I’m proud to share a personal milestone in a pursuit that’s very dear to me. To those who didn’t know, other than my full time role of managing a software engineering team (and, of course, in between trying to keep this blog updated), I spend a lot of my free time running a small independent record label called Melt Records. And being a career software guy, I’ve always wanted to eventually find a way to use what I know about software and technology to solve real problems in the music business.
Just a few days ago, we reached a milestone in this pursuit. The problem to solve? Transparency. Not at all exclusive to music, but a particularly pesky one in this industry. Maybe it’s the fact that (at least where I’m from and at what level we operate) there is too little money going around. But I don’t think the lack of money in particular is at the root of any issues between people. Oftentimes, it’s simply the lack of information.
And we tried to solve just that by creating our artist dashboard where, in due time, we’ll be able to share as much information as we can with the artists we work with. And as of August 15th, we sent out our first earnings report through this platform.
Reaching this milestone, tiny as it may seem, got me really thinking about what transparency is.
Common wisdom would have it as simply sharing all the information. And I think that’s the simplest way to look at it and a lot of times it works.
But I’ve also realized that sometimes, too much information can just as easily be used as a tool to obscure the truth. And this is where we need to be extra careful. Inadvertently, we may defeat our purpose by doing just the thing we thought would fulfill it. The key is really just enough information.
… too much information can just as easily be used as a tool to obscure the truth.
The tricky part?…
There’s no shoe that fits everyone, so to speak. People have different informational needs. One thing Rands explains in “Managing Humans” that I always keep in mind is that a “micromanager” is often just a manager who hasn’t gotten the information he or she needs in the way he or she needs it.
Now that complicates things just a little bit, huh. It was bad enough you had to figure out what the right amount of information was, now you have to do that for everyone you work with?!
For your benefit (hopefully), here’s a checklist that might help you quickly decide:
- Is the information relevant to the person and the context?
- Is the information something he/she would understand?
- Is the information actionable? Does it invite discussion?
If you tick all these boxes, then it’s information you should share.
You might end up wrong about this. It takes a lot of practice. You’ll never learn enough about transparency, and that’s the beauty of it.
P.S. I’ve mentioned that this is not an issue exclusive to the music business. Transparency is a key issue in industries of all shapes. It’s an issue that every manager – and every person, as a matter of fact – should pay attention to. Whether you’re writing financial reports, rolling out company policy, or simply sharing task updates in your daily standup, share information that actually means something. That’s how teams succeed.
Dexter is an engineering manager at Synacy, a co-founder of ATeam Business Software Solutions, and founder of TechManagement.Life. He loves to share his experiences and thoughts on managing software teams and running businesses.