| Follow @chrismorse05
Raleigh, NC
I'm an Account Manager for the Brand Communications + Design team at Red Hat. I also work on exciting projects for opensource.com as the Marketing Manager for email and webcasts. My voice is the one you hear at the beginning of each Open Your World webcast and I'm the one that gets nervous about how many emails we send out to you all. I live and work in Raleigh, NC, but I was born and raised between Boston and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. (Go Red Sox!)
Hearing stories about how radical transparency, collaboration, and other open source principles can transform organizations and challenge conventional thought is pretty exciting to me. And it's a little addicting.
Authored Comments
I bet Jon Stewart is going to learn a thing or two after opensource.com's interview with General Shelton on the 16th... :)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-6-2010/daily-show--extended-interview-pt-1
I believe organizations benefit from openness and transparency because (as Colin Dodd highlights above) they build trust. I can understand that openness and transparency can be a scary concept for some. And it can be seemingly impossible for others ("Corporate is talking about layoffs"). However, a commitment to transparency and trust can yield some powerful benefits, too. Benefits like the trust that can manifest in employees through a deeper understanding of a company's direction and leadership. Or the trust that can build within customers with respect to a company's reputation and an affirming of a fulfilled brand promise-- or the admission of an unfulfilled brand promise. ("Sorry -we messed up. Can we take a look at those pedals again?" - Toyota)
We were recently watching a leadership seminar in our group (the People & Brand team at Red Hat) where Keith Ferazzi expressed how courageous and powerful it is to be transparent and open with someone about what's going on in your life (from seminar entitled "Who's got your back"). Stripping away pretense and reducing any masking done to preserve pride (both in times of error and success) can be such a humanizing and relationship-building exercise. At least that's what I've seen. When done right, we've all heard some statements like these that have yielded increased trust and respect. "Sorry I'm not really a 100% this week, but I got some bad news from the doctor" or "I couldn't have done it without the help of a lot of people who collaborated on this project" are both statements that are rare but humanizing and yield my respect due to honesty. And it makes that person seem human. No one is perfect. And I'd much rather be lead by a human than a "perfect" superhero of a person who could just be lying to me.
I'm not saying that all of this is easy, though. If it was, then everyone would be doing it. Imagine that.