In simple situations with obvious metrics, transparency earns trust. Voting, for example, benefits from audit trails and inspectability.
But transparency can also undermine trust. Walking through the typical restaurant kitchen on the way to dinner probably won’t increase the typical diner’s trust in the experience. The restaurant isn’t hiding anything; it’s just that they know things we don’t about hygiene, production, and how to present a finished dish.
You can trust your employees or your freelancers to deliver a worthwhile result, but demanding transparency about how they spend all of their time isn’t going to make you trust them more… the effort they put into the work isn’t related to the value of the work you’re asking for.
Part of the problem is that we measure what’s easy, not what’s relevant. And part of the problem is that we have trouble explaining trust, while it’s easy to pursue ever more transparency.
Once we’re coherent about what we expect and the promises that are being made, we have a chance to engage with what actually matters.
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