Transparency Means No Secrets in Your Project

"Make it a goal to be transparent when it comes to sharing your project's information. Discuss transparency with your team and stakeholders early in the project"

I have worked in many organizations where project managers and their teams work in silos and do not share any information about the project other than among them and with direct stakeholders.

When I asked other teams or stakeholders in the organization if they were aware of the projects that the organization was undertaking, many of them had not even heard about those projects and the ones that knew about them did not know about the current status.

Project managers should not treat their projects like a state secret unless they are actually asked by the organization to keep it under wraps for specific reasons.

If you want to be trusted by your project team, management and stakeholders, you must be transparent.

You must avoid keeping your project a secret. You need to be open and communicate that you plan to be transparent with your team and stakeholders. In the same way, you must let them know that you expect the same level of transparency from them. You want to work together to move the project forward and ensure that you are trusted and known for your transparency.

Transparency must not only happen when there is good news to share but also when there is bad news. The sooner that you share those bad news, the sooner that you will be on your way to tackle a potential impactful issue.

Sharing project information with your team can help you achieve results faster as they will be able to help you and put the necessary effort to tackle the issue right away.

Also, being transparent with your stakeholders will help you get their insights when you need it the most and establish an important trust which is not easy to build.

You must be honest in your communication and regardless of how difficult news can be, they need to be communicated so that something can be done.

Transparency is about honesty but it also involves ethics. Sure there will be situations that will make you think twice about being transparent but you need to assess that situation and make the right decision when it comes to sharing your project information.

Let you project team, stakeholders and management know that you will be transparent when it comes to sharing project information and that you expect the same from them.

You must keep your project status up to date and upload your project's information on the organization's repository for sharing.

Ask your stakeholders about how comfortable they feel about sharing information about the project and way to properly share it. Work with them to be transparent.

Ensure to make your project public for other organization's users to question, understand and discuss it. You never know, somebody might be able to provide you with valuable insights that could benefit your project.

Information is meant to be shared!

Are you a transparent project manager?