A SEMINAR titled ‘Candour Effects in Business’ was held at the British Council in Yangon on November 12, with speaker U Ngwe Thein highlighting the benefits of openness and honesty among workers in the business world.

U Ngwe Thein, a business consultant, said during the seminar that “lack of candour blocks smart ideas and fast action, and prevents good workers from contributing as much as they could to the company.”

He said lack of candour does not necessarily denote malicious dishonesty. Rather, it is usually an ingrained tendency that causes people to refrain from expressing themselves with frankness.

“(Lack of candour) is about not communicating straightforwardly or putting forth ideas that would stimulate real debate,” U Ngwe Thein said. “People just don’t open up. Instead they withhold comments or criticism. They keep their mouths shut to make people feel better or to avoid conflict, and they sugarcoat bad news to maintain appearances. They keep things to themselves by hoarding information.”

Practicing candour can bring three main benefits to any business organisation, he said.

The first main benefit is that it promotes more open conversation involving more people, which will result in the surfacing of more rich ideas.

“Many more ideas will come to the surface to be discussed, pulled apart and improved upon. Instead of everyone shutting down, everyone opens up and learns,” said U Ngwe Thein.

“The second benefit of openness and honesty is that they generate speed because once new ideas have been introduced they can be debated rapidly, and expanded and enhanced and acted upon,” he said. “That approach – surface, debate, improve, decide – isn’t just an advantage. It is a necessity in a global marketplace.”

Last but not least, candour cuts costs, said U Ngwe Thein.

“Candour eliminates meaningless meetings and replaces fancy Power Point slideshows, mind-numbing presentations and boring offsite conclaves with real conversations, whether they are about company strategy, the introduction of a new product or someone’s performance,” he said.

“When people avoid candour in order to curry favor with other people, they actually destroy trust, and in that way, they ultimately erode society,” he said.