The case study
Context
Cubic3 engaged H-Suite across a connected sequence of leadership and organisational-development interventions during 2025 and into 2026. The work began with the Executive Leadership Team, using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to clarify strategic priorities and create organisation-level outcomes capable of aligning teams around the company’s next phase.
The engagement then moved through the organisation. H-Suite returned to brief managers on the direction established by the executive team, delivered practical OKR development for managers and supported a two-day Manager as Coach programme. A refresher day was subsequently requested by managers, and a further coaching format is being considered for later in 2026.
The Challenge
Cubic3 was not simply introducing a goal-setting technique. The organisation needed to connect strategic ambition with the decisions and behaviours of managers: translating company priorities into meaningful team outcomes, encouraging collaboration across functions and avoiding OKRs becoming another administrative or performance-management exercise.
At the same time, managers were being asked to lead through change and build capability in others. That required a shift from task direction towards coaching conversations, stronger relationships, reflection and accountability. The challenge was to make strategy and coaching reinforce one another rather than sit as separate development initiatives.
Our Perspective
At H-Suite, we believe organisational alignment is created through conversation and shared ownership—not through publishing a set of targets.
OKRs are valuable when they clarify why work matters, sanction ambition and reveal the interdependencies between teams. Coaching is valuable when managers create the conditions for people to think, take responsibility and act. Both approaches fail when reduced to a template or mechanical process.
Our role was therefore to help Cubic3 move from executive intent to practical management capability: first establishing a clearer strategic story, then enabling managers to translate it for their teams and strengthening the everyday conversations through which delivery and learning occur.
How We Worked
H-Suite facilitated an Executive Leadership Team OKR workshop designed to overcome resistance, establish a shared understanding of best practice and co-create bold organisation-level OKRs aligned with Cubic3’s strategic priorities.
The workshop distinguished inspirational Objectives from measurable, outcome-focused Key Results. It challenged output-based thinking, explored the risks of poorly designed targets and used cross-functional examples to expose how territorial goals can undermine collaboration.
The resulting strategic themes connected people, customers, market and technology, and scalability. The process emphasised executive sponsorship, transparency, alignment and regular learning rather than treating OKRs as a stand-alone performance-management tool.
H-Suite was then invited back to brief managers on the organisation’s direction and the ELT’s emerging priorities. Manager sessions asked participants to identify what sat within their control or influence, define success for their teams, surface blockers and develop practical contributions to company outcomes.
Exercises such as ‘Now–Next–Later’ helped managers separate immediate quarterly commitments from ideas for future cycles. Cross-functional cases encouraged participants to move beyond ‘my team completed its task’ towards shared accountability for business outcomes.
Alongside the strategy work, H-Suite delivered a two-day Manager as Coach programme. Role play, the GROW model, group exercises and reflection allowed managers to practise coaching, examine their own behaviours and explore the importance of relationship alongside task delivery.
The work remained iterative. Managers requested a refresher day, while evaluation feedback highlighted the value of practical application and suggested follow-up resources, one-to-one support and more confidential Cubic3 business cases. A further coaching format is now being considered for later in 2026.
What Changed
The work created a clearer bridge between executive strategy and manager action. The ELT developed and communicated organisation-level OKR themes, and H-Suite was invited back to help managers understand where the organisation was going next and how their teams could contribute.
Formal evaluation of the manager OKR training was limited to four responses. The small sample should not be generalised, but all four managers rated achievement of the programme objectives at 4 or 5 out of 5, and all rated the learning methods at 4 or 5.
The written manager feedback valued practical, real-world OKR examples, cross-functional review and the blend of slides, discussion and conversation. It also identified useful improvements: more function-specific workshops, People-team involvement, tighter tailoring of duration and more inclusive examples.
In-person stakeholder feedback provided an important additional signal. The Operations Manager expressed strong satisfaction with the outcome, and the invitation to return and brief managers demonstrated that the work had moved beyond a one-off executive session into the organisation’s wider change process.
The Manager as Coach programme produced stronger quantitative evidence. Across 17 evaluations, every participant rated every measured area at either 4 or 5 out of 5. Achievement of objectives and programme duration both averaged 4.94.
The trainer’s ability to relate to the group and the contribution of the training methods both averaged 5.00. The practical application of the learning averaged 4.82, with participants repeatedly highlighting role play, real business discussion, actionable steps, reflection and the safe space created for honest conversation.
The managers’ request for a refresher day is itself meaningful evidence of relevance. Rather than treating the programme as completed after two days, participants wanted an opportunity to revisit, practise and embed the approach—creating a basis for the further coaching work being considered.
Why This Mattered
Strategy only becomes real when managers can connect it to the choices, conversations and trade-offs made across the organisation. Equally, coaching capability has greater organisational value when it helps people take ownership of outcomes that matter.
By connecting ELT alignment, manager mobilisation and coaching practice, Cubic3 began building a common thread from ambition to execution. H-Suite supported the organisation not only to define where it wanted to go, but to strengthen the management capability needed to bring people with it.
