Clarity with boundaries: Transparent communication the smart way
By Kamal Nicholas
Oh, transparency. You are a true virtue–both in business and in personal life. You promote trust, improve collaboration, and even encourage more accountability. But behold! As with anything, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Transparency is a mighty tool; its use must therefore be considerate. While honesty and openness can lead to stronger teams and more engaged colleagues, unfiltered transparency can end up causing confusion, uncertainty or even be seen as a breach of confidentiality. This counts even more in times of changes. And let’s be honest: When is there actually ever a time of no change?
In this month’s edition of MindShift, I would like to look at when transparency is favorable, when it might turn into a burden, and how we can set well thought-through boundaries without hurting the trust within our teams.
The highlights of transparency
Transparency plays a vital role for building efficient teams and organizations. There’s no doubt about it. When employees truly understand the goals, strategies, and challenges of their company, they will feel much more involved, as they will also recognize the influence and contribution of what they do much better. Also, transparency facilitates open communication and enables teams to learn from mistakes and thus improve constantly. Let’s take a look at the most important advantages:
Trust and engagement: Employees are more motivated and engaged when being informed and included
Ownership: Clear, transparent communication about expectations and decisions fosters personal responsibility and accountability
Cooperation and innovation: An open exchange of knowledge and challenges inspires not only teamwork, but also creative approaches to problem-solving
OK, the positive effects of transparency in organizations that value clear communication, constructive feedback and the exchange of knowledge are pretty obvious. But as already mentioned, too much of a good thing can also be counterproductive.
The lowlights of transparency
Undifferentiated, irrelevant or incomplete transparency can be a real punch in the guts and cause all sorts of troubles in an organization. Mainly, this can happen through:
Information overload: Not every detail is relevant for every team member. Too much or incomplete information can lead to confusion and unnecessary stress.
Compromised psychological safety: When employees have the feeling that they always have to openly talk about each and every challenge or mistakes, they might hesitate to take a risk or admit errors made.
Confidentiality concerns: Certain business decisions, negotiations, and personnel matters require strict discretion. Giving up too much too early, especially before this information is well thought-through, can harm relationships, your business, and your competitiveness.
One of the greatest threats is transparency without context. Here’s an example: You want (or need) to communicate a restructuring of your company, but don’t have a clear strategy of what you want to say to whom at which time. What do you expect will happen? Most likely, the majority of your team won’t burst out in happy tears about the news. Instead, this will trigger fear and anxiety, because they will start thinking about the negative effects these changes will have on the company, their team, and last but definitely not least, themselves. There’s little chance they will want to simply adapt. What’s much more probable is that they will look for a (silent or loud) fight. Both are not what you want.
Another example: Giving critical feedback in public (i.e., in front of the whole team) instead of doing this privately and constructively could embarrass employees and damage team morale. This, in return, will stand in the way of the improvement efforts you were presumably looking for. Therefore, it is crucial that transparency is always aligned with the appropriate context and sensitivity. Recognizing and paying attention to this very carefully will usually result in promoting trust and a positive working environment.
Lessons learned from the real world
In December 2021, Better.com made headlines after the company laid off roughly 900 employees via a three-minute Zoom call. Yes, this is awful, and of course had some very negative side effects. As the announcement – delivered by the company’s CEO Vishal Garg – pretty much came out of the blue, it hit the unprepared employees hard and confused them. Many heard about their dismissal through a virtual meeting rather than in an empathetic, face-to-face setting. But not enough: This terrible way of communication was then followed up by insensitive e-mails, which significantly undermined the employees’ trust.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the company’s handling of additional layoffs at the beginning of 2022 made the breakdown of their internal communication even more evident. With little to no clear updates or transparent explanations, employees felt increasingly alienated, which lead to a worsening workplace culture and lasting damage to the company’s image.
As this case is rather extreme, it shows very clearly how bad communication at critical moments – characterized by a lack of transparency, insensitivity and ineffective planning – can severely damage employee trust and the reputation of a company.
Finding the well-lit middle way
So there’s a fine line between “brightness” and “darkness”. What we’re looking for is a well-balanced light that shines without dazzling. Here are three guiding principles for effective transparency:
Be intentional! Ask yourself: What purpose does this information serve? Who really has to know about it? Is transparency focussing on an added value, instead of simply revealing everything?
Give context! Information without explanation can lead to misinterpretation. Create transparency with clear messaging that helps employees understand the “why” behind specific decisions.
Respect boundaries! Some topics need discretion. Clear guidelines on what is shared with whom at which time contribute to building and keeping trust while protecting sensitive matters at the same time.
Transparency as leadership competence
Mastering transparency is less about falling into extremes such as radical sharing or strict secrecy. Instead, it’s more about great judgment. Effective leaders communicate openly, but also know when they need to hold back for the right reasons. The best organizations create a culture where employees feel informed and enabled, without feeling overwhelmed or exposed.
Lastly, transparency is most effective, when it adds to clarity, trust, and progress. Used cleverly, it strengthens your teams and your organization. If used thoughtlessly, it can cause more harm than good. The key: finding the harmonic balance that cultivates openness while at the same time preserving stability and safety, which we people need to be successful.
The benefits of external consulting
I admit, finding the right level of transparency is often easier said than done. But don’t worry: External support – e.g. through coaching or workshops – can help organizations define their communication strategy and ensure openness without unintended consequences. A regular review of these processes from an external perspective can also provide valuable insights and prevent potential disasters.
When organizations view transparency as thought-through and structured practice, they will be able to build trust while at the same time maintaining stability. This ensures that openness is used as an advantage, not a burden.