Transparency
I’m sure that you cultured lot will have heard this famous Oscar Wilde quote
There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
This quote to me explains the latest craze of being overly unnecessarily transparent. Pure political spin and attention seeking. Struggling with funding? Someone send some ridiculous emails?
Write about it, wrap it up with some nice self pity and ship it out as a nice dose of transparency.
Transparency,
Funny, I just mentioned that this term is wearing on me. It does seem more marketing tactic than culture for many doesn’t it?
Definitely a marketing ploy. I saw someone tweet that “Transparency works better in a negative light than a positive one” (or something similar). The use of works made me smile…
Awesome post and quote!
I now no longer wonder to myself, “wow I must be an incredible douche bag because I keep my work guarded.”
Although I do have to say that I have learned a great deal over the years from reading about other people’s failures and victories. I’ve received tremendous inspiration from other people’s work and processes that they’ve shared.
But I agree with you that some go overboard with it in a salesy sort of way. There is a time and place for it.
i’m going to be transparent in saying i’m great for being transparent
Anthony, I admire your transparency on the subject.
It’s transparency when you publicly talk about a failure or act of douchery when nobody else knows about it.
It’s PR when you publicly talk about a failure or act of douchery when everybody already knows about it.
…in my opinion.
David, this is an excellent interpretation of it. Unfortunately the line between the two is often cloudy.
Very true. On the whole idea of being transparent, I always go back to intent and objective.
I think if the intent and objective for being transparent about a failure is pure, it has an endearing and redeeming affect. If not, the fake transparency just does more to erode trust.
Agreed. However it’s a risky thing to do online as people will only be interpreting text and not necessarily tone. Does that make sense?
I think it says more about me that I presume that nearly every form of ‘transparency’ is bullshit…
The recent rush to transparency seems like another instance of mutating and complicating something unnecessarily. In my opinion once factors like intent and objective come into play, we’re F****d.
Quite