Are you ready for Radical Honesty?
Have you come across the concept of radical honesty before? Starting out as the title of a book by controversial self-improvement author Brad Blanton, in recent years the idea has spread and evolved. In short, to be radically honest means telling the absolute truth, without even resorting to so-called white (non-harmful) lies. On a personal level it is argued that radical honesty allows people to become completely authentic, to share their real thoughts, ideas and experiences rather than attempting to say what others want to hear. But what about within organizations? Is there are argument for employing radical honesty there? And what about if we apply the idea to internal comms too? We think it’s an idea worth exploring.
When Organizations get Radically Honest
In the age of social media and a generalized movement towards transparency, applying radical honesty offers a powerful tool for organizations to get real about what’s working or not and be open when things don’t go as planned. And internal communications teams have a huge role in how this is translated to employees in a way that engages and empowers rather than disillusions. There’s a balance to be struck. Being completely open and honest about failures and shortcomings needs to be tempered with a clear vision on what happens next and maybe even a call to action for them to be part of the solution. Also, if you have a difficult message to communicate, yes of course don’t do it in a way that spreads panic, but at the same time, don’t sugarcoat it. Your employees are grown-ups and can handle more than you think, especially if they have confidence in leadership. Studies by thought leaders such as Boston Consulting Group tell us that the way leaders communicate in challenging situations are moments of truth that can foster identification and pride. But don’t forget that you also need to get ahead of any potential bad news – your employees should hear it from you first, and not via the news or social media. If not, you risk losing trust, and that’s a hard place to come back from.
And for internal communications teams, radical honestly can be deployed to cast a critical eye over whether your messaging is truly engaging, completely inclusive and is really landing with your audience. Be open to admitting where things might not have gone well, leaving egos out of the equation, and commit to making changes, even when it feels hard.
Where to start with radical honesty: the sustainability use case
While this approach can be applied to all manner of topics, a really nice example of where it can bring great benefit is within the realm of sustainability. In a world where accusations of greenwashing can spell disaster for both consumer and employees trust, never mind stop you from attracting staff in the first place, this is one area where getting radically honest can help to win hearts and minds – as well as get further in achieving your goals. Getting honest about when things haven’t gone to plan, or a green goal hasn’t been met is far more important than only signposting the things that have. As behavioral scientist Dr Brandi Shaw Morris told us on an episode of the FutureReady podcast, “Breaches in trust are more easily forgiven when they're due to a perceived lack of competence. We screwed up because we didn't know, because we are learning, because we're working on this, is much more easily forgiven than a breach in trust due to malevolence or a lack of transparency through hiding information from your stakeholders. Messing up is not the problem. The problem is covering up”.
Although on the other hand, organizations who are deep into the new CSRD reporting requirements might have a temptation to communicate too much. After all, you suddenly have a huge amount of data available and any number of stories to tell, but internal communications is not the same as reporting and as is so often the case: less is more. Instead get honest about where your business can truly and credibly make an impact and what has the most opportunity to engage your people – focus and commit. From there you have the chance to truly become part of the solution, encouraging stakeholders both internal and external to join in. If you want to read more about this topic in particular, then check out our White Paper on the topic of Sustainability Culture.
Interested in exploring this concept further? We’d (honestly) love to hear from you.