Cohesion Killer: When Good Intentions Meet the Transparency Gap

This is the first in our four-week October series exploring the hidden forces that undermine team cohesion and organizational performance.

The Disconnect Between Intention and Reality

Think about the last time you were a passenger in a car navigating an unfamiliar city. The driver knows exactly where they're going— they understand the route, they're making deliberate choices at every turn. But from the passenger seat, without access to that same information, every unexpected turn feels arbitrary. You start questioning the route. Second-guessing decisions. Building a narrative that may have nothing to do with reality.

That's exactly what happens in organizations when transparency breaks down.

The challenge is you can't close a gap you can't see.

There's a fundamental problem that plagues even well-intentioned leadership teams: the disconnect between how transparent leaders believe they're managing and what their employees actually experience. 

This isn't about bad leadership or poor communication skills—it's about the inherent difficulty of seeing your organization from the inside out.

These transparency gaps don't just create frustration—they actively erode cohesion. When people don't understand the "why" behind decisions, when your mission or next steps feel unclear, or when information seems selectively shared, trust deteriorates. Teams become siloed. Decisions get second-guessed. Energy that should go toward progress gets redirected into filling in the blanks or navigating uncertainty.

Why Objective Measurement Matters

You’re likely asking yourself how to identify and measure something as seemingly intangible as transparency. Gut feelings and assumptions won't cut it.

Relying on intuition to gauge organizational transparency is like trying to navigate by the stars when you're inside a building—you simply don't have the visibility you need. Leadership often operates with the best intentions, but without systematic measurement, you're building on a foundation of guesswork rather than facts. This approach doesn't set anyone up for success, and it certainly doesn't create something repeatable or scalable.

Consider companies known for their strong cultural north stars. Patagonia's commitment to environmental responsibility isn't just a feeling—it's measured through specific supply chain audits, carbon footprint tracking, and transparent reporting. Netflix's famous "freedom and responsibility" culture is supported by clearly defined expectations, regular calibration conversations, and specific decision-making frameworks that everyone can reference. These organizations don't guess at whether their values are being lived; they create systems to know.

The difference between hoping your organization is transparent and knowing where transparency exists (or doesn't) is the difference between reactive firefighting and strategic improvement. Without measurement, you're perpetually addressing symptoms rather than root causes.

Connecting Performance to Outcomes

But here’s the thing. Understanding where transparency breaks down is only valuable if you can connect those breakdowns to tangible business impact. The gap between leadership's perception and employee reality doesn't just affect morale—it shows up in slower decision-making, duplicated efforts, missed opportunities, and employee turnover.

Organizations that successfully address transparency gaps do so by establishing clear baselines, identifying specific problem areas, and then tracking how improvements in trust and alignment translate to measurable outcomes.This means moving beyond engagement scores that tell you people are frustrated, to understanding exactly which communication channels are failing, which teams lack goal clarity, and what the actual cost of these gaps is to your business.

Moving Forward

The transparency gap won't resolve itself, and good intentions alone won't close it. What's required is clear visibility into where these gaps actually exist in your specific organization, followed by targeted action based on that insight.

This October, if you're sensing that information isn't flowing the way it should, that teams are working at cross-purposes, or that trust feels fragile—those may be symptoms of transparency gaps that are costing you more than you realize.

If you're ready to get a clearer picture of where your organization stands, SKOR can provide that foundation. Because you can't fix what you can't see—but once you can see it, the path forward becomes much clearer. Find out how you can close the gap, check out a SKORcard report.

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Coming Next Week: Week 2: The Courage to Fail – Why psychological safety isn't just a buzzword, and what it's really costing you.