In searching my Twitter feed I came across the following tweet
How Transparency Positively Impacts Your Workplace http://bit.ly/SPwKNg via @MeghanMBiro
So I clicked on the article How Transparency Positively Impacts Your Workplace
For those of that know me being open, transparent, and trusting is something that I take very seriously and perhaps to a fault. People have told me at times I am too trusting and too open and that may be true, but for me it is better than the alternative.
I think too often teachers in relationship with their students or administrators in relationships with teachers tend to keep things close and do not open up. Someone once told me the following 'Information is Power". In a school the culture should be of shared power and we need to be open with our students and our administrators with teachers.
Here are some thoughts from the article mentioned above:
" Transparency In The Workplace
In addition to being open with customers and the public about company operations, fostering greater transparency within a business can contribute to a positive employee culture. Simply demonstrating that executives and stakeholders trust their workers with information about the organization’s successes and failures, strategies and goals helps to build up that social contract of trust and responsibility. Of course, there must always be prudence in determining how much and which information to divulge to the entire company, but greater transparency tends to make a positive impact on workers.
Fortune explained that transparency involves factors such as practices, policies, algorithms, operating data and future plans. It means giving staff members the information they need to develop a deep understanding of what their company stands for and what its objectives are. This, in turn, can foster work pride and inspire innovation, loyalty, independence, positive co-worker dynamics and passion to meet common goals, the source added.
Sharing More information
One place to start is with employee engagement survey results. Many leaders collect information about their workforce by distributing questionnaires and analyzing the responses, but workers are rarely informed about the results. Sharing this data not only helps create an environment of inclusiveness and teamwork, it also brings staff members on board to help solve some of the problems they identified. Letting them know the enterprise’s strengths is a great idea, too, since it can encourage them to continue doing whatever makes the company strong."
How many teachers involve students in class policies
How many teachers share with the students why we are learning something and its importance
How many students really have an understanding of the school vision and goals
How many teachers are involved in the strategic planning
How many teachers know the vision and mission of the school
How many administrators share survey data with teachers
As the article mentions we may think we are open and transparent, but we need to take a hard look sometimes ask can we be more open transparent and trusting
Being open & transparent in my opinion is in the same vein as modelling for our students.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can ever go wrong being open about where you are and how things are going. Achievement, meeting goals, & finding success along the way is a team effort. Without a clear, open learning tareget reaching the destination is almost improbable.
Great post Akevy!
Thanks for your comment
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