Imagine a working environment with a top down hierarchy, where people work in silos, where information is not shared between departments, where communication is on a need to know basis, where progress is hindered by bureaucracy and internal politics, where employees are unmotivated, unengaged and uninspired.

Now imagine a working environment with a simple, flat organisation structure, where there is openness and respect and no secrets, where information flows easily between people and departments, it is entrepreneurial & innovative where changes are be implemented quickly .

new products and services to get to market is faster, where employees love coming to work, where productivity and revenue are market leading, resulting in happier stakeholders and a positive environment.

Hands up who would prefer the first scenario?

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Hands up who would prefer the second scenario?

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Lets be honest here

Hands up whose workplace is more like the first?Hands up whose workplace is more like the second?

Look around… that’s where you want to work!

And stick around because today I’m going to share how you can achieve a more open, transparent, collaborative working environment where employees are engaged, motivated and inspired on a daily basis.

What I am going to say is radical - This will challenge you outside your comfort zone, I will challenge your thinking. It will challenge your behaviours even morebut I will share, the benefits, tools and techniques to make it happen

It has worked in many orgs but not many have the guts to truly embrace it

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What is transparency?

For me –Is a situation in which business and financial activities are done in an open way without secrets, so that people, inside and outside can trust that they are fair and honest

What are the benefits

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Why Do it -??1 Problems Are Solved FasterEveryone learns more about one another and can grow to work toward solving problems faster when everyone is transparent

Reduces Politics – so much time debating & gossiping about what outcomes might happen, about who said what, why you cant do or say such and such a thing

Years ago, remember coming across a show stopper issue for a payments project for a bank. Raised the issue with project manager, who said we could not change the project from green to red status because we were green last month, could not move to red as that would look as if project was not being managed well. I ignored that “advice” and told the business sponsor the truth although he didn’t like the news it was far better than waiting another two months to hear about it and act on it.

When communication channels are open, decisions can be made on facts and data and having the trust of others to take action, making mistakes in the way of progress is accepted as it is underpinned by transparency and

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2. People Begin to Promote Trust in Their Leader & OthersWhen leaders are transparent, people can be much more objective in evaluating the pros and cons about their leader.If you are transparent, especially during the worst of times, you actually strengthen your leadership as people begin to trust you as person and thus will gain you more respect

If you know what you are going to get, if you have trust, respect and a supportive environment, this encourages people to grow and achieve more

Leading to

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3. Higher-Levels of Performance EmergeEach of the previous points is interdependent and builds upon one another.

The more we collaborate, communicate via sharing – drives more questions, answers and decisions.

This naturally takes us to higher-levels of performance. The formula is simple:Faster problem solving + trust = higher levels of performance.

It’s really that simple.

how do we achieve these benefits3 key ingredients - click

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How do we achieve these –

3 Key ingredients of achieving transparency, 3 keys areas to focus on

Especially need all execs, directors managers to buy in to these 100%

These are the Areas where it matters

Going in to these 3 points in more detail

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Business, organization and culture change are hot topics in the corporate world today. How can you have a transparent strategyStrategy – need all execs, directors managers to buy in to it

Open up the debate on topics such as -Employee engagement and cultureHow to improve customer serviceResearch and Development P&G Connect & Develop – Unilever – Open Innovation challenges – crowdsourcing their R&D challenges if you have a method or idea they want to hear your thoughts.

There are some scenarios where complete transparency will not workMaybe would harm a competitive bidMaybe would affect share priceLegally confidential?

One exampleWorking on several projects at present where, lots of staff will be affectedBank projects where – move to paperless, online STP – affects hundreds of jobs –

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cant reveal till after decision made and clear how it will affect them

but need to be transparent about how, why, reasons about decision backed up with facts.

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Structure & culture includes roles, responsibilities, talent management and core processes.

It is the organizational engine that produces the results that drive revenues and profit.

