Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

Danielle V. Minson — Raising the Bar

For the better part of two years, our Federation team has been making a deliberate effort to define what drives our work and how we do it. The four core values of Community, Inclusivity, Learning, and Integrity rose to the top. The next step was to identify a list of fundamentals: actionable, daily core behaviors that bring our core values to life and define our culture. Each week, we make a point to focus on practicing a different fundamental, and I kick off that effort by sharing my thoughts on each one at the beginning of each week. Here are my thoughts for our sixteenth week:


SHARE INFORMATION THOUGHTFULLY:  With appropriate respect for confidentiality, share information freely throughout the organization.  The most people know, the better we can collaborate. Learn to ask yourself:  “Who else might benefit from knowing this?”

 Surprisingly, this week’s fundamental is probably the one we debated the most.  Most organizations, can keep it simple—“share information openly.” 

This behavior matters a lot because it’s been proven that organizations that keep information within silos are always less effective organizations and worse places to work.  Sharing information openly supports collaboration and encourages trust.  It also helps others do their jobs better. For example, it took me too long to understand that we need to share with our colleagues in SBS/Finance so much information that is not in itself financial because our goals and programs need to be reflected in our budgets.  So it’s not enough to be willing to share information openly.   We need to ask ourselves every day “Who else might benefit from knowing this?” and pump it out to them.

The only reason we debated how to adapt this Fundamental is that all of us who work at the Federation are also responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of some of the information we handle every day. Thousands of people trust us with their personal information, including family relationships and their charitable giving.

So maybe the title of this Fundamental should be: “Share information openly except when is confidential.”