Creating A Culture Of Transparency

If your team isn’t telling you the truth, your business is already in trouble. Alan Mulally saw this at Ford. The company was losing billions, yet every leader reported “all green.” Why? Because under the old CEO, red meant you were out of a job. Mulally changed the culture. He praised candor, not perfection. Red became a chance to rally support—not assign blame. That shift unlocked the truth and helped save Ford. Great leaders don’t demand good news. They create safety so their teams can tell them the truth. Here’s how: 1️⃣ Create safety for honesty. 2️⃣ Keep reporting binary: on track/off track. 3️⃣ Reward the truth, even when it stings. 4️⃣ Rally the team to solve problems together. 5️⃣ Set ambitious goals—some red means you’re pushing hard enough.

Transparency can be an empty promise, or it can be a true practice to engender trust. At Rubrik, we’ve always believed that it should be a true practice - which is why we held open board meetings for our first 7-8 years, till a few years before we went public. Our open board meetings showed our employees that we were genuinely committed to transparency, and this commitment was key to our success as we grew…because it bred trust. When you’re an early-stage startup, you often bring in top talent and ask for their prime years as you work hard to build your company from the ground up. The least leadership can do in return? Provide full transparency about the company’s status so that employees are never in doubt about where their efforts are going. Plus, early-stage startups have no obligation to be transparent about their financials the way public companies do - so sharing information without anyone asking is a great way to show employees that you care about them being in the loop as you grow. This full transparency has a cascading positive effect, in that it breeds a high-trust environment. In a high-trust environment, everyone has the same information as everyone else, so it’s easy to align and easy to move fast. That’s exactly the sequence we’ve seen as we’ve built Rubrik: we started with transparency, built trust, and moved fast. Now, we’re a public company with a bright future. Transparency is a superpower - so don’t just talk about it. Act on it.

"𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦. 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞" This was the worst advice I ever received as a founder. And if I had followed it, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Back in 2015, when we were still figuring things out, we believed in one simple principle—𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭. We were open with our team about our numbers, challenges, and even vulnerabilities. But many seasoned founders at the time told us: "𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮." "𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴—𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬." "𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳." "𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵—𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦." We were shocked. And honestly, it hurt to be judged like that. But we followed our gut. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐥𝐚𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝. Instead of hiding and restricting, we shared our challenges and educated our team on business impact. The result? 💡 A team that thinks like owners, not employees. 💡 Developers who build with business context, not just code. 💡 Sales teams that sell what can actually be delivered. 💡 A culture where people feel valued, not used. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭? 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐮𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. Not every piece of advice—deserves to be followed. Trust your instincts. Build the company you’d love to work at. And your people would fall in love with. #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Transparency #Startup

Building a strong company culture is a continuous process. It requires more than just defining values and hanging posters on the wall. It demands active participation and a genuine commitment to two-way communication. Too often, organizations fall into the trap of "top-down" culture building. Leaders dictate the values, but employees are left feeling unheard and disconnected. True culture change happens from the bottom up. Think of it like this: you can say you value transparency, but if you look down on people who speak up, your culture will be anything but transparent. Actions speak louder than words. So, how do we build cultures that truly resonate? • Involve employees in the process from the start. • Create safe spaces for open and honest feedback. • Empower individuals to contribute to shaping the culture. • Be consistent in your actions, demonstrating the values you preach. The result? A workplace where people are engaged and genuinely invested in the company's success. Yes, building a culture of trust and transparency takes time and effort. But the payoff is immense.

