As organizations increasingly decentralize, distribute, and ally, the need for transparency goes beyond values to practical necessity. Transparency in practice enables higher levels of collaborative performance both globally and locally in a complex human network. Transparency as a concept needs to be rendered from multiple views, including perspectives of privacy.
Values, Vision, Behaviors, and Identity are the axes of action available to increase transparency or, where appropriate decrease it.
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Transparency: the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen. (From Dictionary.com) |
In human networks, emergent effects arise from the actions of individual people in local positions and roles. Networks naturally self-organize, for better or worse, by members that may or may not be aware of their connection to the whole. As the size and complexity of our networks increase, the ability of people to comprehend and manage within them decreases. Chaos increases.
What to do?
Enhance the intelligence of the whole network.
If everyone understands the whole, members can self-organize locally to better meet the purposes of the whole organization. Openness is the default.
