First of all, what is work transparency? It is a buzzword thrown around carelessly and often times it’s hard to understand the meaning of transparency at work and especially it’s worth. The politically correct version is: Work transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.
I prefer the simple and agile version: Transparency is all about the speed of execution.
Nevertheless, what I discovered in my research is that transparency at work contains within itself more than just openness and speed of execution. Work transparency contains within itself an enormous amount of power over any organization and every leader needs to know the source and benefits of that power.
So, let us see what are the 10 reasons why every leader and manager needs more transparency and also what are the 5 steps to increase it.
10 reasons why you need more transparency at work.
Only 50% of U.S. workers believe their employer is open and upfront with them.
Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.
What are the benefits of transparency at work?
Culture
When information is shared openly, hierarchy lowers and company culture improves
Engagement
Engagement automatically increases as people will better understand the reasons behind different choices and decisions.
Autonomy
One of the side effects of work transparency is increased autonomy, which improves overall motivation, speed, and efficiency of the organization.
Change
Organizational change is easier when everybody shares the same reality via transparency.
Accountability
Transparency at work highlights issues and encourages people to find solutions. People want to keep their peers accountable and also recognize them when they do good work.
Agility
Organizations can respond to market changes much faster when they are agile and built on informed, empowered, proactive and thinking individuals.
Positive control
Transparency at work improves self-control and less costly format control mechanisms are needed.
Problem-solving
Work transparency provides all the necessary information in order to increase the speed, efficiency, and quality of decision making.
Alignment
People want to know what drives the company they are working for, what its long term goals are and how they will be involved in achieving these objectives.
Performance
The sum of preceding points equals improved performance in all levels of the organization
How to increase transparency in 5 easy steps
1. Set, share, monitor and align goals in every level of the organization. Use Objectives and Key Results
2. Share info concerning operations, sales and business results, product updates, etc.
3. Hold weekly or daily status update meetings. Also, use Kanban boards or public dashboards.
4. Communicate problems early and brainstorm solutions as a team.
5. Use an online tool to report progress and quickly know what your co-workers are doing.
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