It's Clear That Transparency is a Phony Issue
Lots of companies are fussing over the idea and promise transparency by the boatload--except when it really matters. For new businesses, transparency isn't always a virtue.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@TULLMAN
Transparency will be the most abused, overused, and unhelpful
word in 2023. Accountability will be a close second. You didn’t hear those
words here first, and, if you haven’t already heard pithy pronouncements with
these words as anchors at least a dozen times this week - in every conceivable
context - just give it a day or two. You can’t escape the unending media
barrage of self-serving pronouncements, pandering polemics, and pitiful
pronouncements - hair shirts, mea culpas, and tearful testimonials - flowing
through every channel of our digital universe.
Every petty politician, petulant publisher, grasping
government official, besieged college president, battered police
superintendent, suck-up social media maven, corrupt team president and clueless
sports authority is piling on the “tell all” campaign without the slightest
intention of making significant changes in the wretched ways they do business.
Nor are they disclosing any image-damaging information which - if and when
actually and honestly shared - could make material improvements in the lives
and livelihoods of millions of people, players, and professionals.
When the Washington Post announced surprise
sizable layoffs to take place in the first quarter of 2023,
practically the first words in response from the Post Guild, its union,
highlighted the hypocrisy of the Post’s oft-asserted
commitments to the twin virtues of transparency and accountability. These folks
are all happy to gore everyone else’s ox and hoist them all on their own
pathetic and hypocritical petards as long as none of those chickenshit comments
come home to roost.
In fact, for the worst of the bunch, like Elon Musk, all
this noise and performative nonsense isn’t a solution for anything. It’s just
an excuse for bad behavior, bullying and BS, all cheap talk and utterly free of
cost, commitment, or the slightest consequences for these two-faced jackals. A
recent ChatGPT demo spun out a six-point corporate mission statement in two
seconds, composed entirely of meaningless mush and clichés with core values
that included integrity and accountability, and a poignant testament to the
power of transparency and open communication. The bot regurgitated a comprehensive
crock of jargon and crap which would be at home in the handbooks of any Fortune
500 company-- and just as empty and useless as what they now display.
But the rest of us aren’t free from these lies or able to
ignore the problems such pretense presents, especially for startup
entrepreneurs and new business builders who are trying to create and nurture
their company’s culture. Because, like it or not, an entire generation of
current and prospective employees has been brought up by peacekeeping parents steeped
in conflict avoidance and ego inflation. The kids have been lectured by
academics interested in no opinions other than their own. And they've been led
to believe that brutal honesty, unfeeling frankness, and “constructive”
criticism are today’s be-alls and end-alls - demonstrably greater goods and
values than traditional company assertions - that are far more pressing and
important than any others. Their parents and school academics have set them up
for failure and the rudest of awakenings when they enter the real world and
start spouting their naïve opinions and truths.
The newbies feel and have been told by their folks that they
need to bring their own “truth” and their whole selves to work with them, speak
their minds and their unfiltered thoughts, and share it all unreservedly and
without regard for the consequences or the feelings of others with those around
them - like it or not. But aggressive transparency, random truthing, and
sharing whatever strikes their fancy is not the way the real world works -
never has been and never will be - and, in fact, it’s a prescription for
certain and consistent disappointment.
As a result, it falls upon each and every CEO who’s trying
to inform, excite, and educate team members about their own company and its culture
to figure out how to carefully, quickly and clearly separate the facts of life
and business from these persistent and sadly prevalent impressions and
misunderstandings. This task couldn’t be tougher than
today when half the country continues to live in a bubble of
lies and liars, and the very concepts of objective truth and accepted facts are
under constant attack. I’ve previously written about the issues around
“situational ethics” but primarily with an outward focus: the need to tell the whole truth all the time to clients and
customers. Half a lie is still a lie.
While the same general ideas apply - the truth doesn’t
vary based on circumstances - the way you handle internal discussions and
information sharing are considerably more complicated when your people have
radically different ideas about how things should go. While honesty is clearly
a virtue, complete candor is far more of a challenge. Especially in a new and
growing business - where the culture is still formative and malleable-- the
simple facts and the bottom line are that the truth needs to be wielded with
care. Not all truths are for all people and not everyone needs to know
everything.
This philosophy may be hard to swallow for your newer team
members but the ones worth keeping will recognize both the need and the
necessity of carefully navigating these very treacherous seas. Being open and
upfront at the outset may not get you a lot of friends, but it will ultimately
get you the right ones. It’s better to take the beatings and lectures upfront
and refuse to wobble than to live for the longer term with an insincere and
undeliverable promise. And, believe me, I appreciate how hard it is to hold
your tongue when a 25-year-old kid is telling you how to run your business.
Like having Ronald McDonald criticize your taste in clothes. But listening to
advice sometimes accomplishes a lot more than heeding it.
Still, for my money, there are a few ideas that you need
to set in stone from the get-go.
(1) The first matter is money. Money is what
people without talent use to keep score. No one has some God-given right to
know what everyone else in a privately-owned business earns. Public companies are
obviously different. In today’s complex and stressful hiring game, salaries,
bonuses, options, and every other kind of perk are part of the puzzle and built
into the most competitive packages. They’re nobody’s business but the boss’s.
End of story.
(2) Democracy is a great concept,
collaboration is terrific, consensus is a mixed blessing at best and everyone’s
entitled to their opinions and to provide constructive input into the
decision-making process. However, not every idea or suggestion is smart,
appropriate, or even useful. Once a decision is made by management, that’s the
end of the conversation and everyone gets on board and moves forward. All the
wood behind one arrowhead.
(3) Constructive criticism is much more than
simple fault-finding. Newbies need role models far more than they need critics.
Showing rather than telling is a helpful and instructive approach for both
parties. If you can’t offer a better way to proceed and a clearer path, it
makes the most sense to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. Everything
looks easy if it’s someone else’s job.
(4) At some point, endless conversations
become a matter of “my way or the highway” because people need to get down to
business. Newbies need to be reminded that they may
eventually earn the right to do things “their” way. One clear sign of maturity
is when you realize that it takes less time to do as you’re told than it does
to complain incessantly about what you’re doing.
There are truths which are not for all people, nor for all
times.