The 10 Behaviours Workshop
A one-day workshop that helps your team name what good looks like, in its own words, so you can hire for it, coach it and recognise it.
The day at a glance
One day. Your team's own words for what good looks like. Something you keep.
Who
Leadership teams, founders, HR and people leaders, whole teams
Length
One full day, plus a 20-minute call and a conversation beforehand
Group
8 to 30 people
Where
In person at your place, UK and international
Built on
Your team's real work and people, not case studies
You keep
Your behaviours, defined in your words, and something made: posters, a playbook, a film or a card deck
What changes
Hiring gets sharper. You know what you're looking for, so interviews test for it.
Feedback gets specific. "Great job" becomes "the way you flagged that risk early saved us a week", and people know exactly what to do again.
New starters get up to speed sooner. They can see what good looks like here from their first week.
Performance and promotion conversations get fairer. Everyone is measured against the same, visible standard, not a manager's instinct.
Start from the ten, or make your own
The day starts from the ten behaviours in my free field guide, The 10 Behaviours of Effective Employees. Your team can adopt them, write its own using the same method, or, most often, keep some, rewrite others and add a few. We agree which route suits you on the call.
The ten behaviours
- 01Visibly passionate
- 02Open-minded
- 03Bigger than the job title
- 04Company-smart
- 05Customer-focused
- 06A relentless improver
- 07Dependable
- 08A good communicator
- 09Always adding skills
- 10Brave
Adopt the ten
Decide what each one looks like in your team.
Make your own
Build your set with the method behind the ten.
A mix
Keep some, rewrite some, add your own. The most common route.
Read the ten first in the free field guide: The 10 Behaviours of Effective Employees →
How the day works
Morning: noticing. Who on your team makes things better, again and again? What do they actually do? The group works from real people and real moments.
Midday: naming. Those observations become specific behaviours, written in your organisation's own voice and tone, so they sound like you rather than a poster from a catalogue.
Afternoon: committing and making. The team picks the behaviours that matter most right now, agrees what each looks like in practice, decides how to recognise them, and starts making the thing it will keep.
Make it something you keep
This is the part people remember. The day can end with the behaviours turned into something real:
- A set of posters, one per behaviour
- A printed team playbook
- A short film for new starters
- A photo essay of the behaviours in action
- A deck of cards for feedback and coaching conversations
It's optional, priced separately and agreed on the call.
Why behaviours, not values
Values say what an organisation stands for. Behaviours say what someone actually does on a Tuesday afternoon. "We value integrity" is hard to coach. "Says what they think in the meeting, not after it" is easy to spot, easy to praise and easy to practise. This day works in behaviours.
Who runs it
Rob Lambert wrote The 10 Behaviours of Effective Employees, now in its fourth edition. He has been VP of Engineering twice and VP of HR, so he's hired, coached, promoted and supported people from both sides of the desk. The workshop has run for teams of eight and organisations of eighty.
Questions people ask
Do we have to use your ten?
No. Plenty of teams start from the ten and end up with a set that's mostly their own. That's the point: the behaviours need to sound like you.
Is this a values or culture-deck exercise?
No. There's no values statement, no personality typing and no trust falls. You leave with specific, observable behaviours your team can use in hiring, feedback and onboarding straight away.
What happens after the day?
Your team keeps the definitions and whatever you made. An optional check-in a few months later shows what's stuck. For managers who want to coach the behaviours one-to-one, there's the Coaching & Development Guide.
How much does it cost?
It depends on the size of the group, where we're working and whether you add the making element, so we agree the price on the 20-minute call.
Start with a 20-minute call.
Tell me about your team and what you'd like good to look like. There's no pitch and no follow-up sequence. If it isn't the right fit, I'll say so.
Or email info@cultivatednotes.com. I usually reply within 48 hours.
For whoever holds the budget
The Ten Behaviours Workshop is a one-day session where our team agrees, in its own words, the behaviours that make our work good, so we can hire for them, coach them and recognise them. We can finish the day with something we keep, such as posters or a playbook. It's run by Rob Lambert, author of The 10 Behaviours of Effective Employees and former VP of Engineering and VP of HR. One day, 8 to 30 people, in person.