Every department has its own language. What sounds clear to one team can feel vague or incomplete to another. Finance speaks in numbers, Marketing in stories, and Operations in process. None of them are wrong, but when messages cross those lines without shared definitions, things start to slip.
Teams think they’re aligned because they’re all nodding at the same word. But “clear” in one group might mean a full plan with next steps, while in another it means a quick summary with bullet points. Everyone walks away believing they understood, and that’s where misalignment hides.
You can see it when projects stall for reasons that don’t make sense. One team is waiting for approval, another thinks it’s already done. Updates go out, but no one can tell if the message landed the way it was meant to. The problem isn’t the message itself; it’s the lack of a shared frame for what clarity looks like.
The fix starts with conversation. Each department needs to explain what “clear” means in their world, what people expect to see in an update, what’s considered enough context, and what counts as a final decision. Once those expectations are on the table, patterns start to line up and the gaps shrink.
When clarity means the same thing across departments, communication gets easier. People understand what’s being said and what’s expected next.
