Transparent discussions(3 min read)

Its common to think “High performing organizations are made up of high performance people”

But this isn’t can’t really be true. Some very large organizations are high performance organizations. Doesn’t mean that they are full of high performance people. And not everyone who is a high performer is at the peak of their performance all the time. So what is it that separates a high performing organization from one that does not.

You may say its about culture. But culture means so many things to so many people. Culture comes from behavior. You cannot install a culture but surely you can cultivate one. Culture can be built. So how does one build it?

There are many many subtle and not so subtle aspects to building a high performing organization. A key one that comes to mind is trust. High performing organizations are built on high levels of trust. So do people in high performing have very high levels of personal ethical standards. Again, hard to generalize and fit all individuals into the same mold. The reason organizations perform better than individuals because the collective is stronger than the individual due to their diverse strengths. These individuals are different in so many ways but so very similar they action in some few ways.

So how do you build Trust in an organization?

For people to trust each other, they need a basis on which their minds can agree that I can depend on this other persons words, actions or promises. The aspect of uncertainty the exists in a given word needs to eliminated by specific proof points that turn that uncertain outcome into a highly likely to be certain outcome.

To establish a baseline trust, individuals need to know that the other person can be trusted.

Imagine you and I enter a transaction where I am supposed to deliver certain goods to you in exchange for an order. How are you to trust me that I will deliver the order? How am I to trust you that I will get paid, after I deliver the order?

In this case, each of us trust ourselves to do our part, but we do not have a basis to ‘establish trust in the others actions’. This comes from Transparency.

Transparency is a way to reveal your true self. You put yourself in an open and vulnerable position to help the other feel confident & comfortable with your promises or actions.

Learning to be transparent is a not easy. It is often a nervous situation for someone who is not used to being transparent. But the benefits are plenty.

Take our example above, now if I tell you publicly (in a forum where it matters, where I can be held accountable) that I will deliver the goods if you put in an order, then I have put my “skin in the game”. You are now comfortable in trusting me. If you were to do the same thing, by giving me the order and saying you would pay me when I deliver, then you have reciprocated with a similar level of transparency and given me a reason to trust you.

Working with each other in such transparency model leads to each of us building a reputation for ourselves and a environment of trust between each other. Once trust is in place, we will do greater things together and eventually find ourselves in a zone of high performance.

Transparency > Accountability <–> Trust > Performance

Keen to hear what you think