I went to an AI UX workshop last night expecting recycled LinkedIn advice about "building AI trust through transparency." Instead, Isabella Yamin tore down LinkedIn's job posting flow using her CarbonCopies AI framework in real-time, while founders shared raw implementation struggles. It completely changed how I'm rethinking Maibel's onboarding flow. Here's what I stole from B2B SaaS principles to redesign emotional AI for B2C: 1️⃣ Progressive disclosure with purpose LinkedIn's fatal flaw? Optimizing for completion ease > Outcome quality. Recruiters are drowning in irrelevant applications because AI never learns what "qualified" means. The personalization paradox: How do we give users enough control without overwhelming them? Users don't want "frictionless". They want INFORMED control. 📌 At Maibel: I was falling into the same trap, making emotional coaching setup so simple that the AI couldn't understand user context. Now? Progressive complexity with clear trade-offs. Show users how their choices impact outcomes. → Want deeper insights? Add more context. → Want faster setup? Here's what the AI can't personalize. 2️⃣ Closed-loop data intelligence: What Platfio gets right They've built a platform for software agencies where where every data point feeds back into the entire system. User preferences in marketing flows shape proposals. Campaign performance shapes future recommendations. Every interaction becomes intelligence for future recommendations. 📌 At Maibel: Most wellness apps store emotional check-ins like digital journals. I'm turning them into predictive feedback loops. Emotional intelligence isn’t static but COMPOUNDS. Today's reflections shift tomorrow's suggestions. Patterns fuel prevention. Users' inputs on Monday could predict AND prevent Friday's breakdown. 3️⃣  Multi-modal creativity: Wubble's transparency approach Translating images and files into music - who'd have thought? They've cracked multi-modal creativity where users become co-creators, not passive consumers. The breakthrough moment for me: What if users could see how their visual environment contributes to emotional context? 📌 At Maibel: Users upload images of their day and see how AI analyzes emotional cues: cluttered workspace = overwhelm, junk food = stress eating. Multi-modal understanding users can contribute to and influence. 💡 The bottom line? B2B Saas gets one thing right: Every interaction has to earn trust. In B2B, failed AI means churn. In emotional AI, failed trust breaks belief in tech entirely. 📌 Here's what we're doing differently at Maibel: → Progressive complexity → Context-aware feedback → Multi-modal participation → Intelligence that compounds with every input. It's not just about building WITH AI. I'm designing systems that learn understand YOU before you even need to explain yourself. Kudos to Isabella, Shivang Gupta The Generative Beings, Shaad Sufi Hayden Cassar and everyone who shared deep product insights.

We're living through a striking moment: for the first time, businesses are not only seen as more competent than NGOs - they're now viewed as more ethical. Translation: mission no longer earns you automatic trust. For development practitioners, this means rethinking everything from first principles: how you enter communities, structure partnerships, and communicate impact. What's driving this: As I discussed with Justin Blake from Edelman, we're seeing coordinated campaigns - anti-vax, anti-DEI, ESG backlash, climate skepticism - systematically reshaping public perception of NGOs. These aren't random. They're strategic, connected, and effective. The operational shift: - In today’s world, people are retreating into "insular" trust circles - they only trust those who think/look/believe like them - This means: trust brokering (facilitating connections across difference) matters more than trust inheritance (i.e. assuming your logo carries weight) - Communities increasingly trust programs that deliver on outcomes they've identified - not ones predetermined by strategies developed elsewhere What this might look like in practice: - Investing in long-term local relationships over short-term programmatic visibility - Letting communities see you working across difference - not just showing up to serve them - Building coalitions with unlikely partners to demonstrate you can navigate competing interests and perspectives - Showing up consistently in ways that matter to communities, not just donors The question isn't whether NGOs reclaim moral authority. It's whether they’re willing to build legitimacy the hard way: through sustained local presence and measurable outcomes. #NGOs #GlobalDevelopment #Trust

You are using a platform that approves access and triggers automated actions. Then something goes wrong and nobody can explain why. Trust-by-design starts there: people need visibility and control before damage spreads. The practical point is simple. A platform does not earn trust only because it works on a normal day. It earns trust when people can understand what happened and how to stop the same issue from spreading. Transparency is the first layer. Users and teams should be able to see which action was taken and which rule made it happen. Without that visibility, even a secure platform can feel like a black box. Accountability makes the system governable. When approvals and corrections have clear owners, problems do not disappear inside the workflow. They can be reviewed, fixed, and learned from. Security then has to protect daily use, not only the perimeter. Data flows and system connections are where real operational risk enters, especially when automated actions depend on them. Human control is what turns trust into practice. People need a real way to pause, question, or correct a decision before the platform scales an error. #TrustByDesign #DigitalTrust

