Transparency through a Culture of Candor

1. Transparency through a Culture of Candor Presented Tuesday, July 26 at 3pm

2. WARNING! • Organizational transparency makes sense rationally and ethically, and it makes business run more efficiently and effectively. But leaders resist even so, because it goes against the grain of group behavior and, in some ways, even against human nature. In all groups, leaders hoard and control information because they believe it’s a source of power. Managers sometimes believe that access to information is a prerequisite of, a benefit that separates their privileged caste from their subordinates. Such leaders apparently feel that they’re smarter than their followers and thus only they need, or would know how to use sensitive and complex information. Some even like opacity because it allows them to hide embarrassing mistakes.

6. NASA Findings RE: opaque upward communication NASA researchers placed existing cockpit crews --- pilot, co-pilot, navigator --- in flight simulators and tested them to see how they would respond during the crucial 30-45 seconds between the first sign of a potential accident and the moment it would occur. The stereo-typical, take charge “fly boy” pilots, who acted immediately on their gut instincts, made the wrong decisions far more often than the more open, inclusive pilots who said to their crews, in effect “We’ve got a problem. How do you read it?”.

7. NASA Lessons of Upward Communication The habitual interaction between the leader and the crew indicated how they would act in an emergency. Crew members that worked with “decisive” pilots would not intervene even when they had information that could save the plane and/or the pilots life.

8. Do you work in a mushroom farm? In 2009…. A poll of 154 executives showed that 63% of them described their own company culture as opaque. And the remaining 37% were more likely to choose clouds over bright sunshine to describe the communication practices at their firms” A common metaphor to describe the work place culture is “a mushroom farm” as in “People around here are kept in the dark and fed manure”.

9. Are you Opaque or Transparent???

10. Step 1: Become Trustworthy • Leaders must first trust others before others will trust them. • Demonstrate trust • Be transparent in your own thinking • Do what you say you will do • Prove your consistent and reliable

11. Step 2: Create Organizational Transparency Ask everyone these questions and answer them when asked of you: A. What’s working well? What isn’t? B. How could we be doing a better job? C. How could we be improving quality? D. How could we be reducing errors or rework? E. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing us now? F. What would you do about them? G. What opportunities do we have right now? H. What should we be doing to capitalize on them

12. Step 3 – Establish an Open Door Policy Benefits Helps maintain a positive upbeat feeling throughout the organization. An increase in open and free-flowing communication. 3) When people know that nothing is being kept from them they are less likely to get bogged down in petty disagreements. Exceptions for Open Door Policy– pending legal issues, personnel issues (terminations, salaries, issues and reviews), real-estate transactions and anything Steve Miller is working on .

13. Step 4: Implement your own Management by Walking Around Strategy Take time to connect and learn more about your direct reports and share more about yourself with them. Simply ask, on a regular basis (at least once a week) A. How are you doing? B. How’s it going? Every now and then, ask the following questions….. C. Do you feel challenged in your job? D. What would make your job more challenging and interesting? E. Where would you like to be in two years? F. What would you like to be doing? G. Do you think that you are qualified for that position, now? H. What would you need to do to be qualified?

14. Step 5: Promote an Organizational Culture of Candor Most executives expect their people to be good soldiers and not question company policy, but a great leader will welcome alternative viewpoints. Create the conditions for people to be courageous. Transparency requires both a willing listener and a COURAGEOUS Speaker. Hire people that provide examples of creating a transparent culture rather than examples of outperforming peers.

15. Step 6: Develop a Culture of Candor with your direct reports The leader should take these answers to heart and act upon them immediately to demonstrate their own trustworthiness. Eventually, the direct reports will trust their leader and will provide very beneficial information. A. How am I doing as your boss? B. What could I be doing better as a boss? C. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate communication in our department? D. What do you think we are doing especially well? E. Is there any room for improvement? F. What would we have to do to reach a 10?

16. Step 7: Reward Whistleblowers Thank, reward and protect anyone with the courage to challenge your position, plan or thoughts. Examples: A. Candor Club B. $1 store whistles as a trophy C. prize, lunch, etc When in doubt, let it out. – embarrassing information has a way of getting out anyways, you may as well get your story out there first.

17. Step 8: Consistent Straight talk To truly be transparent the same facts, information, message, story etc should be shared regardless of audience.

18. Sources An Open Door Policy, Starting and Running a Nonprofit.Goettler, Jim. “Netplaces” http://www.netplaces.com/starting-running-nonprofit/operations-staff-and-the-board-of-directors/an-open-door-policy.htm Respect & Trust, Build a Culture of Accountability. Witt, David.”Leadership Excellence”, July 2010, p4. Leadership 101: Fit or Fail. Bacons, Terry R.”Leadership Excellence”, July 2010, p10-11. What’s Needed Next: A Culture of Candor. O’Toole, James, Bennis, Warren, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Jun 2009, Vol 87, Issue 6, via Database “Business Elite”.