What My Leadership Program Alumni Taught Me About What Organizations Need More Of
Why practice spaces should stay cross-functional
I’ve been working with one of our clients on what the “next level” version of the Elevate Program looks like for alumni.
Going into those conversations, I realized I was carrying a pretty strong assumption.
In my head, the natural next step was: Great, now let’s really focus on using these tools inside your direct teams. Manager with their team. Peers with their peers. Day-to-day, real-time application. It made sense to me. If the tools are meant to help you navigate real work, then surely the best place to practice is right there, with the people you work with every day.
So I asked the alumni for feedback.
And the response was… basically unanimous.
They don’t want that.
They want the practice space to stay cross-functional.
They want it to stay a space where their boss isn’t in the room. Where their direct reports aren’t in the room. Where they can show up without having it all figured out.
I’m so glad I asked. Because what they helped me see feels really important.
1. We don’t outgrow practice. And practice spaces work because they’re safe.
One of the things I love most about the Elevate Program is that it’s not a performance space. You don’t show up because you already have the answer. You show up with the tension. The messy situation. The thing you’re not sure how to handle.
You get perspective. You get coached. You try on tools. You hear how other people think about it. And ideally, you walk away with something clearer, more grounded, and more usable than what you walked in with.
What the alumni reflected back to me is this: that kind of space doesn’t stop being useful just because you’ve “graduated.”
Having the tools doesn’t mean you no longer need a place to prepare to use them.
In fact, most of the time, the stress or tension we’re dealing with comes from the people we work most closely with. Our peers. Our boss. Our team. And when you’re in the middle of that system, it’s hard to both be in it and think clearly about it at the same time.
A cross-functional space gives you a little distance.
You’re not posturing. You’re not managing optics. You’re not trying to lead and process at the same time. You can just show up and say, “Here’s what I’m dealing with. I don’t know the answer yet.”
That’s not something you “outgrow.” That’s a practice you keep.
It actually made me think about athletics.
When I played in college, every single practice—and every single game—we did our “dailies”. For outfielders, that meant the same fundamentals over and over: practicing our do-or-die footwork and glovework with a motionless ball, tossing balls in the air to ourselves and catching them on the correct shoulder. Stuff you could easily think, We’re playing at a high level. We’ve been doing this forever. Why are we still doing this?
But that’s the point. You never get too many reps. Professional athletes don’t stop practicing because they’re “good enough.” They practice because fundamentals are what hold up under pressure.
Leadership is the same. You don’t graduate out of needing a practice space. If anything, the more responsibility you carry, the more valuable that space becomes.
2. Cross-functionality fights silos (and builds empathy)
The second thing this really clarified for me is how important cross-functional spaces are as organizations grow.
As companies get bigger, it’s almost inevitable: you get more siloed. You talk to the same people every day. Other teams make decisions that affect your work—but you don’t always have context, or relationships, or an easy way to understand the “why” behind those decisions.
So what happens?
“It’s accounting.”
“It’s logistics.”
“It’s marketing.”
We start talking about functions instead of people.
But when you’re in a cross-functional practice space, something different happens.
You bring in a situation that’s stressing you out. Maybe it does involve another department. And suddenly, someone from that world is in the room. You get their perspective. You can ask the question. You can see the fuller picture of what’s actually going on.
And just like that, things get more human.
Names and faces replace labels. Context replaces assumptions.
Over time, that does something really important: it builds trust and empathy across the organization.
It builds our emotional bank account. When that account is full, we’re more generous in our interpretations. More curious. More willing to assume positive intent. Less likely to climb our ladder and get defensive.
When that account is empty, we do the opposite.
Cross-functional practice spaces quietly keep that account funded.
The surprising (and beautiful) side effect
What struck me most in these conversations is that this wasn’t just about skill-building.
Yes, these spaces help people sharpen how they think, how they communicate, how they use the tools.
But they also make the business better in a really human way.
They reduce silos.
They increase empathy.
They create shared language and shared understanding.
They give people a place to think before they have to act.
And maybe most importantly, they preserve something rare at work: a place where you don’t have to have it all figured out yet.
I went into this thinking the “next level” was about pushing practice deeper into existing teams.
What I’m leaving with is something different, and honestly, something better:
Sometimes the most advanced move is protecting the practice space itself.
Keeping it cross-functional.
Keeping it human.
Keeping it safe enough to not know… yet.
And trusting that when people have that kind of space, everything else gets better too.
