The Cost of Transparency

Historically, much of the discussion that I’ve seen about transparency (particularly in an enterprise web 2.0 sense) centered around the notions of risk vs. the relative benefits. However, in a recent blog post, Chris Anderson (of Long Tail and Wired fame) discussed the energy and effort it takes to be transparent:

Perhaps most people can only be truly transparent about one thing at a
time. After all, it takes a lot of energy to loop the whole world into
every twist and turn of your progress. Transparency is hard work.
Constantly updating the world on your status can become a job all by
itself.

Personally, this is the biggest reason that I curtailed my blogging over the past year (and have been slow to pick up Twitter). Putting together cogent thoughts day in and day out (beyond, “I am now having toast with my coffee”) actually takes a lot of work. Chris agrees:

For all that Twitter and other microblogging makes lifecasting and
other status updating easier, for most people it still feels like
another obligation, taking time to do well and causing guilt when
neglected.

From an organizational perspective, this discussion raises an interesting dilemma — once you’ve introduced transparency, and your customers/employees begin to expect it, how do you continue to deliver on the implicit expectations that you have created? If you are transparent on some things and not on others, can you maintain a sense of authenticity? What about the Hawthorne effect?