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A lot rides on how

transparent a company

is these days, from the

confidence of investors

to the support of local

communities.

Paul Levy was surprised that the item he postedto his blog got as much attention as it did.

Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hos-pital in Massachusetts, pens a blog calledRunning a Hospital, which is separate from

the hospital’s official web site yet has become as closelyassociated with the hospital as any of its official commu-nication channels. The post in question—“Do I Get PaidToo Much?”—outlined his compensation and the processby which the board of directors arrived at it. At the end,Levy noted, “This is serious business that affects both the perception of hospitals in the public eye and also the ability of hospitals to attract the talent they need torun a complicated organization that is vital to the com-munity. What do you think: Do I get paid too much?Here is your chance to send a message to me, my board orthe community at large.”

Forty-four people left comments to the post, offering awide spectrum of opinions. The most common observa-

Aclearcasefor transparencyCompanies are opening up, letting executives and

employees alike do the talking, and shaking up the

long-held belief that you only disclose what you must

by Shel Holtz, ABC, IABC Fellow

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18 Communication World • November–December 2008 www.iabc.com/cw

● inside out

tion in the comments, though,was reflected in this reply: “You are shockingly open,which really impresses me.”

Levy didn’t see anything allthat shocking in his post. Afterall, his salary is a matter of pub-lic record, reported in an articlein The Boston Globe. Still, thereare no requirements to disclosethe board’s decision-makingprocess. Why give more infor-mation than is required?

Levy’s answer: Why not?“These are nonprofits, they’re

public institutions, they getpublic subsidies in the form oftax exemptions, they are pub-licly funded in terms of researchand clinical care from the stateand federal government,” Levysays. “They’re…as public a bodyas the government is in manyrespects, so why not tell peoplehow decisions are being made?”

Levy’s candor may strike someas refreshing. In fact, it is moreand more becoming the norm,shaking up long-held beliefs inthe business world that you only disclose what you have to.Transparency is becoming oneof the foundational principles of business.

Transparency either is or isn’tpart of a company’s culture; arti-ficial programs are likely to fallflat if a company goes opaquethe first time transparencycomes into conflict with thedesire to hide inappropriatebehavior. At the same time,transparency does not mean fulldisclosure. So what does trans-parency mean? In our book,Tactical Transparency (fromwhich the quotes in this articleare taken), my co-author, JohnC. Havens, and I define it thisway: Transparency is the degree

to which an organization sharesthe following with its stake-holder publics:● Its leaders. The leadership oftransparent companies is acces-sible and straightforward whentalking with members of keyaudiences.● Its employees. Employees oftransparent companies are acces-sible to reinforce the public viewof the company and to help peo-ple where appropriate.● Its values. Ethical behavior,fair treatment and other valuesare on full display in transparentcompanies.● Its culture. How a companydoes things is more importanttoday than what it does. Theway things get done is not asecret in transparent companies.● The results of its businesspractices, both good and bad.Successes, failures, problems andvictories are all communicatedby transparent companies.● Its business strategy. Of par-ticular importance to the invest-ment community but of interestto several other audiences, a

company’s strategy is a key basisfor investment decisions. Mis-alignment of a company’s strat-egy and investors’ expectationsalmost always results in disaster.

A lot rides on how transpar-ent a company is these days,from the confidence of investorswho are betting on the com-pany’s future to the willingnessof local communities to supportthe construction of new man-ufacturing facilities. Ultimately, it all comes down to the compa-ny’s reputation. And reputationmanagement falls squarely with-in the communicator’s purview.Consider a couple of examplesin which communication hassupported an organization’stransparency efforts.

IBM and the Future Of…IBM’s podcast IBM and theFuture Of… has attracted a siz-able audience of people inter-ested in the company’s take onthe impact technology will haveon various dimensions of ourlives. Topics covered in the showhave included the future ofmovies, shopping, crime, bank-ing, cities, privacy, sports anddriving. Produced by communi-cators for the investor relationsdepartment, the podcast isaimed squarely at investmentadvisers and fund managers, buthas attracted the attention of amuch broader audience.

The show features interviewswith employees, often accompa-nied by outside experts, whodiscuss the role technology willhave on the subject at hand. Byshowcasing employees who arethinking far into the future,IBM is displaying the depth ofits talent. It becomes clear that

Companies whose

cultures are largely

opaque need to

undergo a change

process in order to

embrace the principles

of transparency.

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Communicators can

lead the charge by start-

ing to share information

there’s no good reason

to keep secret.

IBM’s ability to compete is inthe hands of frontline employeeswho really know their stuff andare likely to help guide the com-pany in its development ofproducts and services thataccommodate the needs busi-nesses will face.

“It’s a good strategy, a veryclever idea,” says investor rela-tions consultant Dominic Jones,whose web site, IRWebReport.com, has become a leadingsource of insights into investorrelations matters. Ultimately,Jones says, the podcast raises theconfidence investors need tohave that the company is on topof new technologies and trends.“Past performance is one thing,but investors are placing theirbets on the future of the com-pany,” he says.

In many organizations, policywould prohibit these employeesfrom speaking directly to thepublic. Instead, informationwould have to come throughthe corporate communication/public affairs/media relationsdepartment. IBM, embracingtransparency, lets employeesspeak in their own voices.

The podcast is not the onlyexample of IBM’s commitmentto transparency. The companyactively encourages its employ-ees to blog about their work,certain that no investment inadvertising or marketing couldsurpass the passion and evangel-ism employees can produce inthe marketplace about the com-pany’s wares.

Deloitte Film FestivalUsually, when a company is in the midst of recruiting newhires, a recruiting video is a taskfarmed out by the recruiting

department to a professionalvideo production company.Deloitte, the professional ser-vices firm, shrugged off that idea and used its budget insteadto purchase inexpensive videocameras for distribution to anyemployee who was interested inmaking a movie.

