I think that any empire has all the directions of communication to succeed. If a system is one-sided, the result may not be received with the right intention. In my experience, the upward movement of communication, if received with empathy, will allow for the greatest growth. When a concern is resolved because it may not be visible to higher level management, changes may occur at the administration level, which in turn moves down communication. The education system uses horizontal communication to resolve issues ranging from internal school-level concerns to departmental standards. This can lead to diagonal communication between administration and teachers working together. Hernando County recently worked on new instructional maps for each grade level and subject. I can only speak about middle school mathematics; the communication that standards did not align with textbooks may have come from an upward movement. Next, we used diagonal communication, face-to-face and email, to develop an overview of each standard. With the diagonal direction then came the downward movement of district mandates to track program mapping. During professional development activities, horizontal communication was taking place regarding our joint assessments, revealing minor changes in our map timeline for the next