Cultural Alchemy happens in meetings where several teams share a problem. Talking about what another department did can feel like analysis, but the people being discussed usually aren’t in the room, so nothing gets decided. One question changes the subject to what the people present can do today.

A tool that supports it

Cultural Alchemy is a behavior, and it can lean on different tools. One that explains it well is “The Responsibility Process,” by Christopher Avery.

The tool maps the states of mind people pass through when something goes wrong. It starts in Denial and moves to Lay Blame, where we look for who did it. Next comes Justify, where we look for a reason nobody could control. Shame and Obligation follow. The last state is Responsibility, and it’s the only one that asks what can be done. One of the keys Avery names for getting there is awareness.

This Practice uses awareness in a whole room. You notice the group sitting in Lay Blame or Justify, and you offer the question that belongs to Responsibility.

When to use it

Use it in meetings between departments, like sales with product or operations with finance. You’ll hear the signal: sentence after sentence begins with the name of a team that isn’t there.

It works best when you’ve already owned your team’s part in front of the others. The other department may well have a part too. That conversation happens later, with them in the room.

How to use it

  1. Notice the pattern. Three comments in a row about people who aren’t present is enough.
  2. Say the problem is real, in one sentence, so nobody feels brushed aside.
  3. Ask the question: “What can we own right now to fix this?”
  4. Go first. Name one thing your own area will change. This is the hard step, and the room is waiting to see if you mean it.
  5. Write down what each team present takes on. Bring the rest to the other department as a request.

Example

In a quarterly review, the heads of sales and customer success are going through accounts that were canceled. Soon they’re talking about the product team, which isn’t in the meeting.

The usual way “Until product fixes reporting, there’s nothing we can do about these cancellations.”
The Practice “The reporting gap is real, and we’ll take it to product with the numbers. What can we own right now? On my side, sales stops promising custom reports in demos, starting today.”

With the Practice, customer success picks up a piece too, and the product team gets a request with data behind it.

Phrases you can use

  • “What can we own right now to fix this?”
  • “That part is theirs, and they’re not here. Which part is ours?”
  • “I’ll start. Here’s what my team changes this week.”
  • “Let’s bring this to them on Thursday as a request, with the data.”
  • “What would we do if nobody else changed anything?”
  • For a leader, when someone does it: “Thank you for taking that. Who else has a piece of this?”

How to know it worked

Listen for “we” in the comments that follow. The meeting should end with actions owned by people who were there, plus one clear request for the team that wasn’t. Over time, you’ll hear someone else ask the question before you do.

In a Skill Deck Track on Accountability, a person can choose this Practice, and the meetings they already have show when they use it.

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