Dear Anna,
I’m often working on projects where the other contributors are under an NDA. We all have information that we can’t share with each other. By the time that we have all of the information, it feels like the project is too far along to be able to do my best work. How do I do my best work in this situation? The work is acceptable, and people are fine with it, but I know that I’m not presenting myself in a way that makes me feel proud at work. What would be the next step?
Signed,
I Hate NDAs
Dear I Hate NDAs,
Industries use a range of tools support privacy and confidentiality for individuals, organizations, or products; non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are one example. So here you are, ready to make the most of your talents to create high-quality work, yet with your NDA you feel hamstrung. What to do about it? Here are some possibilities to consider:
1. Communicate incrementally – “share early and often” – in a progression. I first learned about the concept of sharing early and often from author/researcher Robert Boice as well as from author/educator Kerry Ann Rockquemore. Many of us resist sharing early ideas for lots of reasons, including wanting to get things perfect the first time around. Here are my tips for overcoming internal resistance to sharing:
Get clear on who you are allowed to share things with and when.
Think through how those people affect you. Can they handle your seedling concepts or will they trample all over them? Choose your shares based on the degree of your own personal stability about the ideas.
Save your early shares for people who can treat your concepts with delicacy and who can help you to explore a range of possibilities. Practice conveying your ideas with them, explaining your why behind them, and listening for their questions.
Iterate. Continue to work through your own ideas for the possible pathways of your project.
As you start to feel more familiar with explaining your concepts, gradually expand the sharing upwards with people who need to see more hashed-out stages of the work or who have more power than you.
2. Communicate your rationale for the steps you have taken. When possible and feasible, communicate the why behind your decisions. For example, you could say, “I leaned into a simplified infographics approach here because the audience speaks multiple languages.”
3. Remember the big picture. As tempting as knowing the details may seem, the gift in not being mired in them is that not having that information will help you keep the big picture in mind. Learn about the larger, shareable context of a situation to help you frame your work. You might ask,
“What big-picture things are we allowed to know?”
“Who is the intended audience?”
“What styles/actions/examples/pitfalls are you hoping to avoid?”
Sometimes you will be that person who holds the detailed information that others do not. The expression, “What’s said here stays here, what’s learned here leaves here” can be a helpful framework to think through ways to practice communicating big-picture concepts outside of a private meeting. We don’t necessarily need to know the specifics of how a device is being made, or why a person is going on leave. Instead, strive to share high-level context, framing, and hoped-for results in big-picture terms.
Staff often ask for “transparency” in communication, yet sharing details may not be possible. I think a manager can name that they have limitations and then share the shareable. Such as, “I am not going to share with you the details of the situation. However, what I can tell you is…”
As you debrief each project, walk your manager through what you would have done differently had you known X, Y, or Z. Over time, you might be able to identify patterns that you can start to name and refer back to at the beginning of a new project. Create a checklist of new things you want to try based on lessons learned from prior projects. Keep experimenting as you stay true to your goal of doing work that “makes you feel proud,” and keep me posted on how things are going!
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Disclaimer: These tips are meant to be a helpful starting point of ideas. Proceed at your own risk. Each person and organization is different, and this information may or may not help you. Try what resonates with you, keeping in mind common sense and circumstances. Seek professional advice that is tailored to your specific situation.
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