The Curious Case of Transparency

When he was a toddler, my elder son used to often go and bang himself on glass doors and walls in the malls. Those transparent objects really messed up with his cognitive abilities. And every such incident used to end up with me buying him his favourite ice-cream. I am not very sure if it was his trick or the poor soul was truly troubled by the inconspicuous physical property called Transparency. He is now 15 years old and doesn’t bang his head on glass walls anymore. But in professional circles, I often come across people who are struggling with transparency in their conduct and banging their heads every now and then.

In the physical world, we all know what transparency means. A purely transparent object allows us to see things through it without distorting the real picture. At the same time, the world can also see us ‘as we are’ through that same transparent object. Reminds me of those glass lifts in posh shopping malls. So one can say that transparency is, in its purest sense, a passive property which does not interfere with the way things are. So if there is transparency, it should not even come to notice. However, sometimes the transparent object adds its own colour, magnification, distortion to the scene taking it further away from the truth and making it less trustworthy.

Things become quite interesting when transparency is introduced as an essential (though abstract) value in work culture.

Firstly, transparency does not remain a passive property but becomes an active catalyst for the whole human process at work place — Transparency creates a deep impact on everything that happens.

Secondly, it can not be taken for granted like a passive property. It can not be left to be a variable perception but must be made a measurable constant — One needs to work at transparency, for transparency and, with transparency.

Thirdly, it demands an internal and integral shift in the way we think, feel, and do things —Transparency begins with ‘I’ (Pardon my English!).

Today, an ever increasing number of organizations are embracing Agile or Scrum framework — not just for product development but also as the backbone of their organizational conduct and culture. The inherent flexibility of approaching product development using Agile or Scrum philosophy is catching attention of industries other than software development. All the different versions of agile/scrum are essential in their respective contexts and inevitable in today’s extremely VUCA world. Scrum proposes five values which serve as the very foundation of scrum framework — commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect. On the foundation of these values stand the three pillars of scrum — Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation — which enable developing a useful, releasable, maximum viable product at regular intervals.

In my humble opinion, each of the five values and each of the three pillars is subject for numerous volumes of research and theory. But the most important aspect of practical implementation of transparency, inspection and adaptation is largely left for the person on the ground to decide for himself. While this flexibility is a much welcome summer breeze in the traditional jungle of prescriptive, hard-wired techniques and the Western paranoia about structures and methods, it can also lead to problems if the true essence of these values and pillars is perceived wrongly. A large number of organizations suffer from such distorted implementation of scrum theory.

Amongst the three pillars which hold the Scrum framework — transparency, inspection, and adaptation — transparency has always amused me the most as it remains largely opaque (pun intended!). Is transparency just another fancy jargon? Just a workplace gimmick? Just a way of conduct? Just a parameter for designing offices without walls? Just a manner of dealing with people? Is transparency an attitude? Or is it all of this and much more? Or is it none of this?

For last 21 years, I have been serving in an organization where hierarchy takes precedence over almost everything else, where there is an immense emphasis on prescriptive procedures, where information is supposed to be shared only on a need to know basis, where hoarding information is often perceived as a tool for gaining supremacy over others, where risk and loss of resources are preferred over transparency. All these years I have always been searching for a better way and that search has led me to dive deeper and deeper in the complex interwoven network of needs, beliefs, values, attitudes, conducts and, behaviours.

I believe that, more often than not, transparency is left to be perceived rather than understood. As a leader, one may perceive that he/she is transparent. Much is left unsaid and left for others to perceive from their end. The challenge comes when perceptions of two sides don’t match. A leader considers himself as most transparent because he has shared all the data, explained all the requirements, cleared all the doubts and issued all the instructions. But on the other end of the spectrum, the team members feel that there are many gaps in the story, some crucial details are still hazy, enough has not been said about a particular feature of the product, and so on.

The leader feels that the team is just not ready as yet to take the plunge and the team feels that the bottom of the pit is not yet visible. You know where this usually ends up — a poorly designed, delayed product with a client that is lost forever.

I will not tell you how to be transparent — what one must do and must avoid. Nor will I waste time on explaining the importance of transparency in our life — be it personal, professional, familial or social. So if you joined me with those expectations — I am sorry for wasting your time.

What I intend to do instead is to approach this mysterious case of transparency from the unseen labyrinth of deeper beliefs and values. Rather than treating transparency like a shape-shifting alien which changes its appearance with a slight change in context, I invite you to dig deep and find the roots of this mysterious concept from the inner core of your belief and value system. Let’s give a shot at developing a universal way of dealing with this elusive concept.

