Edgewood x CultureAlly: Strengthening the Leadership Behind the Care
CultureAlly partnered with Edgewood Center to create a custom two-hour session for its leadership team. Together, we explored the challenges that come with leading people and created a shared approach to accountability that leaders could carry into their day-to-day work.
A custom two-hour session built for Edgewood’s leadership team
Taking leadership expectations to the next level
Edgewood Center is a mental health nonprofit serving the San Francisco Bay Area. With deep clinical expertise across its leadership team and a trauma-informed approach to its work, Edgewood was thinking intentionally about the next stage of its leadership culture.
Edgewood wanted its executive and senior leaders to have a shared understanding of what strong leadership looks like in practice, with greater emphasis on how leaders show up, not just what they deliver.
The focus was on the everyday side of leadership: building trust, handling difficult moments well and taking responsibility for the impact you have on others.
The goal was not to start from scratch. It was to build on what Edgewood’s leaders already brought to the table and create a stronger, more consistent foundation for the culture they wanted to continue building.
A custom two-hour session built around Edgewood
CultureAlly developed Building Behavioural Accountability and Cultural Governance in Practice, a two-hour virtual session for Edgewood’s executive and senior leadership team.
Instead of compressing a standard leadership course, the session was built around the situations Edgewood leaders were most likely to face.
It started with a familiar leadership challenge: moving from being the person with the answers to helping others do their best work. From there, leaders explored how to take responsibility for impact and respond when a situation calls for accountability.
Live Slido polling, facilitated conversations and leadership scenarios gave people space to reflect, hear different perspectives and practise how those conversations could sound in the moment.
Leaders left thinking about what they would do differently
The session gave Edgewood’s leadership team a common starting point for conversations about behaviour and accountability.
When asked how they would model accountability as leaders, participants named specific actions they could take, from asking for and acting on feedback to owning mistakes, staying curious and paying closer attention to impact rather than intent.
The feedback backed that up.
82% wanted access to more learning, with participants asking to go further into communication, leadership development and applying the ideas to more complex situations.
Two hours did what it needed to do: create a shared foundation and open the door to what comes next.
Why it worked
What Made the Session Work
It started with Edgewood, not a standard agenda
Edgewood already had a clear sense of where it wanted to take its leadership culture. We used that as the starting point, shaping the session around its trauma-informed approach and the situations its leaders encounter in their work.
People had more than one way to join the conversation
The session wasn’t two hours of listening. Slido gave people a way to respond anonymously, while discussion and leadership scenarios created space to talk things through together. That mix helped more voices make it into the room.
Leaders left with something they wanted to do differently
At the end of the session, leaders named their own commitments. Some were simple: “own impact, not just intent,” “welcome the hard conversations,” and keep asking for feedback, then act on it. The ideas didn’t stay on the slides. Leaders were already thinking about what they would take back into their work.
Edgewood Center Feedback
What Stood Out to Edgewood Leaders
The team highlighted the interactive format, thoughtful facilitation and the conversations the session opened up.
I wasn't sure how this would go over Zoom, but you did an amazing job. Very professional; good interactive component and I liked the SLIDO aspect. In a way, I feel like you may have gotten more comments anonymously over SLIDO than you would have gotten if the training was in person.
Edgewood leader
I appreciated the format with the Slido responses. Kind, thoughtful facilitators.
Edgewood leader
Would be great to do a hands-on training with SLT to practice actually doing/saying the hard stuff together.
Edgewood leader
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