In this episode, hosts Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee examine advisory councils as a structured mechanism for bringing frontline intelligence into strategy conversations before execution breaks down. Mid-market organizations frequently struggle with a gap between what leadership believes is happening and what people on the floor or in the field actually see.

Adriana and Caryn discuss how closing that gap requires more than an open-door policy, and why a properly designed advisory council creates the feedback loop that sustains strategic momentum.

Caryn explains how the language and framing leaders use when launching an advisory council shapes whether participants speak candidly or simply reflect back what they think leadership wants to hear. Adriana connects advisory councils to the SUSTAIN phase of the Truly Transformative Method, showing how they function as a real-time calibration tool rather than a one-time engagement exercise.

Key Takeaways:

• Why advisory councils belong in the SUSTAIN phase as an ongoing feedback mechanism
• Selecting participants based on informal influence networks within the organization
• How council framing shapes the quality of frontline candor

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Caryn and Adriana at ⁠⁠⁠⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us⁠⁠

In this episode, hosts Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee examine what "family" culture actually delivers and where it falls short for organizations navigating a changing workforce. Drawing on real client examples, they walk through what makes a family-oriented culture genuinely strong: flexible work arrangements, compassionate leadership, and practices like birthday and anniversary calls that build lasting employee loyalty.

The conversation also surfaces the risks that accumulate when "family" becomes the primary identity rather than one element of a broader culture.

Adriana and Caryn work through two client scenarios where family culture produced very different outcomes, including one where layoffs shattered employee trust and another where the label masked complacency and an absence of accountability. They dig into how tolerating low performers quietly damages leadership credibility and pushes high performers out the door.

The episode also addresses how younger generations, particularly Gen Z, approach work with different expectations, and why leaders need to engage that workforce with something more than a family identity.

Key Takeaways:

• Why "family" culture creates vulnerability when business conditions force hard decisions
• How tolerating low performers erodes credibility and costs companies their best people
• The combination of empowerment, accountability, and sentiment that actually drives high performance
• How Gen Z's different expectations challenge leaders who built loyalty through a family identity

Ready to talk about how to preserve your family culture while sustaining high performance? Connect with Caryn and Adriana at https://betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us

Most transformations don't fail because of poor planning — they fail because organizations don't have a system to sustain the work. In this episode, Adriana and Caryn unpack SUSTAIN, the fourth and final phase of the Truly Transformative Method, where strategy and culture stop being initiatives and start becoming your operating system.

They cover the leadership disciplines, accountability routines, and feedback loops that keep momentum strong — and why without them, even the best-laid plans drift back to old behaviors. You'll hear why communication during transformation needs to be more transparent and consistent than leaders expect, how to keep long-term strategic initiatives visible alongside day-to-day KPIs, and why staying with the plan — and evolving it — is what separates true transformation from a one-time change effort.

If you've done the work to SEE your current reality, STRATEGIZE your direction, and SHAPE your roadmap, this episode is about making sure it actually sticks.

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Adriana and Caryn at ⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us

This episode dives into the third phase of the Truly Transformative method: SHAPE — where strategy and culture move from concepts into a fully integrated execution plan. Adriana and Caryn break down what makes SHAPE different from traditional planning: culture isn't an afterthought, it's woven directly into the roadmap. Key topics include co-creating the roadmap with leaders and employees, identifying organizational vs. business model capability gaps, embedding culture initiatives alongside strategic initiatives with equal rigor, and a disciplined approach to prioritization (because organizations almost always have too many initiatives and not enough capacity). Leaders who complete the SHAPE phase leave knowing what they're doing, how they'll do it, why it matters culturally, what capabilities need to be built, and how to prioritize going forward.

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Adriana and Caryn at ⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us

In this episode, Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee explore "STRATEGIZE," the second phase of the Truly Transformative Method. While traditional strategic planning often focuses solely on setting visions and goals, this phase is unique because it integrates the human side of the organization from the start. The hosts discuss how to build strategy and culture side by side so they strengthen each other rather than competing for attention, ensuring that your strategic plan is supported by the behaviors and mindsets necessary for execution.

