True Transparency: The Definition!

Denver, CO.    Wednesday June 30, 2010.   Are you sick and tired of hearing how  leaders on Wall Street, in Washington DC, in Banking, in Real Estate, in Insurance, and even on Main Street are going to be so “transparent”??

The “modern term” has been with us for centuries; since about 1600 actually.

Today’s heavy use of the word “transparency” is not accidental.   It is very deliberate.   In the late 1990′s political and financial chieftains of our Nation sought out a new term that would make them look “good and positive” to the Constituents and to the Consumers…and there it was:    TRANSPARENCY.       {I know because I met with a sizable and reputable Public Relations Firm about then…and they were saying how if any Company wanted to re-engineer itself or to re-brand itself from the past one of that Company’s main courses of business would be to use the word “transparent” in its internal and external publications and the like.

The word has worked…and it is being over-worked and mis-used too!   “Transparency” is all too often a cover up of some dastardly or mildly negative “something” that has happened, that is happening, or is about to happen.   Listen in the next 24 hours and see how politicians and business persons and others are using the word.    See how they are using the term.     And question their use of this term.

For any user of the word “transparency” to be truthful, the only definition of TRANSPARENCY has to be this:    fully disclosing upfront the pros and the cons of whatever is being revealed or promoted;   giving the major ramifications of whatever is being revealed or promoted; and giving specific accountable methods that have actual clout of whatever is being revealed or promoted.

Just remember:   Transparency without full upfront Disclosure, Ramifications, and defined Accountability methods is probably a Falsehood or at best it is a partial lie.

SO the next time you are at any Meeting or a presentation of any kind and the presenter or speaker uses the term “Transparency” ask that person in private, in public or anywhere else where it is appropriate:   “what are the full disclosures [good and bad] that will be given to us and when will they be given to us; what are the main ramifications of “this or that”; and how will YOU be held accountable if what you are saying is NOT TRANSPARENT??

Honesty has not yet caught up with our information age.

Keep your leaders honest…ask them to define “Transparency”.   And change these leaders if you get today’s normal “hot-air run-around”.

BLOG #2 from B here.

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