What it is
Visibility is the nervous system: instrumentation, definitions, data flow, and whether the numbers people act on are trusted and shared.
Why it matters
Without it, leaders don't manage the business; they manage stories about the business. And visibility is not the same as dashboards. A company can have excellent dashboards and no shared meaning, which produces confident, coordinated, wrong decisions.
Common symptoms
Three numbers in one meeting. Private spreadsheets shadowing official reports. Reporting that describes outcomes but not the journey to them. A 48-hour scramble before every board meeting. Knowing who converted and never asking why the others didn't.
Related work
The Missing Middle · Three Numbers. One Meeting. Zero Shared Reality.