The rules were simple:Employee filmmakers had tolimit themselves to the pre-scribed length and be sure toaddress Deloitte’s values and cul-ture in the video. Ultimately,some 370 films were submittedby individuals and teams, andposted to a YouTube-like site onthe intranet where employeescould view the submissions andvote for their favorites.

Initially, 250 cameras wereacquired, but enthusiasmaround the initiative led thecompany to invest in 100 more.

The winning videos wereposted to a special channel onYouTube, where they continueto reside today. They cover arange of styles and take a varietyof approaches, but all of them

say the same fundamental thing:“I’m an employee speaking myown thoughts in my own voice,and using my own creativity toconvey to you how great a com-pany this is.”

Again, communicators playeda pivotal role in opening thewindows to Deloitte so out-siders can see and hear from theemployees working on the com-pany’s front lines and get anunfiltered view of what it’s liketo work within its culture andvalues. (The effort won twoIABC Gold Quill Awards in the2008 competition, including an Award of Excellence in Elec-tronic and Digital Communica-tion Management.)

Starting from scratchCompanies whose cultures arelargely opaque need to undergoa change process in order toembrace the principles of transparency. Few organizationssucceed in change initiativeswithout the hard work of theinternal communication team.

Corporate culture can bebroadly defined as “the waythings are done around here.”Changing the culture from onein which actions are hidden toone in which they are exposed to the light of day requiresrational explanations of the ben-efits—to both the organizationand individual employees—ofchanging to the new way ofdoing things.

Communicators also mustspotlight employees and teamswhose behaviors characterizethe desired state, since recogni-tion is one of the most impor-tant drivers of an organization’sculture. Conversely, employeeswho continue to be rewarded

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● inside out

for exhibiting old, opaquebehaviors will reinforce oldbehaviors and make it consider-ably more difficult to get fromthe current state to the desiredtransparent state.

Meanwhile, external com-municators can lead the chargeby starting to share informa-tion there’s no good reason tokeep secret. In a lot of compa-nies, information isn’t sharedsimply because there is norequirement to share it. Trans-parent organizations identifyinformation that shouldn’t beshared, and then make the rest available.

Michael Hyatt, CEO ofThomas Nelson Inc., explainshis approach: “There are thingswe don’t have to talk about butwill, and there are things wedon’t have to talk about andwon’t.” He’s happy to share theprivately held publishing com-pany’s revenues, but not itsprofitability. “That’s somethingI don’t want in the hands of mycompetitors. But [what I talkabout and what I don’t are]subjective on my part. At theend of the day, [I have to beconcerned with] what servesmy company, what will servemy shareholders. Transparencyabout most things generallydoes that.”

AccessibilityCommunicators should also be at the forefront of ensuringthe right people are accessible.Ideally, this goes beyond serv-ing as the gatekeeper for allrequests for information andthen routing reporters and others to the right person.Instead, it means ensuring all

employees understand theirobligations and limitations,then making them available toaddress questions related totheir areas of expertise.

It’s this proactive, empoweredapproach that has let employeesfrom companies running thegamut from Microsoft to Park’N Fly respond to posts I’vewritten to my blog. Park ’N Flyprovided a terrific example oftransparency when adminCaryn Healey responded to acomplaint I wrote on my blog;she replied with an apology, anassertion that Park ’N Fly is agood company, and that shepersonally valued my business.In another example, when Icomplained on my blog about a glitch in the beta version ofMicrosoft Internet Explorer 7,the head of the InternetExplorer team, Dean Hacham-ovitch, responded personally,and then got one of the mem-bers of his team to elaborate.

In most organizations, anemployee finding such postswould need to forward them tothe appropriate spokesperson,who would surely craft a typicalcorporate response that wouldbe nowhere near as satisfying ashearing from the real employeesdoing the real work.

Communicators can also havean impact on the accessibility ofthe company’s senior leaders.

Business practicesThe U.S. Transportation Secur-ity Administration, the agencyof U.S. Homeland Security thathandles passenger and baggagescreening at airports, has intro-duced a blog called Evolution ofSecurity. Authored by a team offrontline employees, the blog

often highlights the organiza-tion’s practices. A post titled“Layers of Security,” for exam-ple, explained the 20 possiblelayers to which a passenger canbe subjected upon boarding aplane. This is not informationthat is widely shared; it’s alsonot information about whichmost passengers care. However,frequent flyers and road war-riors are very interested. Theinformation is not confidential,so TSA used its blog to sharethis practice. It’s not unlikeGeneral Motors using its pod-cast to explain how the PontiacSolstice was delivered to show-room floors a mere 18 monthsfrom concept. Most buyersdon’t care how a vehicle ismade, but car fanatics care a lot.

Tools of transparencyEach of the categories of busi-ness, from leaders to strategy,can be made more transparentthrough the implementation of tools that have become available in recent years. Theemployment of social mediachannels such as blogs, pod-casts, social networks, widgets,and content-sharing sites likeYouTube and Flickr can serve asthe cornerstone of a company’stransparency efforts. They also,generally, fall into communica-tion’s jurisdiction.

As organizations recognizethat being transparent is in theirown best interest, communica-tors should be at the forefrontof the effort to become moretransparent. There are few bet-ter reasons to get up to speed on the newest communicationtools available in the socialmedia space. ●

about the authorShel Holtz, ABC, IABC

Fellow, is principal of HoltzCommunication + Technology

in Concord, California. With hisco-host Neville Hobson, ABC,

Holtz produces the podcast ForImmediate Release: The Hobson

and Holtz Report, available atwww.forimmediaterelease.biz.

In a lot of companies,

information isn’t shared

simply because there

is no requirement

to share it.

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