The communication of naturally complex issues like climate change, tipping points, socio-ecological systems, and their interaction with the hydrological cycle and water security is equally important as it is challenging. Beyond the complexity, the long-term and often delayed characteristics furthermore do not match with either political election cycles or quarterly business reports. Academic institutions are at the forefront to assess, reveal and understand such complex systems, but certainly more engagement is needed to effectively transfer the most urgent derivations in practice and policy on the one hand, but also invest into a continuing effort in creating a general understanding and susceptibility to crucial stakeholders of those characteristics on the other. Transformative interaction, and hence closing the gap between knowledge generation and best practice application needs to be eased down to an implementable level, but without any oversimplification. A prerequisite for such an approach in successful multilateral cooperation would be a common baseline – a mutual Water Culture among all stakeholders when addressing water security with meaningful climate adaptation measures.