Building a transparent IT organization is in the best interest of all stakeholders. The impetus for transparency is the benefit that it will provide to everyone in the organization. Transparency breeds trust, innovation, collaboration, and productivity, and IT leaders must understand that they are the driving force behind such an initiative. What opaque IT leaders do not recognize is that by being reticent and uncommunicative – both internally and externally – they are dooming themselves to be left in the proverbial dust.
What Is Transparency?
Transparency in the IT organization is about being open, honest, and communicative. In the best-selling 2003 book, "The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business" by renowned business author Don Tapscott (co-authored with David Ticoll), the authors discuss not only the need for transparency, but how it will revolutionize business practices, innovation, and competitiveness. The authors cite dozens of examples of how opacity stifles trust and has cost stakeholders billions of dollars, and how a new age of transparency is poised to change how business is conducted.