Transparency—the management concept equivalent of penicillin!

By Steven M. Worth, President at Plexus Consulting Group, LLC

When the signers of the Uruguay Round Multilateral trade agreement emphasized the need for transparency in the way the newly created World Trade Organization (WTO) would make its decisions, it heralded an end to the back room wheeling and dealing that had categorized the organization that it would replace. It was a transformative decision.

Isn’t the concept of transparency a good litmus test for any decision? The simple question—would you do what you did if anyone and everyone knew? One manager told me he advised his staff never to write anything in an email that they would not mind seeing on the front page of The Washington Post!

Transparency weeds out the harm that “insiders” can do to an organization. Transparency kills corruption in its tracks! Or to use another commercial jingle: Try it, you’ll like it!