What Does Transparency Really Mean?

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NLI Staff
What organizational transparency actually means and how it differs from authenticity and honesty and increases engagement, productivity, and creativity.

Transparency is the open and candid sharing of information between managers and employees. Without transparency, employees are left to worry and guess, triggering a threat state in the brain. Amid ongoing layoffs and economic instability, with employees already experiencing high levels of uncertainty, transparency has only grown more important. When you give people the whole picture, it fulfills their need for certainty and fairness. The result is that employees feel they can trust their leaders, which increases engagement, productivity, and creativity.

A cartoon illustration that shows a leader telling an employee they didn't get a promotion in two ways: first without transparency, and second with transparency.

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