This part of the organization is often not transparent – a complex structure – gives everyone headaches and delays trying to understand what is allowed, not allowed, who is to be informed or give approval ?

Also management is uninterested or not empowered to in investing time and resources to fix it

For many, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Like an car that runs well, the only time to look under the bonnet is when there is a problem.

By then, troubles can run deep.

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One of those --- ooh that’s gonna cost ya…

This is a major area of opportunity for transparency.

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Social skills to be transparency

is the most challenging.

We all have something to hide, something to prove and something to lose. If you are not being transparent ask yourself why? Why not? Is there a reason why I cant share this?

Transparency demands a personal willingness to let yourself be vulnerable. Allow your self to publicly ask stupid questions – that fear or insecurity of getting

something wrong and people noticing.

Do it – Stand up - Define what you want to be known for, your values – what are you all about – what do you like and don’t like.

Your personal online and work personality is all about who you are and what you want to be known for. How do I make people feel?How do people benefit by working with me?What words do others use to describe me?

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What service do I have to offer people?What do I do that makes me stand out from everyone else?

personal transparency is what truly builds trust. People will follow and respect people who operates with an attitude of “what you see is what you get,” even if the leader has bad news to deliver.

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We are experiencing cultural shift

We have witnessed in the past big technology trends, email, internet, I remember when not everyone was allowed email… then not everyone was allowed internet –both times the argument was no ROI, were seen as a time waster with no value -sound familiar??

Now it is social media, mobile – we have more computing power and tools at home and they are making their way in the workplace

Is being embraced in personal lives What this cultural shift brings is that people are used to sharing being more transparent at home with friends on facebook, Instagram, twitter etc – but communication in the workplace is email, meetings, conference calls etc

Default to open – we are used to Open conversations

Yet at work most workplaces are still using outdated tools –

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What to watch out for – what are the problems with lack of transparency with emails and meetings?

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What is wrong with email – ask the audience

Email – 1-1 or 1-many toolSome of the problems of email – 1 -1 sometimes 1-m but not inclusive – not a conversation – is a transmit only – very inclusive and not designed for mass collaboration and mass conversations

Terrible for debate or sharing ideas – extremely poor collaboratively

what is it used mostly for?

Please avert your eyes for this one…

Email’s prime use is cover your ass.. CYA

An Insurance policy.

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Starbucks meetings – excuse for coffee, chinwag

Meetings are a virus…

Closed shop, not everyone involved – meetings minutes rareSlow and inefficient way to communicate

With social tools you get involved in other interesting conversations you didn’t know about, not aware of

If you are having a meeting share with others who you are meeting and what it was about, share insights, progress and decisions openly

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Ask the audience

Barriers to transparency ?

Think it is achievable?

Are you.. –not going to happen a my place ?Or you are all – lets do this!!!!

Well just say lets give you some inspiration, tools and techniques.

Mgt Trend or fad

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Now is this a trend or a fad…?

Most people silently applaud it,

want to it to be there

But don’t think it can be done – phew no chance – that will never happen here –It is is not new idea, if you haven’t tried it before it is hard, takes guts

Transparency is a decision to relinquish some control of your organization, your strategy and even your personal reputation. That’s why it takes guts.

The upside is that it is so uncommon, people will respect it, even if some will try advantage of you for it. The upsides are way better than upsetting a minority

Are you a trailblazer to try this new way ? – it takes guts outside comfort zone

Question audience - how are you feeling about this?

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DO YOU FEEL VulnerabLE?

What would happen if yout tried it?

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Barriers to adoption – good points –

Can you give me examples of companies you know that are transparent?

I know you are here thinking I have all the answers…! Joking

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Heres the ones that I thought to shareCulture

8m viewsSandberg – most important doc in the valley

What I liked about it was very clear wht the company was about – what they valued and didn’t value –It had personality – the opposite of corporate blandnessEnron mission statement of integrity. Communication, respect and excellence – they actually went to jail for and had those values in their lobby.

