Many organisations are failing to recognise that transparency is the new norm. A range of stakeholders believe and expect that they have the right to access information about the way you do business and the decisions you take. If you don’t provide these then the tools are out there to impose transparency on you and in a very public, reputation damaging way.
Organisations often believe that decisions can be taken behind closed doors and that employees, customers or others stakeholders will be content to follow. That is not the case.
Many ‘scandals’ focus not necessarily on wrong doing but on finding information out – about spending, fundraising, pay etc. The Government is apparently fed up with people using the Freedom of Information Act to find out some information and are considering changes.
But the genie is out of the bottle. There is more transparency across all our lives and this brings with it changed expectations. So this is not just about the level of information available but access as well to decision-making processes and, critically, the individuals involved as well.
Many senior individuals believe that they can ‘semi-engage’. They can have a public profile and social media accounts but only to broadcast on issues they want to talk about. A public profile and social media accounts really means responding and engaging as well and not simply getting irate if people choose to challenge and use those channels to challenge.
Very often there are legal obligations behind transparency as well. Each sector has its own regulatory requirements but transparency is never too far away and has certainly been one of the key areas of change in recent years. Not least across financial services in the wake of the banking collapse.
From recent media coverage around financial services, for instance, it is clear that if regulators come under pressure then they are likely to apply more pressure on those they regulate and Government is likely to encourage that approach.
Regulators and government bodies can themselves too come under similar scrutiny. The recent example of how HMRC was dealt with by the Public Accounts Select Committee to reveal details of its tax arrangements with Google, as well as pressure from the media to reveal how they came about, shows they are under as much pressure as the taxpayer themselves. The issue is now about what can be shared and what can’t. This is something that George Osborne has tried to pre-empt in agreeing with the OECD what levels of the information should be shared across countries.
Sometimes there is simply a lack of transparency which can lead to consumers potentially being misled so new rules are put in place, the guidance for vloggers, for instance.
Sometimes information may be being provided but might not be easily accessible. These things should be considered on a regular basis. Can the information be easily located by your stakeholders?
Social media has obviously transformed what can be accessed, the speed of access and the sources available as well.
What are the questions they will ask and can you answer them? Critically, why shouldn’t you answer them?
Just think of some potential scenarios:
- Who paid for the latest research?
- When you consult on a new project, what information is made available, how were options ruled in or out?
- If you have to lay people off what can be talked about in advance?
There is often no good reason for keeping things secret. Instead it is a hang-up from earlier risk averse behaviour and a failure to realise that times, and communications tools, have changed. There is often more risk, not less, in keeping things away from people. Need to understand what the expectations of stakeholders and the media are. These change over time and what may have been acceptable two years ago may no longer be appropriate.
It is also less motivating. Stories and reports show that people want to know what is going on in the organisations they work for.
Transparency is not just making sure that no one is up to anything dodgy but also as a way of building and maintaining trust in organisations and sectors.