Accompli’s work is grounded in an objective understanding of reality. Getting to what’s true, or at least factual, is essential. Information gathering, from multiple independent sources, is a core Accompli method.
Accurate information-gathering is difficult. People see the world through their own eyes, and subjectivity distorts everyone’s perception. Then there is conflict of interest: Naturally protective of their own interests, people tend to shade the truth in interviews, often without even meaning to. That’s why it’s so valuable to collect information from multiple sources: Given a sufficiently large and diverse group, individual interests may roughly cancel each other out, leaving information of value to be discerned. It’s like panning for gold: nuggets or flakes of ore are found within large volumes of mud.
Encouraging candor makes this process much more efficient. One way to do that is to shield people from potentially negative consequences of telling the truth. To protect its sources from these consequences, Accompli often agrees to protect their anonymity, severing the connection between the information and the identity of the person who provides it.
This much is obvious. Here’s the tricky part: The person who gathers information based on explicit agreements of confidentiality must be trustworthy. Once promised, confidentiality must be protected, absolutely.
This trust, this confidentiality, this legitimacy of information is central to Accompli’s work. Therefore, Accompli’s clients must accept Accompli’s protection of sources of confidential information.