Past the Training Request: A Story of Cultural Evolution
Have you ever had a seemingly simple request reveal a deeper organizational need? That's exactly what happened during a recent conversation with a biotech VP of People, where "We just need two manager workshops" became the catalyst for profound cultural change.
As I sat across the virtual conference table that morning, steam rising from my coffee cup, I was delighted the CEO and VP of People were ready for a meaningful transformation instead of a one-off training session.
Uncovering the Real Story
Like many organizations, this company was experiencing the usual “accountability” symptoms where managers felt a need to step in to do the work, individuals focused on their piece of work instead of the larger picture, and a lot of finger-pointing. As we dug deeper, a more nuanced challenge emerged.
After conducting discovery interviews, we uncovered several key insights:
The company had recently undergone significant changes with new leadership and team members, leaving little time to build essential trust and relationships.
There was a lack of clarity about the bigger picture, roles, responsibilities, and decision-making authority.
Managers struggled with aligning on expectations and delivering feedback.
Communication gaps were evident both between managers and staff, and across the broader organization.
Everyone was competent and wanted to do a good job, but they didn’t have the context or support to fully realize their sense of ownership, resulting in what looked like a lack of accountability.
This struggle with accountability isn't unique—it's a challenge many organizations face today. The key lies in digging beneath the surface to identify the desired behaviors and the obstacles preventing them. What I consistently find is that employees genuinely want to contribute meaningfully and make an impact. However, they often lack crucial elements: context about the bigger picture, clarity on where they can make decisions, precise expectations for their roles, and constructive feedback to help them grow and improve.
True accountability emerges when people feel a genuine sense of ownership—when they understand they have the ability to influence or make decisions and can see how their work connects to broader organizational goals.
A lot of this connects back to my work at Google, where we found that team effectiveness really came from a high degree of psychological safety (feeling safe to speak up) and structure and clarity (feeling clear about the vision, priorities, goals, roles & responsibilities etc). To fully realize a feeling of ownership, people need to be clear on the greater context and feel enough psychological safety to have real conversations. (Read more about fostering psychological safety in leadership.)
The Path Forward: The Accountability Cycle
As we continued working with this client, we collaborated closely with their leadership team and devised a strategy that respected both structure and individual needs. We introduced our Accountability Cycle framework and used it as the north star for managers and employees to have shared language to build more accountability and ownership.
This framework is built around three essential elements:
1. Align: Where clarity meets context
The manager and employee align on expectations, combining clear direction with meaningful context.
Create shared understanding of goals and the bigger picture
Set unambiguous, actionable expectations that motivate and empower
2. Act: Where intention meets impact
The employee follows through on commitments with focus and accountability.
Take purposeful action aligned with expectations
Proactively navigate challenges and remove roadblocks
Adapt with agility as circumstances evolve
3. Adjust: Where feedback fuels growth
Ongoing, two-way feedback drives development and performance.
Exchange honest, growth-minded feedback
Managers offer personalized support to meet individual needs and unlock potential
From Concept to Culture
Instead of defaulting to traditional training (where people gain new information but don’t tend to change any behaviors), we embarked on a six-month journey to activate the new culture of accountability. The transformation unfolded in carefully orchestrated phases:
Phase 1: The company created a Leveling Guide, a document to clarify expectations for the different roles at different levels. A resource like this provides clarity about what’s expected at different levels and if it’s done well it connects those expectations with the larger organizational values to build a cohesive picture. The company also provided greater context about the Purpose, Vision, and Priorities – sharing more about the bigger picture and the “why.”
Phase 2: Next, we facilitated two workshops – one for managers and one for all-staff - to introduce the Leveling Guide and the Accountability Cycle. These workshops built shared language and clarity. In between the workshops, we coached the managers 1:1 to help them prepare for Alignment Conversations, which took place after the all-staff workshop, so all employees had a conversation with their manager about the Leveling Guide and what’s expected. These 1:1 coaching conversations created space for leaders to voice their fears, challenge their assumptions, and develop practical strategies to set clear expectations with their direct reports. This kicked off part one of the Accountability Cycle.
Phase 3: A few months later, after employees had an opportunity to follow through on expectations in the Act step of the Accountability Cycle, we facilitated a workshop for managers on how to deliver feedback and support employees through the Adjust stage of the cycle. Following that workshop, we provided 1:1 coaching for the managers again to support them in preparing for those feedback conversations. Then, each employee had a feedback conversation with their manager which enabled employees to learn, adapt, and then continue to align on what’s next.
Often training falls flat because the follow through and accountability are lacking. Our approach is different. We seek to drive real transformation and impact. This takes some extra planning to ensure there’s commitment and follow through, but you get more ROI and results.
The Unexpected Gifts
As the initiative unfolded, three powerful insights emerged:
The Context Gap: Understanding 'why' wasn't just nice to have – it was essential for engagement and ownership
The Clarity Paradox: What managers thought was clear often wasn't
The Feedback Loop: A culture of "nice" had inadvertently blocked honest, growth-promoting dialogue.
Measuring What Matters
Before the engagement, and throughout the phases, we surveyed employees and managers to track progress. At the end of the engagement, managers gave an average score of 81% when asked if they’d noticed team members showing more accountability, suggesting a clear improvement in ownership and responsibility. Comparing the pre-engagement survey to the post-engagement survey, team members reported a 36% improvement on having the context to do their job well, indicating substantial progress as a result of the engagement. But the real success lived in the everyday moments, which over time has shifted the culture.
After this engagement, the VP of People shared that “the impact has been remarkable. During a challenging year, we've seen improved retention, increased empathy between team members, and stronger accountability across teams.”
The Leadership Invitation
For every leader reading this, I offer this reflection: When you see a need for training, pause and ask yourself, "What deeper change needs to happen? And, what will enable that change?"
True cultural transformation requires:
A systemic look at the barriers to the desired behaviors
Consistent communication, practice and reinforcement
Safe spaces for authentic learning
Committed leaders who model the way
The journey from "we need training" to "we're transforming our culture" isn't always straightforward. But in today's complex business landscape, it's often exactly what's needed for sustainable success.
What about your organization? Where do you need more sustainable transformation?
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