Quite naturally, the first reaction that any one would have when summarily told to “be transparent” in their dealings, would be, “But why? We’ve gotten along just fine thus far.”? Unfortunately, we are looking at a classic case of “thus far and no further”. There is really no option left.

Whether one is trying to woo the customer or placate outraged media; working to up the stock prices or fighting fire, transparency has suddenly overtaken every other contender for the title of “leading communication tactic”?. And this contrasts so sharply with something that I came across a few years ago. By one of those strange chances (don”t ask me how – I did say it was strange) some years ago, I found myself leafing through the Public Relations exam answer sheets of students of a school of marketing communication. And at least 75% of them had answered, when asked to react to a particular disaster, that they would (a) avoid the press and (b) deny it categorically.

I suppose this may have worked sometime, somewhere – but I have frankly, never seen it paying off in the long run. Honesty is not just the best policy; it is the only policy – not least because fabrications can be so easily caught out today. It is virtually (pun intended) impossible to suppress any negative news especially given the phenomenal reach of the Internet and the www2 generation tools like blogging, podcasting and what-have-you.

Leaving aside the negative aspect for a moment, (viz. you have to else you are headed for the high jump), let us look at the positives… What do we stand to gain by “letting it all hang out”?? The benefits happen to be as crucial as they are intangible. Public trust, respect, brand equity… are a few of the things that come to mind immediately.

At the end of the day, no matter how large your organisation is and no matter how large or important your stakeholders, ultimately both these segments of your public are made up of people, which is something we tend to forget as we get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of corporate life. And people will always react as human beings. Therefore the reaction you will get from them – and this is important – is a human one. Keeping in mind that no individual likes to feel cheated, every individual likes to feel that he is trusted and that the organisation he is dealing with is an honest one, you really cannot go wrong with being transparent, as you can see by this example.

So think about it and once you have, remember to put your thoughts out there, where everyone can see them. The time for acting coy is over and it’s time to welcome the dare-to-bare age.