Radical Transparency

Everything is shared by default

My $current_company practices something called “radical transparency”. To summarize, absolutely everything (emails, calendars, documents, presentations, code, data warehouses, queries, blogs etc.) is generally available to everyone internally. Things are “shared” by default unless you consciously decide not to.

I feel like this creates a culture of sharing and trust. Everyone creates content with the intention that anyone internally can read and act on it. We also behave in a way that all information is generally available somewhere internally and it is typically a query away on Slack or Google Workspace or some other internal knowledge management tool.

People also blind copy mailing lists so that even emails (something that is unbelievably difficult to access in a lot of companies) is easily searchable for anyone looking for something. I feel like this makes our lives very efficient. The only downside is the “information overload” that needs to be wisely managed by having the discipline of not reading anything that does not add value to your current pursuit.

Without completely understanding the ubuntu philosophy, I feel like this sort of makes me feel like we follow it in the sense of “we emphasize the interconnectedness of individuals” or “I am because we are”.

Now I cannot imagine going back to the way I worked before!