A colleague sent me a link to an interview with Kip Tindell, Chief Executive of the Container Store. In the interview, Kip describes how important it is to his company to have a policy of full disclosure, open communications, and transparency with his employees. It helps promote team work and motivates the best employees. Here’s a small excerpt from the interview:
The way we create a place where people do want to come to work is primarily through two key points. One of our foundation principles is that leadership and communication are the same thing. Communication is leadership. So we believe in just relentlessly trying to communicate everything to every single employee at all times, and we’re very open. We share everything. We believe in complete transparency. There’s never a reason, we believe, to keep the information from an employee, except for individual salaries.
I always make it a point to give the same presentation I give at the board meeting to the staff, and then that trickles down to everybody in the company. I know that occasionally some of that information falls into the wrong hands, but that’s a small price to pay for having employees who know they know just about everything.
This concept has nothing to do with astronomy management, unless you consider that astronomers and other staff members are usually people, too, and that Kip Tindell’s approach is about getting the most out of people and forming the best team you can with the people you have.
I wonder if I could find similar articles confessing the benefits of hiding information and keeping secrets from employees and customers. I bet not, but it would be an interesting exercise.
Anyhow, you can read all the interview here.