Transparency

I have been thinking this morning about transparency.  Yesterday in the New York Times there was an article about Apple and its significant lack of transparency in an age when most tech companies blare about their products and when the demands of our business culture are for more transparency - at least of a sort.

Today as I was walking what used to be the new Main Street - one of our big and usually very crowded shopping malls - I noticed an interesting aspect of transparency.  The owner of this mall is in bankruptcy right now. While this certainly seems like a most successful and prosperous mall, even in the economic downturn, this is one of many owned by this company.  Like most other malls, I suspect, this one has had a number of stores close. Instead of putting up the ubiquitous temporary walls to cover the stores that are empty, the stores just sit there with their blank windows and storefronts.  I have a suspicion that this is a clear business decision - it costs money to put up those wall.  However, what is interesting to me is that it is a very transparent comment on the economy and its effects on this mall. Instead of disguising the loss, it is very clear. 

We have been saying for years that schools needed to be ahead of the curve on transparency - both financial and otherwise. Many schools now are making very hard decisions about how transparent they are going to be about the state of their finances or the difficult decisions they have had to make about next year - eliminating programs or extras or faculty or the language program in the early grades. What do you tell and to whom?  Why do you tell what you do?  Do you leave the store windows uncovered so that your stakeholders know the truth, or do you quickly put up the walls and post them with signs that say "Coming Soon!"?  Regardless of your decisions, they should be deliberate and consistent and respect your culture. How you deal with this is part of laying the groundwork for the near future.