Open about what they let people go for – fire them for not having the valuesOpen about how to keep great talentPublic – hard worker – a effort b performance = good reward minimal effort A performance more valuedBrilliant Jerks – not tolerated too inconsistent and affect teams too much to be worth it

transparent for people before you join – aspirational you know what it will be like

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before you join

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Compensation At Buffer, employees know everything about everyone else: how much they make, salaries are published – so the algorithm for bonuses and what their equity is worth

They created a formula for how salaries are calculated and added it to a Wiki page for everyone on the team to see. Why?

One, to truly commit to our value of transparency. Others can edit it on a wiki.

Joel, co-founder, emailed everyone and said, "I truly believe that transparency breeds trust, that's one of the key reasons for this adjustment.“

The trouble with keeping salaries a secret is that it's usually used as a way to avoid paying people fairly. And that's not good for employees -- or the company.

Two, it made hiring new people for the team a lot easier

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as a culture fit, became an aspirational place to work and yes, you guessed it, more transparent.

In fact they could tell potential employees how much they would earn before getting into any other details. They just ran through the formula and came up with the number.

happy, motivated employees who are doing work they love and feel they are being treated as adults don't gripe about money unless their pay is hugely unfair.

If you hear a lot of complaints about salaries, I suspect that's probably a manifestation of a much bigger disease: Your employees aren't deriving enough personal satisfaction from their work, or they are miserable for other reasons. It takes a lot of salary to make up for a cruel boss or a prisonlike workplace. And rather than adjusting pay, you might choose to focus on some non=monetary ways to make employees happy.

Happy employees make better products and provide better customer service and will make your company successful and profitable. And success allows you to pay workers better.

One other extreme example of transparency at Buffer – is they share--even how much they sleep.!!

One of the key values at Buffer is to work smarter, not harder. They recently gave everyone at Buffer a Jawbone UP wristband. It allows you to automatically track your sleep, your daily steps, your nutrition, and a lot more.

Personal improvement is a big part of that, so giving employees a tool that can help improve their sleep patterns is a no-brainer. in it's already had an incredible effect. Browsing everyone's sleep patterns and talking about how to get more deep sleep has an amazing effect on productivity.

They’ve also implemented a daily personal improvement program.

They track it using the productivity app IDoneThis:

Every day everyone logs what they've done, what they're doing, and what they improved upon.

Here are some recent examples:

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Four-day streak of getting up at 6 a.m. Back to 10 minutes of consistent daily meditation. Switched to audio books instead of music and now learn on the commute to work

At nooQ - We have taken on the OKR - objectives and key results - principle from Google and Apple – which weekly we share our big hairy goals, lessons learned, what you have done, what you are excited by, what can be improved Lots of companies talk about just what was done.

Sharing aspirations and what you enjoyed most is a huge insight to what makes people tick. Since improvements are shared company wide, it's a great way to get support and encouragement and team building – commit to a big goal publicly

Granted health,sleeping patterns and salary information is maybe a bit extreme I wanted to make you aware of approaches to transparency – last example to draw some inspiration from … Semco

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There are no job titles and no personal assistants. People set their own salaries. Everybody shares in the profits.

That sounds like a recipe for disaster, or at least chaos, but Semco has grown consistently for the last twenty years despite being located in one of the most volatile economies in the world. The story of Semco and its majority shareholder, Ricardo Semler, is

"... his father handed him control of the family's small Brazilian company, Semco, a maker of industrial machinery.

With the company in dire straits, Semler (at age 22) responded radically.

He fired most of 60% of the top managers and got rid of the management layers;

there are now three.

He eliminated nearly all job titles. There's still a CEO, but a half-dozen senior managers trade the title every six months, in March and September.

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Executives set their own pay, and everyone in the company knows what everyone else makes.

All workers set their own hours.

Every employee receives the company's financial statements, and the labour union holds classes on how to read them.

