TRANSPARENCY IS NOT A LUXURY
The promised Iraq enquiry has once again raised the issue of candour and transparency. Both are much needed, not only in politics but also in companies where the importance of restoring trust, by a whole range of stakeholders, from employees to investors, from suppliers to customers is emerging as something of a priority for policy makers.
The apparent lack of transparency in the Iraq enquiry is a truly amazing piece of bungling. Here is a topic that cries out for candour and openness as the only credible way to put to rest so many matters associated with the issue. That it will apparently be held behind closed doors seems to be the final triumph of a misguided obsession with secrecy that still bedevils much of UK society.
As far as companies are concerned, what is needed is what James O’Toole and Warren Bennis call a Culture of Candour in their June article in the latest Harvard Business Review. Amongst other arguments, the authors argue for a new metric for corporate leadership: the extent to which executives create organisations that are economically, ethically and socially sustainable.
The only viable way that leaders can achieve this is through increased transparency, of the kind singularly lacking for instance in the so-called Iraq enquiry.
For developers this represents a tremendous opportunity for HR to get itself centre stage, helping and guiding leaders on not only the merits of transparency but also how to make it happen without putting at risk important commercial considerations.
So what exactly do we mean by transparency. As the HBR authors argue, it is the degree to which information flows freely within an organisation; amongst managers, and employees, and outward to stakeholders.
For HR professionals to credibly pursue such an agenda, they must model candour, transparency and openness. This can be harder than it seems when part of the work much HR may involve highly personal matters around performance, behaviour and attitudes.
Take for example the intention to re-organise and perhaps make people redundant or forcibly re-located to more productive work. Ideally this would be pursued openly and with great frankness. In practice it can prove hard to achieve without generating fears, anxiety and insecurity until a proper plan has been fully evolved.
So what can HR professionals do to promote candour, transparency and openness, apart from modelling it themselves wherever possible? The main starting point is accepting that such a culture does not happen all by itself. It needs committed individuals who value such an environment and will fight hard to make it happen.
The HBR authors suggest several actions that can help:
• Tell the truth
• Encourage people to tell those in power the truth
• Reward Contrarians
• Practice having unpleasant conversations
• Diversify sources of information
• Admit mistakes
• Build an organisation architecture that supports candour
• Set information free
HR professionals clearly have important roles to play in all of these actions.
What has been your experience in promoting candour, openness and transparency? Share it with me.
