Think hierarchy and transparency don’t mix? Information sharing builds trust, drives results, and works within all organizational structures.

Every mobile app has a “share” button, through which you can share information with the world — irrespective of how relevant or irrelevant the information is.

At the same time, organizations still hold back information from their employees.

Let’s take a deeper look at this phenomenon.

Why Would People Hold Back Information?

If your organization is a spy agency, you hold back information for operational security — or OPSEC — reasons. The fewer people know about who are you spying on and how, the higher the chance of success of your mission.

But let’s face it, most organizations aren’t spy agencies. In a “normal” organization, holding back information is often seen as a status symbol or an expression of personal power. I am one of the few people in the company who knows who owns how many shares. I am one of the few people in the company who gets to see the meeting minutes of the executive board meetings. If everybody knew the exact content of the executive board meeting minutes, I would go down in irrelevance.

Last but not least, information often isn’t shared widely just because that’s the way things have been done for ages. People still say, “I report to Paul” rather than “I am in Paul’s team.” Reporting to somebody means you give that person information, and the only information you are likely to get are new orders and instructions.

You should consider changing your information-sharing policies. All without giving away truly confidential information too lightly.

Why Would You Share Information with Your Team?

Let’s turn the perspective. What are the benefits of sharing information with your team?

First and foremost, I share information with my team because I want them to succeed. In my role as the Founder & CEO of Yonder, I share as much information as possible with our development team so that they can fix bugs and problems. How on earth shall the team locate the root cause of a problem if I deny them access to the logs? Same thing with financial information: How on earth shall the team optimize the cloud infrastructure costs if I keep the AWS invoice to myself?

Sharing information to succeed is not just critical for companies, but also for security organizations. Besides my role as an entrepreneur, I serve as an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces. In my function as Chief of Security for Zurich Airport, I am the exercise director of a full-battalion exercise to protect Zurich Airport in a setting just below the threshold of all-out war. Of course, my staff and I are closely collaborating with the local police forces. And of course, I share the information I receive from the local police forces with the battalion that will be employed. Why? Because I want them to succeed. If they fail, I will fail, too. And if I fail, my division commander will fail, too.

Another reason to share information widely is to receive input to your thoughts. At Yonder, whenever the product team comes up with a new feature idea or a feature improvement, we share our thoughts with the customer team and the development team to gain their input before we start working on the implementation. Nobody can do it alone, so why not use all the knowledge out there and make sure you get the best possible solution by incorporating all that knowledge? Of course, discussions need to be ended once a decision has been taken on how to implement a feature, or you will never get there. Rumor has it that discussing it is the best way not to do something.

Last but not least, sharing information is an excellent way to build trust. This doesn’t stop with your team but includes your partners and customers. If something goes wrong with your service and you transparently and proactively communicate the problem, people will be more forgiving than if you hide information from them and communicate reactively. As an example of our proactive communication towards our customers, we have started to provide penetration test reports to our enterprise customers.

And What Does This Have To Do with Hierarchy?

In my view, hierarchy is required to coordinate who does what, and not to hold back information. From an old-school leadership perspective, holding back information is still part of the hierarchy thinking.

So does information sharing eliminate hierarchy? Not at all. Coordination is required in most organizations, and that’s what modern hierarchies are made for.

Are you still tied to reports and briefings? Then go into crisis management. In times of crisis, it’s important to be instructive and brief, and people generally appreciate if somebody takes a firm lead in dire times. But even during times of crisis, don’t forget to share as much information with your crisis management team so that you can succeed.

Conclusion

Sharing information isn’t just modern, it’s an effective tool to enhance the chances for success in whatever you and your team are trying to accomplish.

But of course, sharing truly confidential information with the world, the universe, your adversaries, and competitors would diminish your chances of success.

As usual, it’s not black-and-white, but deeply gray.