Information security is important in order to control risk, but it has to be balanced with information transparency. This is one of the largest drivers of process optimization. At this meetup we discussed the benefits and process mechanisms that rely on information transparency, and why a lack of transparency can be so disruptive to good process design.

1. Information Transparency: A Universal
Optimization Driver
NYBPP Meetup (12/14)
Highlights and Q&A

2. Agenda
I. Information Transparency: A Universal Optimization Driver
■ Information Transparency
■ Changing Information has a Cost
■ What is Truth? Objective and Subjective Elements
■ Reducing Data Transfer Costs
■ Goal Transparency and Open Collaboration
■ Summary
II. Q&A
■ Is there any benefit to withholding information until a more appropriate time?
■ How can you avoid overloading people with information they don’t want when
you communicate more openly and with full transparency?
■ What about the other person’s receptivity to the information? How much
adaptation is needed to account for non-objective actors?
■ Isn’t there a reputational risk in being transparent about your faults or lack of
knowledge?

3. Information Transparency: A Universal
Optimization Driver
The logic that makes truth-telling profitable

4. What is ‘Information Transparency’?
Information Transparency refers to openly and
immediately sharing any actionable data you own with
anyone or anything that requests it.
● This could be personal data such as your history,
preferences, or plans
● This could be business data such as last quarter’s
financial performance, products you have in the pipeline,
or your secret recipe

5. The Cost of Changing Information
● Consider the cost involved (to the communicator) in these
four possible approaches to sharing data and information:
○ Telling the Truth (No Cost)
○ Telling the Truth with Misunderstanding (Low Cost)
○ Omitting the Truth (Medium Cost)
○ Changing the Truth (High Cost)
● These also result in different costs for the person receiving
and parsing the communicated data or information:
○ Receiving the Truth (No Cost)
○ Receiving the Truth with Misunderstanding (Low Cost)
○ Receiving with the Truth Omitted (High Cost)
○ Receiving Lies (High Cost)

6. But What is Truth?
Objective and Subjective Elements
Every time we communicate we must determine what we know to be
objectively true (in the present), versus where we are relying on
assumptions or intuition to fill in the gaps.
Most communication has some part objective truth and some
part subjective assumption, especially as the data you are
communicating increases in complexity:
Complexity of Information
Objective Data
Subjective Data
Part of being transparent is knowing how much you actually know
objectively and representing it accurately - otherwise you may be
bending the truth unintentionally!

7. Transparency Reduces Data Transfer Costs
● Increasing transparency and reducing
uncertainty ALWAYS reduces cost
If you spend less energy sending information and less
energy receiving/parsing information, you will be
fundamentally optimizing your data transfer process.
● What do people need to know?
Anything they want! Let employees and contacts pull
any information they want. The more transparency, the
more cost is saved.

8. Goal Transparency and Open Collaboration
Key areas of information transparency:
• Share business goals: The more people know the
business objective at every stage during the process,
the more likely they are to align to an efficient
value-creating configuration.
• Share resources and work: The value of transparency is
starting to manifest itself in open source coding, open
collaboration, etc.

9. Goal Transparency and Open Collaboration
What about my intellectual property?
• There is no value in protecting intellectual property (IP) or
hiding best practice in the new information economy.
Isn’t there value in protecting IP as a competitive edge?
• If you have no competitive differentiator, hiding
information won’t save you. Instead, it will slow you--and
society as a whole--down.

10. Summary
• Being transparent with information means sharing all
data you have at all times freely and accurately
• The farther you are from the truth in communications,
the higher the cost
• To tell the truth, one must be aware of the level of
objective versus subjective elements being used at all
moments in time and represent the mix accurately
• Being transparent always reduces cost, even if the
benefits don’t seem immediately apparent
• Businesses are learning to share everything all the
time and reaping the benefits

11. Q&A
Answering questions from the Meetup

12. Is there any benefit to withholding information until
a more appropriate time?
No!
● You may think that shielding people from information,
or delaying the giving of bad news, is beneficial for
people in some circumstances; however, it will always
result in cost on both sides.
● People will always derive more value from information
being given to them as soon as it is known. As long as
the information is accurate, they may have a bad
reaction, but will be better prepared to act on that
information the more time they have to process it.

13. How can you avoid overloading people with
information they don’t want or need, when you
communicate more openly and with full transparency?
● Generally, do not “push” information onto people. Set
up an environment where people know they have
transparent access to information and they feel
comfortable “pulling” from you what they need, when
they need it.
● Our culture is conditioned to wait on information to be
given to them to act on; however, it will always be more
optimal to control the flow of information by letting the
receiver request what information they need and be
able to retrieve it without constraint.

14. What if the person receiving the communication
expects waste as part of the exchange? How
much adaptation is needed to account for
non-objective actors?
● This depends greatly on the players and nature of the
exchange. Ultimately, any departure from transparency
will result in waste; however, if waste is expected, one
must navigate the situation to create the most value.
● Communicating with a subjective actor could create net
value loss if etiquette or other types of communication
waste are not used in the exchange.

15. Isn’t there a reputational risk in being transparent
about your faults or lack of knowledge?
It depends.
The answer here depends heavily on two dimensions: The effectiveness in
how you articulate uncertainty, as well as the subjective measures of
competence by the receiving party.
● How you articulate uncertainty:
We know the receiver will get more value if you relate data objectively and
transparently, even if that means your assertions are not 100% confident. You
can communicate this through your word choice, energy, and general
confidence in the value you are trying to provide.
● Subjective measures of competence:
When receiving parties value unsubstantiated confidence over objective
knowledge, you can manage them how you see fit. Know, however, that
creating extra cost and sub-optimal communication will cheapen you as an
information provider, and does not result in optimized outcomes.

16. THANK YOU FOR COMING!
• Thank you so much for coming to our meetup – we hope to see you again
in future sessions and please don’t hesitate to post additional questions on
the group discussion board.
NYBPP Meetup
• Also, join our Facebook Group!
https://NYBPP Meetup Facebook Group