Pulling the Cord on Tech’s Culture of Silence

In aviation, every crash leads to an investigation. In tech, most failures disappear into silence. Why?

After attending several events recently, one theme stood out: transparency, or the lack of it. Having supported digital and transformation leaders for over a decade, I’m struck by how often the same issues resurface. Lessons aren’t learned, and problems reoccur. And I believe transparency is a key reason why.

So, what can be done?

A Culture of Openness vs. a Culture of Silence

Aviation has long embraced a “just culture” one that encourages people to report mistakes or near misses without fear of punishment. Independent bodies like the AAIB (UK) and NTSB (US) publish detailed findings that help the entire industry learn and improve.

Tech, by contrast, often operates in a culture of silence. Whether it’s a cloud outage, an AI ethics failure, or a cybersecurity breach, the instinct is to contain, control, and move on. The result? The same mistakes are repeated across companies, and public trust erodes.

The Andon Cord: Empowering People to Speak Up

After a recent discussion with Giles Lindsay, I looked into the concept of the Andon Cord. In Toyota’s factories, any worker can pull the Andon cord to stop the production line if they see a defect or risk. It’s a radical act of trust and a commitment to quality and safety.

What would it look like if tech had its own Andon cord?

Too often, engineers spot issues in code, in ethics, in system design but feel unable to raise the alarm. Fear of blame, reputational damage, or internal politics can silence voices that should be heard.

Tech needs systems cultural and procedural that encourage openness, protect whistleblowers, and prioritise safety over speed.

A Model for Open Accountability: The National Digital Twin Programme

One example of transparency in action is the UK’s National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP), led by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). Having attended their recent supplier day, I was struck by their commitment to openness especially in the context of critical infrastructure.

• NDTP is developing its Information Architecture as an open-source solution, released under the MIT licence.
• It is guided by the Gemini Principles, which emphasise purpose, trust, and function.
• Demonstrator projects from housing retrofit to emergency planning are run transparently, with learnings shared across sectors.
• The programme collaborates with academia, industry, and government to build inclusive, interoperable frameworks much like aviation’s global safety standards.

NDTP shows that open accountability in tech isn’t just possible it’s already happening.

Why Transparency Matters More Than Ever

Technology now underpins critical infrastructure from healthcare systems to public services to national security. When things go wrong, the consequences are real and far-reaching. Yet the public rarely hears the full story.

Recent outages from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure are prime examples:

• AWS’s outage affected over 113 services including EC2, Lambda, and DynamoDB. Apps like Snapchat, Roblox, and Coinbase went offline, and over 17 million incident reports were logged globally.
• Microsoft Azure’s outage disrupted services like Microsoft 365, Xbox, and even airline check-in systems. Alaska Airlines and Heathrow Airport reported downtime, and the Scottish Parliament paused proceedings due to technical failures.

Despite the scale of these incidents, neither company released a full public postmortem. Technical summaries were shared, but detailed root-cause analyses and lessons learned were kept internal – a missed opportunity for industry-wide learning.

Striking the Balance: Transparency with Responsibility

Of course, full transparency isn’t always feasible. There are legitimate concerns around:

• Security and vulnerability exposure.
• Commercial sensitivity and competitive risk.
• Misinterpretation by media or the public.

But that doesn’t mean we should default to silence.

Here’s how the tech industry can move toward a more open and accountable culture:

• Tiered Transparency: Major failures should be disclosed with clear summaries and lessons learned. Smaller issues can be anonymised and aggregated.
• Independent Oversight: Critical systems especially in the public sector should be subject to external review.
• Safe Internal Reporting: Encourage a “just culture” where staff can raise concerns without fear.
• Industry-Wide Knowledge Sharing: Create forums for anonymised incident reports to promote learning.
• Educating the Public: Pair transparency with context to avoid misinterpretation.

A Leadership Challenge

Transparency isn’t just a technical issue it’s a leadership challenge.

Are we creating environments where people feel safe to speak up?

Are we learning from failure or burying it?

Are we building systems that serve the public good or protect internal reputations?

Senior IT and transformation leaders have the power to shape this culture. By sponsoring transparency initiatives, supporting open standards, and encouraging cross-sector learning, they can lead the way.

A Call to Action

If we want a tech industry that is trusted, resilient, and ethical, we need to embrace transparency not just when it’s convenient, but especially when it’s hard.

What’s one thing you could do this quarter to make your organisation more transparent?

Let’s stop treating failures as secrets to be buried, and start treating them as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve together.