The Benefits of Transparency
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The document discusses the importance of transparency in business communication, linking it to trust and organizational effectiveness. It emphasizes that successful information flow requires leader commitment, and highlights the consequences of secrecy, including potential crises stemming from dishonesty. Additionally, it provides strategies for effective communication, such as employing a 'you-attitude' and positive emphasis when conveying information.
The Benefits of Transparency
- 1. Business Communication Transparency Ricardo Leiva
- 2. TRANSPARENCY The benefits of transparency: Leadership + Transparency = Trust Honesty, candor, clarity, full disclosure Trust and transparency are always linked
- 3. PLANNING AND WRITING Transparency is a matter of survival It is unavoidable 50.000 blogs are created everyday Reputations can be destroyed by the click of a mouse
- 4. REVISING We know more than ever, but we often feel less in control World more anarchic, overloaded with information and stimilus The need to know. The fear of knowing
- 5. REVISING The flow of information is similar to a central nervous system: the organization’s effectiveness depends on in. The intelligence of the organization—the capacity to compete, solve problems, innovate, meet challenges, and achieve goals—depends on an healthy information flow.
- 6. REVISING Information flow: critical information to the right person at the right time for the right reason. The successful flow of information is not automatic. It often requires the leader’s commitment, and sometimes, the leader’s intervention.
- 7. REVISING Transparency is the publicity of the goods actions and the good management. If we act well, we have to communicate it. Transparency is the consequence of a well oriented and done policy. To the most relevant and leaders, transparency is a way of control and accountability.
- 8. REVISING Secrecy makes leaks more likely Secrecy is a way to hide our mistakes Openness favor external feedback and a wide range of solutions. Sometimes secrecy intents to hide bad management Taxpayers need and want to know how their money is used
- 9. REVISING People often forgive mistakes. They do not forgive deceit, deceitfulness, dishonesty, lying, mendaciousness, mendacity, untruthfulness. Most of crisis communication cases have a secret or a lie at the bottom
- 10. REVISING If the organization tell more the public, the public don’t ‘fill the vacuum’ with misinformation Each of us is always under scrutiny and on display.
- 11. PLANNING AND WRITING Complete transparency is not possible—nor even desirable, in many instances. Central banks need embargoes and silent periods. They must be justified and short.
- 12. PLANNING AND WRITING Central banks are now respected, powerful, and healthy institutions They are accountable organizations People know how they work, why they are important, and why their independence must be preserved If central banks were opaque, people wouldn't support them
- 13. PLANNING AND WRITING Central banks are now respected, powerful, and healthy institutions They are accountable organizations People know how they work, why they are important, and why their independence must be preserved If central banks were opaque, people wouldn't support them
- 14. PLANNING AND WRITING One third of your time planning and organizing Better ideas at the start, fewer drafts If ideas don’t come: Brainstorm Freewrite
- 16. PLANNING AND WRITING Triple-check: Numbers Headings The first and last paragraphs The reader’s name
- 17. PLANNING AND WRITING Cycling: Drafting Getting feedback Revising Getting more feedback To get good feedback, tell people which aspects are more important to you
- 18. CREATING GOODWILL You-attitude: Look at things from the reader’s point of view Respect the reader’s intelligence Protect the reader’s ego Emphasize what the reader wants to know Talk about the reader—except in negative situations
- 19. CREATING GOODWILL You-attitude: Readers want to know how they benefit or are affected When you give this information, you make your message more complete and more interesting
- 20. CREATING GOODWILL You-attitude: Don’t talk about feelings, except to congratulate or offer sympathy (condolences) All the reader cares about is the situation from his or her point of view
- 21. CREATING GOODWILL You-attitude: When you have good news, simply give the good news. In positive situations, use you more than I: “You will receive health insurance as a full-time employee” Use we to include the reader Avoid it if it excludes the reader: “What we in management want you to do.” I says that you’re concerned about personal issues, not about the organization’s problems, needs, and opportunities
- 22. CREATING GOODWILL You-attitude: Avoid You in negative situations To avoid blaming the reader, use an impersonal expression or a passive verb Talk about the group to which the reader belongs Protect the reader’s ego by using an impersonal construction Things, not people, do the acting
- 23. CREATING GOODWILL Positive emphasis: Avoid negative words and words with negative connotations Focus on what the reader can do rather than on limitations Justify negative information by giving a reason or linking it to a reader benefit If the negative is unimportant, omit it
- 24. POSITIVE EMPHASIS Positive emphasis is a matter of the way you present something Bury the negative information and present it compactly
- 25. POSITIVE EMPHASIS The beginning and end are always positions of emphasis To deemphasize a negative, put it in the middle of a paragraph Give it as little space as possible only once in your message Don’t list it vertically Important: Be honest!!!