The conversation dives into the practical steps of this phase, including defining a target culture that serves as the "execution system" for your strategy. Adriana and Caryn highlight the importance of involving HR leaders at the strategy table and ensuring every strategic goal has a corresponding cultural enabler, such as accountability or empathy. Listeners will learn how co-creating these elements through integrated workshops can align an organization’s "head and heart," turning a written plan into a daily reality.

Key Takeaways:
• What it means to build strategy and culture side by side
• How to define a target culture that supports execution
• Why HR and cultural enablers should be embedded in strategic planning

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Adriana and Caryn at ⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us

In this episode, Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee explore "SEE," the foundational first phase of the Truly Transformative Method. Described as the "truth-telling" phase, SEE is where organizations must take an honest, unvarnished look at their current reality—including both their strategic performance and their actual culture—before they can begin to shape the future. The hosts discuss the common "perception gaps" that occur when leadership views culture through a "mirror" (how they want it to be) while employees experience it through a "window" (the daily reality), often leading to blind spots that can derail even the best strategies. Is it ok that this description was used in the 1st episode?

The conversation outlines the five key elements of a structured discovery process: strategy assessment, culture diagnosis, mirror and window assessments, market and industry context, and a deep dive into organizational capability and readiness. Adriana and Caryn share practical advice on how to uncover the truth using curiosity rather than judgment, emphasizing the importance of anonymous surveys, leadership interviews, and focus groups to protect psychological safety. By the end of this episode, listeners will understand how the SEE phase transforms raw information into the strategic awareness necessary to build a launchpad for lasting change.

Key Takeaways:

• What the SEE phase reveals about strategy, culture, and readiness

• How mirror and window assessments expose perception gaps

• Why curiosity, surveys, interviews, and focus groups matter in discovery

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Adriana and Caryn at betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us

5 Essential Questions to Assess Culture

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In this episode, Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee introduce their proprietary "Truly Transformative Method," a comprehensive four-phase framework designed to align organizational strategy with culture. They explain that in today’s fast-paced business environment, speed alone isn't enough to thrive; success comes to organizations that can adapt quickly while keeping their culture and strategy in perfect lockstep. Adriana and Caryn provide a high-level overview of the four "S" phases—SEE, STRATEGIZE, SHAPE, and SUSTAIN—explaining how each phase builds upon the last to create lasting change.

The hosts dive into the core philosophy of the framework: that strategy defines what an organization aims to achieve, while culture defines how (and if) it will actually happen. You will learn why "seeing" the truth of your current reality is the only way to begin a transformation and how treating cultural initiatives with the same rigor as business goals is the key to making a strategy stick. This episode serves as the foundation for the deep-dive series to follow, offering leaders a roadmap for turning bold visions into enduring results.

Key Takeaways:

• An overview of the four-phase Truly Transformative Method

• Why SEE, STRATEGIZE, SHAPE, and SUSTAIN work together

• How strategy and culture must stay aligned for lasting change

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Caryn and Adriana at ⁠⁠⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us⁠⁠

In this episode, Adriana McLane and Caryn Lee explore why project management is far more than just a set of tools or a person in charge of a schedule—it is a critical strategic capability. They discuss how effective project management serves as the engine of execution, turning high-level strategies into tangible results. Without the discipline of status reporting, clear communication, and defined accountability, even the best strategies are at risk of "sitting on the shelf" and losing their meaning.

The conversation highlights the difference between managing a single project and managing a project portfolio, emphasizing that a strong methodology should be embedded into the organization's culture. Caryn shares her experiences from Accenture, illustrating how consistent processes prevent employee burnout and ensure that teams aren't "tripping over each other" during a transformation. Whether you are using a sophisticated tool like Asana or a simple Excel sheet, this episode provides a roadmap for building the internal capacity necessary to make your strategic vision a reality.

Key Takeaways:

• Why project management is a strategic capability

• How strong processes support accountability and execution

• What it takes to build project and portfolio discipline into culture

Ready to bring this into your organization? Connect with Caryn and Adriana at ⁠⁠⁠betrulytransformative.com/work-with-us⁠⁠