Confidential or Transparent?

The story: They both committed to building trust. One believed trust meant protecting sensitive information. The other believed trust meant radical transparency — sharing everything openly. Same word. Opposite behaviours. The gap didn't show up in the meeting. It showed up in the inbox.

What it means for organisations: Values create the illusion of alignment more than almost anything else. When a team commits to "trust," every person fills that word with their own history, instincts, and assumptions. Agreeing on a value is not the same as agreeing on what the value looks like in practice.