in life we role model what others do; good or bad. However, when done well this can have a very positive cascade effect throughout the organisation.
Reflection questions for the reader
- How open is your team? How much do you and your team demonstrate that you really want to hear open and honest views from others?
- How do you react to people when they are open with you, even if you don’t like what they have to say?
- How much responsibility do you take for your actions and their impact on others, when people are open with you?
- How open and transparent are you with other team members? What makes it easy and what stops you?
- How do you reward transparency personally, and as a team?
Self-assessment
After you have implemented the solutions in this chapter, answer these questions again to see the progress you have made.
How would you rate the following in your team?