Most leadership teams I start working with are in one of two modes: 👉 1. Build psychological safety without intellectual honesty: everyone’s kind, no one’s challenged. 👉 2. Or they build intellectual honesty without safety: everyone’s smart, no one’s learning. The research published in MIT Sloan Management Review (Jeff Dyer et al., 2023) confirms what I’ve seen in practice: Innovation doesn’t come from ideas alone but it comes from friction that’s safe to hold. The researchers found that organizations fall into 4 cultural types based on two dimensions: psychological safety (can people speak up?) and intellectual honesty (do they tell the truth even when it’s hard?). Their analysis across hundreds of companies revealed that the most innovative organizations combine high trust and high truth-telling. They create conditions where people: • challenge assumptions without triggering defensiveness, • admit uncertainty without losing credibility, • and debate ideas without damaging relationships. In contrast, the majority of workplaces sit in one of the three traps: ⚪ Comfortable cultures (high safety, low honesty) Polite, stable, but stagnant. People withhold critical feedback to “keep the peace.” ⚪ Anxious cultures (high honesty, low safety) Driven, but brittle. Meetings feel like battles; mistakes get hidden. ⚪ Distressed cultures (low on both). Silence, cynicism, and a slow loss of creativity. Only the Innovative culture balances both truth and trust. It’s not psychological safety first and honesty later. They develop together, through the daily micro-behaviors of leaders. That’s the essence of my Safe Challenger Leadership™️ approach: leaders who blend care with candor, trust with tension, and safety with stretch. Because innovation dies from the absence of honest conversations that feel safe enough to stay in. P.S.: What’s harder for organizations in your opinion: making honesty safe, or making safety honest?

When I first started leading a team, it was revealing. It was a fairly sizeable team, and until then, from that team I had only ever worked closely with one person. Within a few weeks, it became clear: Something wasn’t working. The signs were subtle at first: ⚠️ Side conversations started happening more often ⚠️ Some team members stopped asking me questions directly ⚠️ Feedback in retros was vague but pointed such as “we don’t know why we’re doing this” ⚠️ I felt energy in meetings drop — more silence, less ownership And then it hit me, they didn’t think I was being upfront and transparent enough. They questioned my motives behind decisions. In consulting, a team of 3+ already feels big. Each consultant carries their own journey, their own anxieties, and the mix of project intensity + pressure of the next evaluation cycle can break anyone. That’s when I learned my first big leadership lesson: Transparency is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s the glue that holds the team together. Transparency isn’t about sharing everything. It’s about: 🔑 Making your decision-making process visible 🔑 Explaining the “why” behind your choices 🔑 Letting people know where they stand, even when it’s uncomfortable 🔑 Showing that fairness, not favoritism, drives your calls You won’t have the same relationship with everyone. But you can still earn everyone’s trust, by being consistently clear. Because in a high-pressure environment, lack of transparency is not neutral. It breeds doubt, then disengagement, and eventually, a broken team. When leading a team, transparency is the difference between being a manager of tasks and a leader of people. #Leadership #Mindset #Team #Culture ------------------- I write regularly on People | Leadership | Transformation | Sustainability. Follow Surya Sharma.

Honesty and directness are two of the most valuable traits in any workplace, yet I feel we are losing them...or losing the skill behind them. While many people are avoiding directness for fear of causing discomfort, others dive into “telling it like it is” without the tact and empathy that make honest feedback constructive. Somewhere along the line, these important qualities got tangled up with conflict or insensitivity, making many people shy away from direct feedback or honest opinions. It's important to recognize that: 💡 People often seek reassurance or pity, but what they often need most is honesty and directness. ⚠️ And if we don't recognize this and we lose honesty and directness, we lose the foundation for trust and growth. ⚡ Empathy and kindness are crucial at work, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of clarity and truth. We need to show people we value them by delivering the truth with empathy and respect. When we do this, we also impact efficiency. Instead of tiptoeing around issues, we can address them, find solutions, and move forward. Problems that might have lingered for months can be addressed in a single, honest conversation. There is no need to choose between being direct and being empathetic! It’s about combining the two thoughtfully. ✔️ Take a moment to notice your own emotion and consider how your words and tone will be received ✔️ Be conscious of tact, timing and empathy ✔️ Be specific and constructive..."I've noticed (specific issue) and I'd like to chat about what we can do about it" ✔️ Focus on the issue not the person ✔️ Encourage people to give YOU constructive feedback...and highlight that it goes both ways ✔️ Stick to facts, not opinions. And be clear on the impact before seeking solutions. Change starts with LEADERS! Research from Edelman’s Trust Barometer shows that transparency and honesty are top drivers of trust in leadership, with 84% of respondents saying that open and honest communication from leaders builds trust. We are all leaders in some respect so we can all ask ourselves...am I being direct and honest enough with the people around me? The people I care about? ❓ What are your thoughts on the topic ❓ How can leaders strike the right balance between honesty and empathy to build a culture of trust ❓ What’s one approach that’s worked well for you ❓ Leave your comments below 🙏 #trust #respect #openness #honesty #leadership #teamwork