What Is Your Transparency Architecture?

Transparency is one of those terms thrown around in the social media world that is much easier said than done. We want to be transparent, we support transparency, we’re increasing transparency. Really? Some are, of course, but this is one where you actually need to work hard to get to that place where the rubber meets the road. You have to figure out how to do transparency.

In the past, I got in trouble by suggesting things like sharing your salary information among all employees (gasp! I know, I know, but for the record, Whole Foods does this and they seem to be doing okay). But I never meant for it to be all about salaries. It was about questioning your assumptions about  (a) what transparency means and (b) how hard it is or is not.

Way back in 2003, Don Tapscott (of Wikinomics fame) and David Ticoll wrote a book called the Naked Corporation, and they have some good examples of companies that embraced transparency (without it necessarily being about salaries). One phrase that stood out for me in that discussion was “transparency architecture.” It is something that Prudential Securities constructed to “ensure an open spirit with stakeholders.” For employees, they give everyone complete information about the company strategies, financials, and operations. They have created two employee councils–one for Financial Advisors and another for branch managers, where all the information is discussed and acted upon. According to Tapscott and Nicoll,

The transparency architecture resulted in engagement and loyalty. Rice [from Prudential] says that in every organization he’s seen, most employees think the home office doesn’t get it. This was the situation at Prudential in the early 1990s. With a number of severe problems, the company had completely fractured trust. “Today,” he says, “we have a culture of trust and that pays off.” The firm is aligned around a clear strategy that employees cocreate. Loyalty has shot up. Prior to January of 2000 the firm’s annual attrition rate was 23 percent. In 2002 it was 11 percent… “The branches went from being outposts to being actively engaged in the company.”

Sounds a bit like chapters, doesn’t it? But all organizations have dispersed stakeholders to some extent, and the same principles apply. Tell the truth. Share information. Be authentic. And work hard to create some kind of “architecture” to support this. The way Prudential created these councils and shared information with them and then actually listened to what they had to say is what made it work. You can’t just send one email out that a copy of the strategic plan is on the server. It might be messy at first. Rice described the early council meetings as “food fights.” But people soon realized the openness was serious and they settled down to work.

Social organizations are trustworthy, and transparency is an important tool in building trust.