At the end of the 2021-22 school year I released what I call my ‘Transparency Report.’

The report included metrics, an income report, continuing education, completed projects, and future projects.

I was inspired to do this for two reasons. One specific and one more general.

RADICAL TRANSPARENCY AT BRIDGEWATER

The first was reading Ray Dalio’s book Principles. He made clear the degree to which radical truth and radical transparency has shaped the culture at Bridgewater and allows their teams to work at such a high level. Even the book Principles, itself, in which he shares the entire framework with which Bridgewater has been built and Dalio lives his life, is a testament to that truth and transparency.

Bridgewater uses (from the outside perspective) extreme levels of transparency. For example, they tape every meeting and make all conversations publicly accessible to the whole company. They also use an app to tally decisions and determine the ‘batting average’ of every employee. At a glance, you can see how historically correct any given person has been about the decisions they’ve made.

I don’t intend to use these levels of extreme transparency, but I could see clearly that the more that was out in the open, especially the things that are difficult to face, the more trust could be developed.

Typically when organizations obfuscate the details it is because they have something to hide. 

• If you don’t say where the food comes from you probably don’t want to say where the food comes from. 
• If you don’t say where the money is going you probably don’t want to say where the many comes from. 
• If you don’t say what the hiring process is you probably don’t want to say what the hiring process is.

People aren’t transparent because they don’t want to be transparent— they have something to hide. The inverse is also true. When you know you will disclose the details of your actions, you will do your best to make your work as high of quality as possible.

The more I know about the inner workings of something, the more I respect it. For example, I enjoy restaurants that openly communicate where their food is from. I find it frustrating when organizations don’t publish their policies. I want to know the story of an athlete, or a journalist, or a musicians before I take their advice.

THE OBLIGATION OF TRANSPARENCY

This leads me to my second, more general inspiration for releasing the Transparency Report. And that is that our generation is far more transparent about income and process than I think has ever been the case.

I live on the world of YouTube in a culture literally shaped by people like Ali Abdaal, who posted a 37 minute video in December titled “How I made $4,790,900 in 2021.” In fact, on the internet it feels like ethical creators have the obligation to be transparent with their audience about how much they make and where that money is going.

Creators online now must disclose when they are making money through sponsorships, have been gifted PR products, or are making money from affiliate links.

In the world I live in, being clear about where the money is coming from and where the money is going deepens the relationship with those in a community, not cheapens it.

THE WORLD OF TEACHING

The school that I teach in is large and has very expensive tuition. Parents don’t see the full scope of our operations. It is not clear where our money, time, and energy is going. The school also operates as a for-profit business.

I think it is interesting to note that Shin’ichi Suzuki thought of the Suzuki Method as a humanitarian effort, and from the stories I’ve heard was an incredibly poor money manager. In fact, I believe is wife Waltraud stepped in many times to protect Suzuki from overextending himself financially or otherwise.

Though many of us do this work as a genuine act of service, it is still our job. Different programs have different tax designations (C-corp, co-op, non-profit, simple DBA, etc.), but the fact of the matter is that we still need to earn a living wage. Just as a non-profit does, documenting operation expenses (including salary) clarifies the work and assures all involved that the program is still running ethically. Even if you aren’t technically a not-for-profit this level of transparency can help you build much more trust my your studio.

And I don’t just mean communication about financials. I think it is important to communicate the investments of time and energy as well. Even metrics about how many people are in the studio, how many people we want to be in the studio, and how many projects I’m adding to the plate is helpful, too.

I’ve thought a lot about how, in this industry, our students and their families are our real ‘employers.’ We must justify our work to them. We must overdeliver our value to them. We must over communicate our mission to them.

I don’t feel like I work for a large school, I feel like I work for 35 students. I actually have to justify certain aspects of the large school to my families (not the other way around). 

The Transparency Report— which I gave directly to just the families in our studio— is my way of over-communicating.

HOW TO MAKE A TRANSPARENCY REPORT

Perhaps next year I will actually share my report online, here.

For now, I’ll just break down the medium, the format, the items I included, and a note on asking for permission.

Medium

I opted to share the document in paper format. I handed them out at the beginning of the lessons and parents leafed through them while I taught. The paper had (literal and metaphorical) weight and I think had a higher click-through-rate than an email would have.

I printed and copied black ink on white 8.5X11 paper. I stapled the paper and put it in a transparency sleeve. In the next few years I’m going to experiment with some other formats. For example, I like the idea of the first page being a sheet of semi-transparent paper with a cut out above the words “Transparency Report.”

Format

I broke down the report into seven sections.

1. Reason for this report
2. Teaching
3. Hours
4. Projects launched
5. Training
6. Significant Events
7. Coming soon

Data included

I provided hard numbers for the following items

• Students in the studio
• Students started this year
• Students who left this year
• Group classes taught each week
• Age range of the studio
• Piece range of the studio
• Hours taught per week
• Lesson weeks per school year
• Total income this school year
• Hourly rate

I used asterisks to provide context. For example, I explained what does and doesn’t constitute as an hourly wage in our studio. I also gave specifics on why the students who left did leave (moving, switching teachers, prioritizing other activities, etc.)

For Projects Launched, Training, Significant Events, and future projects I simply listed them. 

Asking permission

Because the document was between me and the studio I didn’t consult the administrative staff and leadership at my school before I passed out the report. When I did share it with them there was some concern with how forthcoming I was, especially with my income and hourly rate. I think most of our disagreement about the importance of transparency stems from the generational differences I mentioned above, but also because (from what I understand) a report like this hasn’t been released in our school before.

If I was doing this again for the first time I would make sure to create the document first, share the document with the directors of our school, and then share with the families in our studio. I think if I was given the opportunity to fully explain my rational before passing this out I would be able to win over the directors and administrative staff at our school.

In fact, I hope that this document does inspire a larger transparency report that goes out to the whole school.

If you decide to make one for yourself, take heed from my experience and be careful to involve the directors or managers in your program.