Strong Teams: Building accountability and feedback skills for AstraZeneca
The context
AstraZeneca invited One Breath Leadership to design and facilitate a customized leadership and team workshop for its Market Access team at Manna Arcadia. The session was created as a dedicated space for reflection, alignment and practical development, supporting a team that was already very strong, with a healthy culture, high levels of trust, and a clear performance orientation.
The aim was to build on these strengths and help the team prepare for the next stage of its work. In a healthcare environment marked by increasing complexity, changing stakeholder expectations and evolving market access dynamics, strong collaboration becomes even more important. The team wanted to strengthen the behaviors that would help them continue working with clarity, ownership and trust as the field around them changes.
The workshop focused on the themes of trust, accountability, feedback and team collaboration, with an emphasis on practical application and real workplace conversations. The session included reflection, peer dialogue, behavioral frameworks, realistic practice and personal action planning.
The challenge
For high-performing teams, development is often about refinement rather than correction. Strong teams benefit from taking time to examine how they communicate, how they make commitments, how they give feedback, and how they hold each other accountable in the daily flow of work.
In AstraZeneca’s case, the workshop was designed to help an already strong team strengthen accountability and ownership in a way that felt relevant, practical and connected to their working reality. The intention was to create a shared understanding of what high ownership looks like across communication, preparation, deadlines, escalation and peer collaboration.
Feedback was also an important focus. Even in teams with strong relationships, feedback can be delayed, softened or avoided when people want to protect harmony or move quickly through a demanding workload. The workshop invited the team to explore how feedback can become clearer, earlier and more useful, while preserving the trust and professionalism that already characterized their culture.
The workshop was therefore designed as a proactive investment in the team’s next level of effectiveness. It gave participants the opportunity to pause, reflect on their ways of working and strengthen the behavioral foundations that will support them through future change.
The methodology
One Breath Leadership designed a customized workshop that combined leadership development, team facilitation, reflection, practical tools and structured conversation practice. The experience was designed to feel grounded, relevant and immediately applicable to the team’s day-to-day work.
Key elements of the methodology included:
Team connection and trust
The session created space for participants to reconnect as colleagues and reflect on what supports strong collaboration. The aim was to strengthen openness, mutual understanding and the relational foundation needed for honest dialogue.
Reflection on team dynamics
Participants explored what had been challenging, what had been successful, what they each bring to the team and what they need from one another. This helped surface important insights without framing the conversation around problems or deficits.
Accountability and ownership
Through a playful group activity, the team reflected on how ownership is demonstrated through communication, follow-through, preparation, escalation and proactive problem-solving.
Feedback and constructive conversations
The session helped participants practice how to give feedback in a way that is clear, respectful and actionable through structured role plays.
Realistic workplace practice
Participants worked with scenarios inspired by the types of situations that can arise in collaborative, cross-functional environments. The goal was to move from conceptual understanding to practical language and behavior.
Our methodology focused on two dimensions that matter in team performance: the inner dimension, which includes self-awareness, reflection and intentional response, and the relational dimension, which includes trust, communication, ownership, feedback and collaboration. This combination helped the team connect personal behavior with collective effectiveness.
The impact
The workshop gave AstraZeneca’s Market Access team a valuable opportunity to strengthen the behaviors that support high performance in a changing environment. It created a structured space for the team to reflect on how they work together, practice more constructive conversations and align around the standards of collaboration they want to carry forward.
More specifically, the session supported:
Greater clarity around what accountability and ownership look like in daily work
A stronger shared language for communication, preparation, escalation and follow-through
More confidence in giving feedback with clarity, respect and practical next steps
Stronger awareness of how everyday behaviors shape trust and collaboration
Practical experience in handling peer-to-peer and people manager conversations
More intentional reflection on how the team can prepare for upcoming changes in the field
Concrete personal commitments to support implementation after the workshop
Building capacity for change
The value of the session came from working with a strong team from a position of strength. AstraZeneca’s Market Access team already had a healthy culture and a high-performance mindset. The workshop helped deepen that foundation by creating time for reflection, honest dialogue and practical rehearsal of the conversations that matter most in complex work.
This collaboration reflects One Breath Leadership’s approach to leadership and team development. We design experiences that combine human connection with practical business relevance, helping teams strengthen the quality of how they communicate, collaborate and take ownership. For AstraZeneca’s Market Access team, the workshop at Manna Arcadia became a focused moment to prepare for what comes next, with greater clarity, accountability and shared commitment.
If you’d like to explore how similar off-site workshops can support your teams or leadership groups, check out our work and schedule an introductory call.