Transparency

The New York Times recently had two interesting comments under the general topic theme of transparency. The first was from Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist. The context of the statement was Congressional deal-cutting, “Ideas like televising negotiations are ridiculous, complex legislation has to be negotiated in private to succeed.” If like me, you are begging to ask the “Why” question, lobbyist Vin Weber attempted an answer - - “It makes the system faster.” If you were hoping for a better answer to the “Why” question - - sorry. Political strategists and lobbyists are really not on the cutting edge of transparency philosophy.

But the exchange is a great starting point for a discussion of new and pressing issues associated with the notion of transparency - - the concept of greater openness, communication, and accountability in our society. Our elevated awareness of transparency issues and concerns is basically related to the aftershocks associated with the collision of technology and mass communication. In a span of only 30 years we have gone from highly centralized communication channels that were designed and managed for control and the consolidation of power to much more horizontal systems principled on equality and openness. In the May 2006 issue of The New York Times Magazine, author Kevin Kelly has this great summation on the role that technology plays in the evolution of human knowledge and the potential for much greater awareness and openness in our society:

From the days of Sumerian clay tablets till now, humans have “published” at least 32 million books, 750 million articles and essays, 25 million songs, 500 million images, 500,000 movies, 3 million videos, TV shows, and short films, and 100 billion public Web pages . . . When fully digitized, the whole lot could be compressed (at current technological rates) onto 50, 1-petabyte hard disks. Today you need a building about the size of a small-town library to house 50 petabytes. With tomorrow’s technology, it will all fit onto your iPod.

Knowledge is power and information is required for knowledge. If you control the access to information, you control the avenues and pathways of the power structure. But information transmission has become horizontal and uncontrollable - - think about it, someday all the information associated with our entire civilization will be available on a thumb drive. We are a society that has moved to the vanguard of interactive sharing of information that is driving a shift toward shared power structures. Technology is fundamentally changing the rules of a very old game.

Business and civic relationships have become more about horizontal collaborations between equals. This requires new skill sets, approaches, and attitudes. It requires new types of leaders and managers - - with the ability to build strong interpersonal synapses capable of reaching out through these horizontal networks and bringing people together around ideas and initiatives.

This free flow of ideas and issues opens up a world that becomes more transparent. Sharing information means sharing ideas - - this produces a much more open society and business organization structure that allows individuals the opportunity to act in an informed manner. Opportunity is tightly linked to responsibility - - people can see your life and actions farther, faster, in more detail, and cheaper than ever before. Like Tom Friedman said, “You are on Candid Camera, so be good.” Remember the story and lesson of Tiger Woods.

In his book How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything . . . in Business (and Life) (2007), author Dov Seidman (who is profiled in the February 8, 2010 issue of Fortune) discusses transparency from two reference points. The first is technological transparency - - the nature of the networked work. Transparency as a noun. The second is interpersonal transparency - - more as an action, as a way of being. Transparency as a verb - - this is the active transparency we bring to our interactions with others.

Seidman has put forward several key questions that people like Mr. Carrick, Mr. Weber, and many others that are currently in positions of responsibility and power need to reflect and ponder on - -

The question before us as we consider what we need to thrive in the internetworked world is: How do we conquer our fear of exposure and turn these new realities into new abilities and behaviors? How can we become proactive about transparency?