In today’s workplace, transparency is widely recognized as a cornerstone of trust and high performance. Employees increasingly expect openness (87% of job seekers look for transparency in a future workplace), yet all organizations struggle to be fully transparent with their people. A recent Harvard Business Review survey even found 58% of U.S. workers would trust a stranger more than their own boss, highlighting the severe trust deficit that can result from poor transparency.

Organizations worldwide struggle to organize transparency, not due to simple resistance to openness, but because of psychological, economic, and structural forces that make secrecy feel safer, more profitable, and culturally necessary. Research reveals that approximately 70% of transparency initiatives fail to achieve their intended outcomes, creating a persistent gap between transparency policies and actual organizational behavior. This needs to stop!

The Work Water manifesto states that for any collaboration, whether between two individuals or a million, the fundamental principles should include trust, transparency, and respect for time. Every human needs transparency in personal and work life to feel valued.

So why do organizations continue to fail to provide the full transparency?  Appendix 2 gives you some insight in what kept organisations from transforming to a truly transparent organisation. We believe these barriers can be broken due to the capabilities of modern collaboration tools and the latest abilities of Generative AI, allowing people to ‘drink from the firehose’.

The Work H₂O manifesto highlights changes needed in organisational culture and shows how effective use of modern technology delivers significant results. It aims to help organisations build a healthy, happy work environment and remain competitive against organisations that bring their employees poor working conditions, long working hours and low pay.

The Work H₂O Manifesto is built on 3 pillars:

• Trust forms a foundational aspect of organizational structure for both employees and value network partners. Breaches of trust are addressed directly and may result in exclusion.

• Transparency: All internal communication and information should be open by default, providing employees with access to the organization’s information input, processing and decision-making processes.

• Time is the most valuable currency; organizations should ensure it’s used efficiently and respectfully for all. Work should flow smoothly and efficiently. Information bottlenecks create stinky pools!