Trust, facts and information at your fingertips

Having worked in world of information technology all my career, I loved (and probably still do...) to use the phrase, you will have "information at your fingertips" when trying to close a deal;  often referring to data analytics and dashboards, eluding to the value it provides to people who has to make important decisions in their day to day jobs.  Now imagine we could all have little information dashboards floating above our heads displaying different pieces of information as we go about our daily lives.

I enjoy watching futuristic movies and as I'm writing this I have this picture in my mind of people working in an office building.  They all have little dashboards floating above their heads, showing the information they deal with and have to share with others, as they go through their daily tasks.  It also shows their thoughts and feelings as they process information and engage with other colleagues.  Every time someone makes a decision which did not take any factual information into account, but instead was based on personal bias, prejudice or someone else's opinion, the words "JUDGEMENT ERROR" starts flashing in big bold red letters.

Now wouldn't that be wonderful?!  It will make running and managing a business so much easier as we will always have the confidence that whenever this happens, we can immediately address the situation, and not just that, we can also deal with the facts as they will all be available, on the dashboards, allowing us to make informed decisions.

While this is not practical and will probably never happen or be possible (hey, you never know), I do believe that through building a culture of trust throughout a business, this can be made possible.  While information, facts and feelings might not float around in dashboards above our heads, we can create a platform where all employees, staff members, volunteers, managers, even board members, have the freedom and are encouraged to share information, however negative or bad they think it might be perceived, knowing that their input is regarded as valuable, and that their personal interests are protected.

I'll continue on this topic of trust over the next posts, looking at what I believe this "platform" should look like, what it is, and what it is NOT.