"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw
This happens every day in an organization. What feels like a clear message from the top often breaks apart and gets confusing by the time it reaches the people doing the work. A big company decision that made sense to a few people at a high level becomes a mess of conflicting tasks for everyone else.
For managers and high-performing people, a big part of the job is to constantly figure out what the orders really mean. You have to guess the true purpose behind messages that are often incomplete, sometimes confusing, and already might be out of date by the time you get them.
While we were promised that an open company would make things faster, it often just puts you closer to the source of the noise. Instead of helping to shape the company's grand plan, a manager’s job becomes a constant battle to figure out what to do next.
It's a daily struggle to make sense of new information, office politics, and sudden changes in order to find clarity.
It is the skill of dealing with different truths at the same time. You're told to make Project A a priority, then you're told you have to finish Project B, while people are still talking about the importance of Project C. The pressure from above and the confusion below are always there.
The stress of making choices, of using limited time and resources, and of explaining to your team why the goal keeps changing, falls directly on those in the middle. It takes a special kind of mental strength.
The mental energy required to constantly adjust is quietly draining. You start to question if your team is building the right thing, or if you're all just in motion without a clear purpose.
Leaders see the world from a high level, where small details are just big ideas and confusion is mistaken for flexibility. For the team below, every big idea needs a clear next step, and every bit of confusion needs a decision. The friction comes from this gap in how they see the world.
Forget perfect clarity. It's not real. The true skill is learning to be okay with things being unclear. You make progress by getting something "good enough" done, knowing that the ground might shift tomorrow. It’s not about finding clarity, but about doing good work anyway.