Without transparency, self-organisation simply isn’t possible.
When people are allowed and expected to make their own decisions – for themselves or within their teams – they need access to all relevant information. Only then can trust grow, responsibility be taken, and collective action in the spirit of the organization become possible.
Why transparency is so important
In a system where everyone acts with personal responsibility, clarity is essential. When everyone understands what their decisions influence and knows what’s happening within the team or the company, understanding and a sense of security emerge.
Transparency is therefore not a tool for control but the foundation for self-determination.
Transparency doesn’t only apply to oneself – it applies on all levels.
Transparency on the individual level
Each person in our organisation decides for themselves how many hours they work, when they start or finish for the day, and how they structure their week.
For this to work, transparency is key: we log our weekly working hours and planned absences in our self-built transparency portal. The system automatically syncs absences to each person’s calendar.
Spontaneous changes are additionally shared in our internal Slack channel.
Examples:
“I’m starting later today, around noon.”
“I’m taking tomorrow off spontaneously.”
This way, everyone knows who’s available – without any micromanagement.
Long-term or bigger decisions are shared in a dedicated Slack channel:
For instance, if someone wants to work abroad for two months or reduce their workweek to four days, they post it in the #entscheidungen (decisions) channel.
The team can then ask questions, raise concerns, or simply express support.
Additionally, all financial transactions within the company are visible.
Everyone has the same access to the accounts and can see which payments have been made and by whom.
This helps prevent misunderstandings and fosters a shared sense of financial responsibility.
Transparency on the team level
Exchange is essential. Although we’re a small team (15 people), we’re spread across Germany and work in different project groups.
Twice a week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays – we meet as a whole team for 30 minutes in our biweekly update. There, we discuss:
ongoing and upcoming projects
internal topics, opportunities, and challenges
planned absences
The most important points are summarized in an internal newsletter so everyone stays informed – even if they miss a meeting.
Beyond that, there are regular sync meetings within project teams. These cover current tasks, bottlenecks, and where someone might need support. This helps us stay capable of action even when someone is out or priorities shift.
Transparency on the organisational level
Finances:
To make sure everyone understands how the company is doing, Marcel prepares a quarterly financial update:
What did we earn and spend? How are our reserves developing? What changes are coming up?
These insights create a shared sense of responsibility and form the foundation for making independent, well-informed decisions.
The meetings are therefore not just about sharing information, but are a key prerequisite for acting responsibly in the best interest of the whole company.
Salaries:
We also practice transparency when it comes to salaries: twice a year, we hold a salary round where everyone can individually adjust their salary in the shared salary table.
Everyone has full visibility into the salary table.
Salary changes are discussed openly.
Anyone with questions, comments, or concerns can talk directly to the person involved before the round is finalised.
Hiring:
When it comes to hiring, one person coordinates the process, but the entire team has the opportunity to be involved – from reviewing applications to participating in interviews.
Everyone should have the chance to get to know the candidate. This might make the process a bit slower, but it ensures everyone stands behind the final decision.
And if someone has a bad feeling, they can veto the hire.
Challenging topics:
Difficult phases are part of the journey. They can be stressful and demanding, especially when people have little to do with, for example, financial strategy but still receive all related information.
What matters here isn’t that everyone has to deal with everything equally – but that each person knows what kind of crisis we’re in, who’s taking care of what, and that regular updates are shared.
Our transparency portal as the backbone
A central part of our model is our self-built transparency portal.
There, everyone can see:
salaries
vacation days
working hours
absences
financial statistics
ongoing projects
and much more
It helps us stay organised – and makes it clear that transparency isn’t a control tool, but a tool for self-determination.
Transparency for us isn’t an end in itself. It’s the foundation that makes self-organisation possible in the first place.
Only when everyone has access to the same information can they act responsibly – for themselves, their team, and the organisation as a whole.
Self-organisation doesn’t work despite transparency – it works because of transparency.
Transparency as a continuous process
Transparency isn’t a goal you reach once and check off – it’s a continuous process.
And like any process, it sometimes runs smoothly, and sometimes less so. Of course, not everything always works perfectly for us either.
Our goal is to live the highest possible degree of transparency on all levels – but it’s only human that this doesn’t always happen.
That’s why we regularly reflect in our monthly team retrospectives on what went well and what didn’t. The goal is to learn from it and keep improving.
What’s often overlooked when it comes to transparency are the subtle, hidden things that are just as important:
Information that someone keeps to themselves because it “doesn’t seem important enough,” or side conversations between a few people that others don’t know about.
This happens naturally in any group – but it’s important to be aware of it.
Because any piece of information can be relevant to others unless it’s deeply personal.
When someone decides what’s worth sharing and what isn’t, they take away others’ chance to form a complete picture.
That quickly creates an information gap – and that’s a subtle form of hierarchy we actually want to avoid.
Of course, sharing everything openly isn’t always easy. Sometimes there’s no time, sometimes no energy or need.
This tension is a dilemma we continuously work with – because information gaps can lead to poor decisions, misunderstandings, or imbalances within the team.
That’s why we see transparency as something that’s never “done,” but must be continuously maintained, reflected on, and renegotiated.
Reaching absolute transparency might be utopian – but aiming for a high level of it definitely isn’t 😊.
Transparency needs people
Achieving a high level of transparency requires a lot of human effort.
Everyone manages it differently – because open sharing, evaluating information, and deciding what’s relevant are very individual processes.
And yet we firmly believe: shared information – lived transparency – is essential for successful teams and organisations.
Because wherever information flows, connection, understanding, and trust emerge.
And that’s always better than knowledge staying stuck in silos.
