The Speaker of the House of Commons got himself into a bit of bother this week. Parliament descended into chaos as politicians were angry that the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, had changed procedures against tradition. Nobody actually mentioned the fact that these “traditions” were only set up in 1979 and had been broken since. Never let the facts get in the way of a good argument if you are a politician.
Sir Lindsay apologised for his error – twice. But what he said revealed he was actually trying to protect members of parliament. Had he mentioned this prior to the start of the Commons business, the row would probably not have erupted in the way it did. His real mistake was not to be transparent about what he was doing.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the House of Commons, the Business Secretary, Kemi Badenoch, was also in hot water for her lack of transparency. She said she had been in “extensive” talks with the LGBTQ+ community, when it turned out there had only been two meetings. She went on to say that she was involved in trade talks with Canada, only for the country to point out that no such talks were ongoing. What Ms Badenoch didn’t quite say was that there were some talks, but she halted them herself. She wasn’t entirely transparent in what she said in the House of Commons.
But, hey, why do I need to tell you that the political world is not a place of complete transparency? After all, you must already know that the war in Ukraine, which is two years old today, would not have happened had a certain Donald Trump been in the Whitehouse. We know that’s true because he said so. Though he is decidedly short on transparency as to how this would have been the case.
The issue of transparency came up yesterday at a conference I attended on quality in higher education. Inevitably, the thorny issue of artificial intelligence was mentioned several times. People were worried about the potential for students to cheat using services such as ChatGPT. That worry was also aired at a seminar I was at the day before, where a lecturer showed how he had completed a PhD in 90 minutes, using artificial intelligence. However, what was clear from both of the events I attended this week was that transparency was essential in the area of artificial intelligence in education.
As long as students are clear about how they have used AI and they properly reference it, then their work can be fairly assessed. However, if they are not transparent, there is a chance they will be credited for work that is not their own, ultimately devaluing their degree anyway. Transparency avoids this issue.
Being as clear as possible also showed itself this week when it was revealed that a significant number of online influencers fail to be transparent about where they get their money. According to the study, 20% of social media influencers do not mention that they are being paid to promote something. Even when promoting their own products, 60% of influencers did not mention that their post was an advertisement.
The need for transparency in online promotion is enshrined in several laws and codes of practice. Ultimately, if someone on social media promotes a product or service without being transparent about their relationship to a brand, then they can face criminal charges. So too can the company that is being promoted. In other words, if a social media influencer fails to be completely transparent, they are landing their client in hot water, too.
At the root of non-transparency is the emotional state of shame. We end up hiding things from people because we fear that if we tell them the full details, we will be seen as unworthy in some way. We avoid doing what we know is the right thing so that we do not trigger negative emotions. We fear that full transparency will release those negative feelings.
However, being transparent is admired and respected by our customers. Rather than saying “your order is on its way” just say “sorry, we’ve got a problem in the factory and your order will be another couple of days”. Honesty is the best policy and all that.
The first step in being transparent is to accept your situation and find the reasons you may wish to cover things up. Then you can focus on the causes of the shame that is leading you to be opaque. And as soon as you have done that, you’ll probably realise that what you fear is unlikely to happen, and that you were worried about nothing. All too often in business, we are not as transparent as we ought to be. It’s because we think that by being open, we are exposing our weaknesses. Yet if you expose yourself for what you are, being transparent, you will be more trusted and admired than if you behave in an opaque way. Transparency is possible without embarrassment. Just ask that woman in the see through nightie.
