A 10-person executive team in a high-growth technology company needed clearer ways of working as pressure, pace and cross-functional dependencies increased.

The situation

The team was operating across increasingly complex interfaces involving Sales, Product, partners and customers.

There was plenty of language around high performance and collaboration, but it had not been translated into shared standards for how the team actually worked.

Communication was inconsistent. Decision ownership was not always clear. Cross-functional dependencies created friction, and expectations around accountability varied across the team.

Without explicit agreements, leaders were relying on their own interpretations of effective collaboration. Decisions could move quickly within one function without enough consideration of what other teams needed to deliver them.

The work

Rhian designed and facilitated a structured intervention focused on turning broad leadership expectations into observable behaviours the team could use and hold one another accountable to.

Rather than discussing communication, collaboration or high performance in abstract terms, the team worked from a practical question:

What would we actually see or hear if we were aligned on how we approach these things?

Small-group work gave every leader the opportunity to contribute before the wider discussion, reducing the likelihood that the most senior or vocal people would determine the standards for everyone.

An anonymous pulse check also surfaced levels of trust, clarity, confidence and energy, giving the team a clearer picture of where stronger operating discipline was needed.

From there, the group developed explicit standards around:

• Decision-making

• Accountability

• Communication

• Escalation

• Cross-functional working

• Meeting discipline

Each leader also made a personal behavioural commitment for the following three months.

The outcome

The executive team agreed a practical set of operating standards designed to balance speed with cross-functional execution and clear functional ownership.

These included involving affected teams before decisions were finalised, maintaining one clear accountable owner, communicating the rationale and downstream impact of decisions, raising blockers earlier and ending meetings with explicit actions, owners and deadlines.

“These standards have set the benchmark for how the team continue to work internally and collaborate with the wider business”

— Senior Exec, AI High Growth Technology