- 27. POSITIVE EMPHASIS 1) Give bad news a positive “spin”: “ The study found an alarming 10% contamination rate in the area.” “ The study found that 90% of the area is free from contamination.” 2) Compare bad news to something even worse. “ Although the area has some contamination, the situation is not as bad as it could have been, and is much better than similar areas in other catchments.”
- 28. POSITIVE EMPHASIS 3) “Sandwich" the bad news between two items of good news. “ The recent environmental impact review has resulted in an exciting new policy of resource management which is due to be implemented next month. At this stage the area has a 10% contamination rate. The goal is to reduce that figure to 5% within two years and less than 1% within eight years.”
- 29. POSITIVE EMPHASIS You are being completely honest about the situation without making it depressing The initial impression is good news, followed by the bad news, then ending on a positive outlook for the future Never begin with bad news! This makes a very nasty first impression that is difficult to recover from The first sentence sets the tone for whatever follows Start on a positive note
- 30. POSITIVE EMPHASIS If you think about tone, politeness, and power you don’t offend people by mistake The desirable tone for business writing is: businesslike but not rigid confident but not arrogant polite but not groveling
- 31. APOLOGIZING When you must give bad news, consider hedging your statement Auditors rarely say directly that firms are using unacceptable accounting practices They use three strategies to be more diplomatic: specifying the time (“currently, the records are quite informal”) limiting statements (“it appears,” “it seems”) using impersonal statements that do not specify who caused a problem or who will perform an action. Important: Be honest and don’t miss the crucial information
- 32. APOLOGIZING What’s the best way to apologize? When you are at fault, admit it forthrightly Apologies may have legal implications Some organizations prefer not to apology Think about your audience and the organizational culture If the error is small, and you are correcting it, no explicit apology is necessary
- 33. APOLOGIZING Negative: “I’m sorry the clerk did not credit your account properly.” Better: “Your statement has been corrected to include your payment of $263.75.”
- 34. APOLOGIZING If you’re not at fault, don’t apologize Done everything you can and or it’s not your problem, you are not at fault. Include an explanation so the reader knows you weren't negligent. If the news is bad, put the explanation first. If you have good news for the reader, put it before your explanation.
- 35. EXAMPLES Negative: “I’m sorry that I could not answer your question sooner. I had to wait until the sales figures for the second quarter were in.” Better (neutral or bad news): “We needed the sales figures for the second quarter to answer your question. Now that they're in, I can tell you that...” Better (good news): “The new advertising campaign is a success. The sales figures for the second quarter are finally in, and they show that...”
- 36. EXAMPLES You-attitude: Negative: “I’m sorry that the chairs will not be ready by August 25 as promised.” Better: “Due to a strike against the manufacturer, the desk chairs you ordered will not be ready until November. Do you want to keep that order, or would you like to look at the models available from other suppliers?”
- 37. EXAMPLES When you apologize, do it early, briefly, and sincerely. Apologize only once, early in the message. Let the reader move on to other, more positive information.
- 38. EXAMPLES If you produced a big problem, you don’t need to remember all the bad things that happened The reader know that Focus on what you have done to correct the situation
- 39. EXAMPLES If you haven’t produced a problem or you don’t know it, don’t raise the issue at all Negative: “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your letter sooner. I hope that my delay hasn’t inconvenienced you.” Better : “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your letter sooner.”
- 40. EXAMPLES Break!!! Practical work Next class Transparency by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman & James O'Toole http://www.bnet.com/videos/transparency-by-warren-bennis-daniel-goleman-james-otoole-book-brief/219866