In the career equation series, we turn career superstar principles into math-like equations. For fun. And for understanding.

For our first career equation, we’ll start with a simple equality.

Transparency = Freedom

Transparency is about letting other people see what you’re doing and even why you’re doing it. Some people balk at this because they think it’ll be restrictive. Conversely, it actually frees you up so that you can focus on doing the thing rather than constantly managing other people’s expectations and timelines.

What if there was a giant sign at your desk that read:

“I am adding feature X so that we can serve our customers better with Y. Later I’ll work on bug fix Z”?

I think a few things would happen:

1. Your boss and his boss product manager and project manager and your co-worker and all the other people you need to be in sync with would NOT need to come chat with you about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. In fact, oftentimes the whole when will it be done? question tends to fade away also, when everyone isn’t so freaked out about what you’re doing anymore.
2. Random people who might bother you with unrelated tasks will stay away. Does their question trump serving your customers better with Y? If not, they really don’t have any excuse to bother you.
3. No duplicate work on the other side of the cube. No lack of communication between the guy who knows something vital to your work and you, just because he didn’t know you were working on that thing or at least not right now. In the same way that it works as a keep out sign for off-topic folks, it’s also a big warm welcome to those who have something relevant to add.

Your sign might be an actual sign. Or a whiteboard. Or your twitter status. Or your AIM message. The point is that once you achieve transparency then you can actually start to find some independence.

What does your sign look like?