Workers choose their managers by vote and evaluate them regularly, with the results posted publicly.

it's sounds all insane, certainly in the 1980s it was almost unheard of bar WM Gore where the inspiration came from – and possible an extreme reaction to build the opposite of his father ?

except that it worked.“ Under his ownership, revenue grew

from US$4 million in 1982 to US$212 million in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world

After another severe recession in 1985 with government restrictions on borrowing capital – workers committee suggested 3principles suggested to survive

To do that was based around 3 principles – 1. Profit sharing amongst employees –management same rules as employees. First, the profit-sharing percentage would be increased until salaries could be restored. Second, management would take a forty percent cut in salary. And, third, the workers would get the right to approve every expenditure..

In the plants, workers started handling multiple job duties and using their knowledge of how the factory worked to come up with new procedures that saved time and money. At one factory they divided themselves into three manufacturing units of about 150 people each. Each unit had complete responsibility for manufacturing, sales, and financial management.

The new Semco was being born.

The autonomous team idea was adopted throughout the company. As it evolved the teams began hiring and firing both workers and supervisors by democratic vote.

What I impressed me about this..

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free access to all financial and other information for everybody with the company,

about on third of the annual profits are being shared among all employees,

top-down and bottom-up bi-annual evaluation process of all employees,

major decision making on a voting base,

working hours and pay levels are set and justified through company-internal supply and demand principles,

job swapping/rotation for about 20-25% of all managerial employees per year,

three organizational levels from chairman to manufacturing associate.

More remarkable –With very few exceptions most of the dramatic ideas came from someone other than Ricardo Semler.

His genius has been in holding to a general concept of empowerment and allowing and supporting changes that could easily have been viewed as taking away his power.

Semco's units are limited to 150-200 people. That's something of a magic number in sociological, management and anthropological studies. Dunbar’s number It's the largest group that a human being can feel a part of and that can create a social context that affects behavior. Dunbar said "The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of

individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us." That number appears again and again in studies of communities, of effective plant sizes and effective military units.

Semco is private but Semler reports average annual revenue growth at 40%

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You might not go that far but here are some events you can do at your own company to get started

Open Innovation – open up a list of challenges your business faces Suggest topics on growth, strategy, customer service, marketing, innovation Open it up to the public, publish them on the web

If that is too revealing, open them up to partners and suppliers, universities – push it a little outside your normal routes and channels – speak to others in other industries, gather a wide range of opinions and perspectives

CLICK Crowdsourcing ideas – simple way to share your ideas, new products or services –gather feedback on current products or services – brainstorm fresh ideas or methods

Challenge your current ways of thinking, ask challenging questions

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Get really fresh ideas – run a startup competition – get local or national startups to pitch to solve problems Do it properly – being Cynical about it, exploiting startup’s need for cash – but be careful many will see thru it wont enter if prize and value of time to enter is not worth it Startup competition that has 1000 grand prize – 3 regional heats, 500 for 2nd and 250 for third – takes several days plus 1-3 weeks preparation = pointless and damages your brand – top startups wont enter.Hackathons are not free software code for pizza and redbull.

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Ask yourself – whenever you are doing something ?Why can’t I share this with everyone?

Working out loud

Working Out Loud starts with making your work visible in such a way that it might help others.

When you do that – when you work in a more open, connected way – you can build a purposeful network that makes you more effective and provides access to more opportunities.”

Making your work visible: this is indeed the fundamental starting point for working out loud.

Making work better: One of the main reasons for openly narrating your work is to find ways to improve it. You’re publishing so other people will see it, including some who can provide useful feedback, connections, or other things that will make your work better.

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Leading with generosity: By framing your posts as contributions – as opposed to, say, efforts at self-promotion or personal branding – you’re more likely to engage other people. You’re not just looking for help but offering to help others, too. “The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.”

Building a social network: As you work out loud over time, you’ll be interacting with a broader range of people. The further you develop relationships with people in your network, the more likely it will be that you’ll collaborate with them and that they’ll be willing help you in other ways.