I strongly believe that transparency is much deeper and broader than what it superficially appears to be. To be able to understand transparency better, the cluster of positive as well as negative beliefs linked with transparency must be identified. These ‘Belief Clusters' are externally and functionally visible in our attitude while they are internally and cognitively linked with our value system. And in that sense, transparency can be treated as one of the values. The need for transparency must support a person’s idea of ‘self’. It must co-exist with a person’s other stated and un-stated ‘needs’ so that a deeper and stronger need does not overshadow the need to be transparent. At the same time, it must be understood clearly as to when transparency becomes an important value and when it does not — when it becomes important for a person’s existence and when it does not. By doing so, one can identify the environmental factors that promote or hinder transparency. The feelings associated with transparency must also be accessed so that one can determine what provides the impetus and what causes impediment in implementing transparency. To understand the link between beliefs and values, check out my previous article ‘Beliefs and Values : The Compass of Our Ships’.

Even when an organisation is not implementing Scrum framework, transparency still helps in building effective teams that work with mutual trust. The implementation of transparency in our work environment is however a challenging task as it is primarily dealt at the level of physical action rather than a holistic approach based on our belief and value system. This often leads to a mismatch in perceptions of leaders and team members about transparency leading to inevitable chaos and failure to deliver.

Before we tackle the issue of transparency, let me briefly introduce you to Seven Steps of Existence model. Readers can use this Seven Steps of Existence model to take a deeper look at any complex issue in life. The seven steps are — Purpose, Identity, Values, Beliefs, Capabilities, Behaviour and, Environment. At every step we explore the subject at hand by asking some questions to ourselves and noting our answers. One needs to implement these steps in this sequence as each answers from preceding step assists in developing answers for next step in sequence.

A brief look at the seven steps will tell you that we approach the issue inside out — starting from the innermost core of our being and gradually moving towards external environment. This helps us in bringing more authenticity in our behaviour and actions rather than a mere mechanical approach which often leads to unsatisfactory results. Adopting this approach brings clarity in our thinking and gives us a clear picture of what supports and what impedes our success.

Coming back to Transparency. The complexity of the issue prevents us from having a clear picture of what’s working and what’s not. As a result we instinctively jump to our established behavioural pattern. More often we practice the same pattern, more rigid it becomes until our behaviour becomes our identity. Isn’t it a common practice to identify a person as short-tempered, impulsive, extravagant, etc. If one wants to break from this wishes cycle of behavioural pattern, one must dissect the complex issue threadbare using the Seven Steps of Existence model.

I have developed a set of questions for each of the step in the model. I have tried my best to keep the questions generic so that readers can also use these questions with minor changes in any other context to resolve other complex issues in their lives. Wherever necessary, I have given some explanatory notes or suggestions within parenthesis in italics. I strongly recommend sitting at a quiet place with a pen and paper to note down answers. Make sure that you are not disturbed while you are doing this exercise as it requires some serious thinking and soul searching. Its all right if you are not able to complete the exercise in one session but make sure that you don’t come to any hasty conclusions without completing the entire exercise.

So here are the questions -

Purpose

• What is my purpose to become a transparent person in my professional role? (Why do I need to become transparent? What will happen if I bring more transparency in my behaviour, conduct and attitude?)

Identity

• What will I become if I bring more transparency in my professional role? (Assuming that the present level of transparency in my behaviour is lower than expected and I need to improve. If what I will become after bringing more transparency in my behaviour is not appealing me then I might as well stop here.)

Values (I encourage readers to identify their own core values in context of Transparency. To put it simply, your values are what are important for you and give health to your body, happiness to your mind and divinity to your soul. Also remember that values that you hold for transparency may be entirely different from values that you hold in other aspects of life. Most importantly remember that different values are useful in different contexts for a limited number of time that is to say that it is possible to select and adopt new values to suit a particular goal in life. Lastly don’t confuse values with emotions. For example, Passion is emotion, not value. A suggested list of core personal values can be found here. But I would strongly urge readers not to refer to the list unless you absolutely hit a wall and cannot find your way ahead. Be careful not to pick up values from the list that you find attractive. Instead, quickly go through the list and put it away. After a while identify your personal values in the context of Transparency.)

• Which are the top three values that are important to me and support transparency? (You may be holding these vales as important ones in any aspect of your life and not necessarily just in professional role. Remember, if a value is important to you, it can be applied to any context.)
• Which are the top three values that are important to me and oppose transparency? (Be truthful to yourself. These are tricky ones. They must be definitely serving a purpose to you in your professional life but assessing their impact on transparency is critical.)
• Which value(s) (out of the above three opposing values) I will not compromise for maintaining transparency? (These values define the threshold of your transparency, i.e. you will not become so transparent that these values are threatened. For example, Security — I will not be transparent if being transparent threatens my job security or security of my organization.)
• Which value(s) (out of the above three opposing values) I may compromise for maintaining transparency? (These values define your risk taking ability. In other words, you are willing to depart from these values for sake of transparency even though these values have served you some benefits. For example, avoiding transparency (thereby withholding information) may satisfy my values of popularity, success or influence but I am willing to sacrifice these if becoming more transparent makes my team successful.)
• How does transparency or lack of it affect other important personal values such as:

Power (Does my transparency support or risks my Status, Prestige, Control, Authority, Self-Image, etc.?)

