“Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor.”

Outsourcing wasn’t a business strategy when Don Marquis, an American newspaper columnist and short story writer (1878-1937) wrote that line. But the attitude he described is present in many of today’s outsourcing relationships.

Over more than a decade, as I’ve interviewed hundreds of executives in outsourcing relationships, I always ask about their keys to success. You wouldn’t believe how many times a buyer says “mutual honest communication.” Not very many times. It’s not because it isn’t a key to success; rather, it’s because it seldom happens. And where it does happen in an outsourcing relationship, it’s not unusual for people to comment to me that honest communication is the “pinnacle” of their success. They say it with a note of surprise in their voice, as though they didn’t really expect that honesty and openness would become the chosen flavor of their communications.

Like a barbed-wire fence put up to protect something, we naturally tend to communicate in a self-protective manner. And in outsourcing, both parties have different interests they try to protect.

People are often dishonest when they act independently and try to meet their own needs. Outsourcing relationships abound with instances where, for example, a service provider was dishonest and did not return to its customer a refund of fees from a third-party subcontractor. Or instances where a provider proactively informed its customer of an inadvertent billing error and refunded that money to the customer even though the customer may never have noticed the error. But I’m not talking about that kind of honesty or dishonesty.

I’m talking about “open, transparent” communication. It’s not without risk. When we open ourselves up to someone else, we become somewhat vulnerable. But it helps develop trust as we open up and share information and observe how a partner responds. So the bigger risk is not being honest/transparent in communications.

Not being honest and open leads to mistrust. I’ve blogged before about trust. It’s crucial to success in outsourcing. That’s because an outsourcing relationship requires interdependence. The buyer depends on the service provider for a business solution and the provider depends on the buyer for profit to stay in business. In outsourcing, both parties’ success is tied to each other.

So what does “open, honest, direct” communication look like? It’s more than expressing ideas and thoughts and concerns. It involves sharing feelings as well as needs. It involves telling your partner how you feel about the partner’s actions. It involves talking about issues so you can get your partner’s perspectives. It involves not holding back important information.

If what the parties don’t say to each other is as revealing as what they say, it affects trust.

If the customer communicates openly and honestly, it helps the provider explore how it can meet the buyer’s needs.

If a relationship lacks open, honest communication, the parties only pay lip service to a partnering approach to meet their agreed-upon objectives.

If both parties communicate honestly, it enables them to commit to win-win solutions for a long-term relationship.

If the relationship lacks honesty and trust, it will be limited to minimal return on investment and may even fail.

“If” is a huge word.

One of the most outstanding outsourcing relationships I’ve studied when it comes to honest communication and what the parties can achieve because of it is Owens & Minor and its service provider Perot Systems (now Dell Services). They demonstrate the principle that Winston Churchill advised in a famous speech –

“Honesty is, in fact, the policy that pays the best.”

Is your outsourcing relationship more like that of Owens & Minor and Perot, or are you communicating around a barbed-wire fence? What does it take to get people comfortable with accepting the risk of vulnerability for the return of success? Click below on “comment” and share your opinion.

Since 1998, freelance writer Kathleen Goolsby has studied outsourcing relationships’ successes, failures, trends, and best practices. She has interviewed more than 860 executives at buyer and service provider companies and is the author of “Critical Requirements for Building and Sustaining a Successful Outsourcing Relationship,” a chapter in Global Outsourcing Strategies: An International Reference on Effective Outsourcing Relationships (December 2006, Gower Publishing). As a freelancer, she also currently serves as the Senior Writer for Outsourcing Center (whose parent company is sourcing advisory firm, Alsbridge) and has authored dozens of articles as well as white papers for Outsourcing Center. In a past role, she was editor of Outsourcing Venture (a former print publication). You can contact Kathleen at ksgoolsby@gmail.com.

Related posts:

1. The T-Word in Outsourcing
2. Fishing in an Outsourcing Pond
3. An Essential Element for Outsourcing Success
4. Are You Protecting Your Outsourcing Relationship?
5. Two Reasons to Question the Value of Outsourcing Providers’ Client References