5 practical ways to build truth-telling cultures at work

Telling the truth is good for business. A 2024 research paper shows that an honest culture can boost financial performance by over 20%. And in a 2004 article by  MIT Sloan Management Review, 76% of staff say the honesty of a business affects their decisions on where to work.

We know it matters to organizations. After all, words like “honesty,” “integrity,” and “truthfulness” appear in more than 65% of all corporate value statements.

Unfortunately, just 19% of staff trust that their leaders are telling the truth, according to a 2024 report. Trust is at historic lows, in part because, despite us all saying truth and honesty matter, it’s never been easier to lie and get away with it.

The data show that most of us lie daily. One experiment even found 60% of people lie once every 10 minutes. From AI deep fakes and hallucinations to social media bubbles and rampant political misinformation, we’re living in a world where lies abound, and truth seems rarer every day.

Telling the truth is a behavior, not a value. You’re either doing it, or you’re not. So how do leaders make truth-telling cultures happen in their business? Here are five practical strategies I’ve seen work with teams and clients globally.

1. Lead by example

There’s no point waiting around for others to go first. If you want a workplace where truth happens, start by doing it yourself. I see workplaces where everyone agrees that they need to have hard, honest conversations, but then sit in awkward silence when it comes time to do it. We don’t have the right to expect from others behaviors that we ourselves are not engaging in.

And not lying isn’t enough, you need to spell out the truth. Ask yourself: what is the most important conversation in my team that isn’t happening? Then find an opportunity to start that conversation.

2. Remove disincentives

Never expect someone to tell the truth when their job depends on them not telling the truth. For example, if the leader fires someone for telling them news that is factually true (but unfavorable to the leader or organization),  this creates a disincentive for the next person in that job to tell the truth.

Every interaction teaches people how to behave. If we put disincentives in place for telling the truth, don’t be surprised when people act in line with them.

3. Make it safe

Speaking up to tell the truth can be scary. This is true even when lives depend on it. Junior pilots often don’t speak up in cockpits when things go wrong because they’re too scared. They’d literally rather crash into a mountain than speak up honestly to a more senior person.

Often, what makes truth-telling scary is fear about people’s reactions. I was with a client once where a staff member said they couldn’t have honest conversations because “last time they spoke up and told the truth, someone called them a b*tch.”

If you want a culture of truth-telling, it’s up to you to work and take the fear away.

4. Remember the good news

Remember, telling the truth doesn’t only have to be about serious, hard conversations. In many workplaces, good, “happy” truths go unsaid just as much as negative ones. That might mean a piece of genuine positive feedback about a job done well, sharing that you’re proud of an accomplishment, or even telling a colleague how happy you are to be on their team.

Not many people say these truths out loud, but they offer fertile ground to build a habit of speaking honestly. If you’ve established a culture where people articulate friendly facts openly, they’ll be more open to it when the news is harder to hear.

5. Start small

The Japanese art of Kaizen (continuous improvement) suggests that if change is hard, you’re doing too much. If you want to build a truth-telling culture, don’t start with the difficult high-stakes conversations. Start with a smaller, safer territory. Maybe that’s a conversation about a minor piece of feedback, rather than a massive performance issue. Maybe it’s a small, but not catastrophic mistake with a client. Or a minor missed target, rather than an end-of-days scenario.

Like every skill, telling the truth is easier the more practice you get. Practice when the stakes are low, and it’s easier when things get tough.

The benefits of telling the truth don’t accrue when we make it a “value” and put it on a poster on the wall. The benefits accrue when it lives and breathes as a behavior. That is what we mean by making truth happen.

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