Transparency is easy when it’s all going really well.  Everyone’s eager to share, share, share and be open and excited about working together in a jumble of harmonious zeal.

Until something goes wrong.  Someone is offended.  Someone doesn’t agree.  Someone feels slighted.

That’s when transparency takes a back seat to age-old human habits.  Transparency is the first casualty when trust breaks down in a network. Even if the motivation is to just get a second opinion on XYZ that spooked your trust, networks start splintering into off chutes of “what do you think?”

We’re only human as our friends at the Human League taught us back in the 80s.  Born to make mistakes.

It’s a mistake to forgo transparency in the network era.  When transparency breaks down, network intelligence fragments.  The collective wisdom and shared experience of the team is compromised.  Individuals now have shades of understanding, an imperfect view of truths the network needs to survive and thrive.   Private conversations deprive the network of its life’s oxygen.  Openness, truth, trust, and disagreement are all part of the  shared experience.

Try hard to resist against the mortal forces of being human.