Achievement (How does my transparency affects my Ambition, Success, Capability, Influence over others?)

Stimulation (Does my transparency provide me Excitement, Novelty, Challenge in Life? Can I be courageous enough to be transparent about unpleasant things?)

Security (Will my transparency adversely affect security of my job, self and my family? Will my transparency make me stronger or vulnerable? Why? Will my transparency support or shake Stability of my team, my relationships with others, overall working environment?)

Self-Direction (How does my transparency affects my Independence? Does my transparency promote or curtail my Freedom to decide and act?)

Universalism (Does my transparency bring in Equality amongst all members?)

Benevolence (Does my transparency make me look Honest and Helpful? Does being honest and helpful serve a greater purpose of team’s success or obstructs it?)

Tradition (Is being transparent a tradition in my organisation or it challenges the existing tradition? Will transparent behaviour risk the greater welfare of entire community? Will I look disrespectful if I am transparent?)

Beliefs

• What is my supporting belief(s) linked with each of the values that support/oppose transparency?
• What is the evidence that supports these beliefs? (Finding supporting evidence for each belief is essential as it substantiates the authenticity of our beliefs. A belief without evidence is speculation.)
• What is my opposing belief(s) linked with each of the values that support/oppose transparency?
• What is the evidence that supports these beliefs? (Generally every supportive belief will have a counter balancing opposing belief. For example my belief that my personal success is important for my survival is counter-balanced by my belief that there is nothing like team success because my organisation only rewards individuals for their success. Again, a belief without evidence is speculation.)

Capabilities (Following questions will help in identifying what capabilities you already have and which ones you need to acquire or discard. As we move outwards from inner core, readers will find that answering the questions becomes easy — provided that you were sincere in your attempt so far)

• What must I start doing to discard the negative beliefs?
• What must I continue doing to discard the negative beliefs?
• What must I stop doing to discard the negative beliefs?
• What must I start doing to reinforce the positive beliefs?
• What must I continue doing to reinforce the positive beliefs?
• What must I stop doing to reinforce the positive beliefs?

Behaviour (Answers to following questions will give a concrete action plan in connection with improvement in transparency. Remember that not taking an action or stopping a behaviour is also a behaviour — often more effective and easy to adapt than starting a new one)

• How does transparency affect my interactions and work?
• How does lack of transparency affect my interactions and work?
• How do I feel when I behave with maximum transparency? Why?
• How do I feel when I behave with minimum transparency? Why?
• How do I feel when someone behaves transparently with me? How do I recognize such behaviour? How do I reciprocate that behaviour?
• How do I feel when someone does not behave transparently with me? How do I recognize such behaviour? How do I reciprocate that behaviour?

Environment (Understanding the environmental factors that support or impede transparency is important but sometimes we may not be in position to affect any change in factors that impede transparency. However, the awareness about such factors can give us a strategy to face them and maintain transparency in spite of them.)

22. When or under which situations I am most transparent? Why? Who all are present in such situations? What do they say or don’t say which helps me to be transparent with them?

23. When or under which conditions I am least transparent? Why? Who all are present in such situations? What do they say or don’t say which stops me from being transparent with them?

24. Who are three persons from my professional circle with whom I am most transparent? Why?

25. Who are three persons from my professional circle with whom I am least transparent? Why?

This is not an exhaustive list of questions. Readers may include any additional questions in relevant category under the Seven Steps of Existence Model.

Finding answers to these questions will bring great clarity to your mind regarding how you are dealing with transparency in your professional life. When aligned with your innermost core beliefs and values with a clear sense of purpose and identity, the acquisition of capabilities, changes in behaviour and managing the environment will become easier and less stressful. Remember that answers for same questions in context of Transparency in Family Life will be different. One size doesn’t fit all. If you intend to use this same questionnaire to address some other complex issue, you may have to make some basic amendments in the questions. However, the essence of the questions should not be changed. The same questionnaire can be utilized by a team to identify where they stand when it comes to transparency or any other aspect of their work life.

Once the existential (purpose, identity, values and, beliefs) and executional (capabilities, behaviour and, environment) aspects of transparency are accessed, assessed and addressed, necessary procedures and techniques can be out in place to ensure transparency is established, nourished and sustained. However, establishing procedures and techniques without addressing the innermost core will seldom offer any success.

May you be seen— Let there be Transparency!