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Be they organizational or interpersonal, a common trait always play out repeatedly in all successful groups. What is this singular attribute that makes for success in all relationships? How can individuals, non-profit or for-profit organizations promote and enhance their staying power with this distinguishing quality?

Case 1

Being former employees of the same company was our common denominator. At the height o the COVID-19 pandemic, there arose the need for us to all chip in to help a former colleague who has fallen on bad times. Starting from four figure values (equivalent of less than $15) the funds began to roll in. We gradually built momentum and one of our members even contributed seven figure donations (over $2,000). Remember, these are COVID-19 hard times.

Together and in various degrees of success, members of other groups to which I belong has repeated this feat. In all cases, the leaders and members were open to one another of their intentions. In all of these cases, the moneys that came in were accounted for and all the records were opened for every member to see - via WhatsApp.

Case 2

In another instance, a non-member of our Alma Mater based in the United States seeing the openness showed by our group sent in an amount that surpassed the total contributions from all the other members (till that date). Just a few weeks from the commencement of this initiative, we realized our goal of raising funds to support our former high school.

Our experiences are not unique. Not once, not twice, the common denominator in these groups was their openness and transparency in these trying times. No less significant is that all these occurred in our peculiar and unflattering corruption ridden Nigerian environment.

Case 3

For years, Indomie instant noodles has been a popular staple meal in many Nigerian homes. In 2004, allegations that Indomie noodles were causing illness and death made the rounds. These allegations drove fear and panic into the minds of the company’s loyal customers. The government’s regulatory body, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) immediately sprang into action. After a thorough investigation, NAFDAC at the end gave a clean bill of health to De-United Foods, the makers of Indomie noodles.

Case 4

Come September 1982 in Chicago, in an interval of few days, several people died after taking cyanide laced capsules of Tylenol. This painkiller was the best-selling drug from the giant American pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson. The expectation was that the company will never recover from this tragedy, which resulted from sabotage. Just two months later, the drug re-entered the market. After a year, its share of the $1.2 billion analgesic market which has fallen from 37 percent to 7 percent had climbed back to 30 percent. Instead of a precipitous fall, Johnson and Johnson’s quick and open response made them a hero.

How did the two mentioned companies did it? In Johnson and Johnson's case, the company put the interest of consumers foremost by doing what has hitherto never been done by any company. Johnson and Johnson recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol. The company also offered free replacement products in safer tablets and tamper-proof containers. In addition, not only was the company open in the government's investigations that followed, the managers were also forthright in dealing with the media.

In all the cases described above both for-profit and non-profit organizations thrived in challenging circumstances because of their transparency and openness.

Openness - What It Is.

Openness is lack of restriction, secrecy or concealment. It means being frank and accessible and exposed to general view or knowledge. Another word for openness is transparency. Cambridge Dictionary defines transparency as the characteristic of being easy to see through. Glassdoor defines a transparent workplace as one that operates "in a way that creates openness between managers and employees."

Why Transparency is Non-Negotiable

1. In all fields of life, transparency is a must. In business, transparency builds trust. When management is transparent and open, employees will be willing to not only give their hands and ability towards the pursuit of the company’s goals, they also carry out their responsibilities with their hearts fully engaged towards accomplishing the company’s vision.
2. Transparency and openness promote high ethical standards within organizations. It motivates people to bring out their best and even sacrifice for the survival of the business when the need arises. This can only happen when the employers trust their managers to do the right thing.
3. Transparency makes it possible to build organizations that mitigates the unwholesome distance that exists between management and employees. One way of doing this is a culture that promotes transparency and openness. The absence of these two promotes a culture of secrecy. In such a setting, managers will only hear soothing news that invariably ensure minor problems get disastrously worse and out of control.
4. Transparency and openness make for a healthy and positive perception in the public space. When a company or organization is transparent and open in all their dealings, the public gets the impression that they have nothing to hide. Such organizations open up on both positive and often unflattering negative information. This is one way, an organization’s integrity in the public space remains intact. The public will perceive companies that follow this practice as profiting in right ways. Such companies will also enjoy better profitability on the long run — all things being equal.
5. Openness promote faster innovation. When companies enshrine openness and transparency, innovation and solution to complex issues occur at a faster pace. This is because more experienced employees with their invaluable "old" institutional knowledge about the organization find it easier to collaborate and share their legacy knowledge with the inputs from new entrants. This makes it possible to arrive at faster solutions to challenging problems in more creative ways.

Promoting Openness And Transparency

1. Be honest and share information about all situations - both the good and the bad.
2. Know & maintain healthy privacy levels. We often refer to business as war, and in any war, the generals don’t flippantly expose their strategies and battle plans. The company must maintain healthy privacy levels — know what to make public and what to keep private without giving the impression of there been skeletons to hide.
3. Leaders and managers must never use their positions to seek personal gain. Neither should they use openness as a bait. Some managers use the bait of openness and transparency to get their employees to open up on issues they might have otherwise kept mute over. Employees are adept at noticing when their manager’s body language shows management’s preferred position on certain issues. Under such frosty environments, employees quickly detect that they are better-off by clamming-up rather than risk being outlawed for their uppity openness. This often results in a “yes-men” setup where employees only voice out what the management wants to hear even when the company is heading precipitously down a cliff or a pitfall.
4. Stay opened to others’ opinions and suggestions. The people who have been longest on a problem often know more about their root causes than casual outsiders or first-timers within the organization. Even when you have to hire the expertize of outside consultants to give a fresh look and newer insights into the issues at hand, managers must never discountenance the inputs of their in-house knowledge base.
5. Avoid shifting standards. Communication is key. All employees and managers must be clear about their company’s standards and the roles and expectation demanded from all within the organization. The company or organization does this by ensuring everybody take part in open communication and disclosure of information. When everyone is opened and involved, this promotes inherent accountability.

Final Takeaways

The society, governments, non-profit and for-profit organizations all thrive on openness and transparency. Here are the benefits of transparency.

1. Transparency builds trust and encourage employees to give their best.
2. Absence of secrecy between managers and their employees makes it easier to detect problems before they metastasize out of proportion.
3. Employees are better engaged, healthier and more satisfied working for open organizations.
4. Being positively perceived by the public builds customers' loyalty and long-term profitability.
5. Innovation increases at a faster pace as both new and old employees collaborate to solve the company’s challenges.

Here are some steps you can take to create and promote openness and transparency within your organization.

1. Be honest. Share information about good and bad situations.
2. Know what to keep private, and what to keep open.
3. Leaders must not use their positions for personal aggrandizement. Neither should they use openness as an unhealthy bait. Employees can quickly detect any pretence from management and clam-up or become compulsory “yes-men”. Both of these traits are detrimental to any organization.
4. Be open to in-house suggestions, even if you must use outside consultants.
5. Avoid shifting standards. Open communication builds trust and ensures accountability.

Individuals and organizations should always choose transparency and openness for therein lies the key to their staying power and future prosperity.

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