Forced Transparency

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Transparency 2turteltaub-adam-200x200-150x150By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org

The staff at the Democratic National Committee has now joined the employees at Sony, along with all the companies in the Panama Papers leak, in learning that the world is more transparent than we think.  And sometimes it is more transparent than we want.

On the whole transparency can be a good thing.  It helps keep relationships above board and clean.  Transparency International for years has trumpeted that song, and they have done much to promote clean government.

But, sometimes, as the recent hacking attacks have shown, transparency can come very quickly and involuntarily to organization.  Hackers have grown increasingly willing to tear down the walls and expose the inner workings of institutions, including the candid thought of their workers.

It’s not a tactic I approve of, but it’s one that is not likely to go away.

As a result, it’s time to retire the admonition to ask yourself how would your action look if it was on the front page of the New York Times.  We need to replace it with:  how would your email look plastered all over the web?

We can’t infuse paranoia.  That doesn’t help anyone, and the last thing we need is organizations where everyone is afraid to say everything.  But it’s a good reminder to keep the business discussions focused on business issues not personal ones.  It’s also a constant good reminder that if the email you write isn’t going to look good, that there may be something wrong with the underlying business practice you are writing about.

And if we get people to stop and think, then we may end up in a better place, despite being forced there.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Good point Adam. You highlight how transparency, typically a very good thing, can become a double edged sword bringing unwanted attention to certain information, communications or processes that are expected to be private. I agree with you that this situation is here to stay – as long as computer hacking remains profitable or beneficial for the hackers whose motivations for leaking/exposing the information they have stolen are numerous.

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