A few months ago, our team at Everest Elevation LLC wrapped up a consulting engagement with a mid-sized healthcare organization that—like many—wasn’t struggling due to lack of talent, resources, or passion.
No.
They were struggling because no one was actually talking to each other.
Picture this:
The executive team was sending beautifully polished strategic plans down the chain… where they promptly evaporated somewhere around middle management. Meanwhile, frontline staff were quietly hero-mode improvising because they had no idea what decisions were being made above them. And leadership? Leadership was receiving monthly reports that looked wildly different from the actual, lived-out operations.
It wasn’t dysfunction.
It was silence—disguised as politeness, busyness, and “we thought someone else already knew that.”
So we launched what the organization would later affectionately refer to as Operation Transparency.
The Diagnosis
After speaking with teams across all levels (and drinking the strongest coffee their breakroom had to offer), a pattern emerged:
- Information went down but rarely came back up.
- Staff assumed leaders were “too busy” to be bothered.
- Leaders assumed staff “already understood” what was being communicated.
- Middle managers were caught in the crossfire, looking like they were in a constant state of being two emails behind reality.
If communication is oxygen, this organization was living at the top of Mount Everest without supplemental air. (This is normally where we joke about “Everest Elevation,” but we’ll behave.)
The Intervention
We implemented a simple, brutally transparent communication framework that included:
1. Weekly Cross-Level Huddles
15 minutes, cameras on, egos off. Everyone reported what was actually happening—not what they wished was happening.
2. The “Two-Way Street” Rule
If something was communicated down, something had to come back up. Every directive required a status reply from frontline to leadership.
3. Manager Debrief Circles
Think of these as organized group therapy for middle managers—safe space, no surprises, lots of relieved nods.
4. A Culture Permission Slip
Leadership formally gave staff permission to speak up, ask questions, and clarify expectations.
(Simple? Yes. Effective? Shockingly so.)
The Result
Within 45 days:
- Miscommunications dropped by 68%
- Duplicate work decreased
- Timelines stabilized
- Frontline morale increased noticeably
- Leaders began receiving accurate, real-time visibility into operations
- And the CEO—who originally believed “we already communicate plenty!”—admitted that the organization had been functioning like a group project where everyone assumed someone else was responsible for the slides.
What We Learned (And What They Confirmed)
Transparency isn’t about sharing everything.
It’s about making sure the right people know the right things at the right time—without forcing anyone to become a mind reader.
Healthcare leaders often worry that open communication will create chaos.
But in reality?
Chaos is what happens when communication is missing.
When communication flows upward, downward, and sideways, organizations stop reacting and start coordinating.
They stop guessing and start aligning.
And they stop holding their breath and finally start breathing again.
Final Thought
If there’s one takeaway from this engagement, it’s this:
Silence is expensive.
Transparency is free.
And communication—done simply and consistently—is the cheapest performance intervention an organization will ever implement.
And sometimes, all it takes to transform a team is the collective willingness to say,
“Hey… can we talk about what’s really going on?”
If you’d like help improving communication, culture clarity, or operational transparency in your own organization, Everest Elevation is always ready—coffee in hand, humor included—for the next transformation.