Making it all purposeful: Finally, since there’s an only a certain amount of contributing and connecting you can do, you need to make it purposeful in order to be effective. (Goals might be as simple as “I want more recognition in my firm.” or “I’d like to explore opportunities in another industry or location.”) having a goal in mind focuses your learning, your publishing, and value for your connections.

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Take a small step 5x50 – heard of that? 27 days to change a habit Found it on twitter. – basically a fitness challenge to do 5k everyday for 50 days. After 21-27 days becomes a habit.

I want to encourage you to make the tiny, daily choices that support transparency.

Things to try –Spark a debate –e.g- continuous improvement – name 3 things we should stop doing, 3 things we should do more of Share an idea – transparency Ask for volunteers to get involved Work on it with on linked in - HR, a community of colleagues and outsiders - anyone interested Publish a blog Promote it Share it outside your organisation – linked-in, twitter, industry meet ups Get involved – conference attendees, speakers

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Be truthful about a person’s performance. Share the real numbers behind why a decision was made Express your concern about

how something could make you or the company look bad. Invite a different kind of person to participate in your strategic planning or other key decision-making situations. Don’t beat your self up if it fails, get up try again

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Now we have covered what it isThe benefitsInspiratonal examplesHow to do it

Now onto the techniques and tools

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Given the definitionTechniques1st Technique – Start small

While your company is still small and dynamic, that's the time to make it radically transparentBy starting early, you weave that culture into your company's DNA and attract people

that are inspired by you before they start

If not a startup or small company –

Start with Small teams, company – groups.

Start with one topic or goal

But think big

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Take Issues One At A Time

When creating a radically transparent business, Smith recommends incremental exposure. "Thinking about it all as a whole is very difficult and very daunting," he says.

Instead, each time you would typically hide information, ask yourself, "Why can't I share this with everyone?" Unless someone comes up with a strong argument against it, always opt for openness.

Don’t beat yourself up if you fail – try again

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3. Make time to explain your logic.As a radically transparent leader, you must be honest and fair.

Employees need to understand how you came to your decisions and why.

"You do need to spend a huge amount of time with your team explaining everything," Atkinson says. The extra time will pay off--ultimately, your effort will inspire trust and loyalty.

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4. Clearly outline the steps for advancement.Be clear on the pathThe path for what is measured and important, the path for bonuses and promotions. Publish it, share it and allow anyone to comment and add improvements

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Making traditionally private information available naturally stirs up discomfort.

"A lot of times it's uncomfortable because it's never been done before,“

Or it might make yourself look stupid or show up mistakes

asks yourself if sharing that information would help or empower your employees.

If it would, do it. Once it's out in the open, discomfort quickly fades.

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First gen – social collaboration software for teams – sharepoint, yammer, jive, chatter Google Hangouts, Google + communities, HipChat – group IM Google + the same – group IMMedium for blogs Newer technology – group chat & collab SLACK Best of all nooQ – we do things a little differently, much better for transparency, searching, personalised feeds rather than a lot of noise.

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Start a Community

Crowdsource IdeasInvolve othersEngage and debate transparencyDiscuss opportunities for improvement

Diverse range of opinions

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Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.

As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied.

“When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

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The old man replied,

“But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

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I would hope you will take inspiration and though from the starfish story

Remember the tips3 key ingredient – strategy – structure and social skills

The techniques –Start SmallTake Issues One At A TimeMake time to explain your logicClearly outline the steps for advancementQuestion Your Discomfort

The tools – only need to remember one of them

But with

that you will be inspired to create the kind of workplace we all aspire to

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Remember that workplace – it is achievable – download the guide

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I am big fan of twitter & linked-in – follow, tweet, mention – I will be glad to help

And do get in touch if we can help – my email address is there

If you want to download these slides – go to our website

nooQ that boring old workplace And SPARK THAT CHANGE

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