_{Struggling to build a culture where people take ownership without being micromanaged? Andrew Lo, President & CEO of Embark, shares his proven framework for creating learning organizations that innovate fearlessly. Learn how to measure success effectively, foster cross-functional collaboration, and develop the soft skills your team needs to thrive in an AI-powered workplace.}

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Why Most Organizations Fail at Building Accountability

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If you've ever felt frustrated watching talented team members wait for permission instead of taking initiative, you're facing one of leadership's toughest challenges. Most leaders want their people to own decisions and drive results, but creating genuine accountability without micromanagement feels impossible. The problem is that accountability and empowerment are learned behaviors that require intentional cultivation.

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Andrew Lo, President and CEO of Embark, has spent his career solving this exact challenge. As the leader of one of Canada's most innovative RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan) companies, Lo has built a culture that earned Embark Great Place to Work certification, with 91% of employees saying it's an exceptional workplace. His approach isn't about implementing the latest management fad, it's about creating systems where collaboration replaces hierarchy and people genuinely feel empowered to make decisions.​

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The breakthrough came when Lo stopped thinking about accountability as something you demand and started viewing it as something you teach. Too many organizations conflate empowerment with simply delegating tasks and hoping people figure it out. Real empowerment requires breaking down silos, establishing clear success metrics, and modeling the learning behaviors you want to see throughout your organization. When you get this right, innovation doesn't require special programs or innovation labs, it becomes how your team operates every single day.​

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The Collaboration Trap Leaders Need to Avoid

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Collaboration sounds like an obvious good, but Lo warns there's a dangerous trap most leaders fall into. When organizations push for more collaboration, they often end up with endless consensus-building that slows decisions to a crawl. The key isn't more collaboration, it's smarter collaboration focused on breaking down departmental walls.​

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Here's what this looks like in practice at Embark. When the team wanted to launch their innovative RESP gifting feature, a first-of-its-kind tool that lets family members contribute to children's education savings with a simple payment link, they couldn't treat it as just a product or technology initiative. Success required finance teams understanding the user experience, customer service knowing the technical limitations, and product leaders grasping the regulatory constraints.​

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Lo's solution was creating cross-functional project teams where people from different departments work together on specific initiatives rather than staying in their lanes. This approach surfaces problems early, when they're easier and cheaper to fix, rather than discovering disconnects after launch when customers are already frustrated. But here's the critical part: these teams need clear decision rights and success metrics, otherwise you get collaboration without accountability, which is just expensive meetings that don't move the needle.​

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The other piece Lo emphasizes is avoiding collaboration theater. Not every decision needs input from every stakeholder. Sometimes a leader needs to make a call and move forward. The art is knowing when to collaborate broadly, when to consult specific experts, and when to decide quickly. This clarity actually increases trust because people aren't wasting time in meetings where their input doesn't matter.​

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Measuring Success: The KPIs That Actually Drive Performance

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One of the most powerful shifts Lo made at Embark was getting crystal clear on how the organization defines and measures success. It sounds basic, but most companies operate with fuzzy metrics that mean different things to different teams. When success is ambiguous, people can't connect their daily work to meaningful outcomes.​

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Lo uses a straightforward framework that every employee understands. Embark measures customer satisfaction, the number of accounts opened, and financial performance. These aren't vanity metrics that look good on slides, they're indicators tied directly to the company's mission of helping Canadian families access education savings. When a customer service representative solves a problem quickly, they know they're improving satisfaction scores. When a product manager removes friction from the account opening process, they see it in the numbers.​

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But metrics alone don't create accountability. By reviewing these KPIs regularly with the entire organization, not just the executive team. This transparency does two things: it keeps everyone aligned on what matters most, and it creates healthy pressure to perform. When your team knows the numbers and understands how their work impacts them, they naturally start problem-solving and innovating without waiting for direction.​

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The key is building consensus on what success looks like before you cascade it down. Invest significant time upfront getting leadership aligned on definitions and targets. This prevents the common scenario where finance defines success one way, sales another way, and operations a third way, leading to internal competition instead of collaboration. Once consensus exists at the top, communicating success metrics becomes straightforward because everyone is telling the same story.​

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Creating Learning Organizations Through Experimentation

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The concept of a learning organization has been around for decades, but few leaders actually know how to build one. Lo's approach is refreshingly practical: you create learning cultures by modeling curiosity and providing concrete opportunities for growth.​

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Encourage your team to attend conferences, especially outside Canada (or wherever you are in the world), because exposure to different perspectives sparks new thinking. Lo runs hackathons where employees can experiment with new ideas without the pressure of immediate ROI. And critically, every employee has a learning budget they can use for courses, books, or professional development that interests them, not just what their manager thinks they need.​

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"Innovation thrives when you test small, fail fast, and scale what works. The goal isn't avoiding failure, it's making failures small enough that they become learning opportunities instead of catastrophes," -Andrew Lo, Embark

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Rather than betting big on untested ideas, teams run small experiments with limited risk. If something works, they scale it. If it doesn't, they learn quickly and move on without significant damage.​

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The mental shift this requires is significant. Most organizations treat failure as something to avoid at all costs, which paradoxically prevents innovation because people only pursue sure things. Lo flips this by making small, contained failures acceptable and even expected as part of the learning process. This doesn't mean lowering standards, it means creating psychological safety where people can take smart risks without fear of career consequences.​

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One practical way Lo builds this safety is through his own behavior. When he doesn't know something, he admits it openly and asks questions. When experiments don't work out, he focuses on what the team learned rather than pointing fingers. These small modeling behaviors send powerful signals about what's truly valued in the organization.​

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Empowerment vs. Accountability: Getting the Balance Right

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This is where most leaders struggle. How do you empower people to make decisions while still holding them accountable for results? Lo's framework offers a clear path forward by recognizing that empowerment and accountability aren't opposing forces, they're complementary skills that must be taught.​

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Empowerment without accountability creates chaos where people make decisions without understanding consequences. Accountability without empowerment creates micromanagement where people feel powerless and disengaged. The sweet spot is teaching people how to own decisions while giving them clear guardrails and support.​

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At Embark, this plays out through regular one-on-ones, transparent communication about business challenges, and involving employees in problem-solving. When the company faces a difficult decision, like navigating regulatory changes or responding to market shifts, Lo doesn't just announce the answer. He involves team members in understanding the problem, considering options, and making recommendations. This builds decision-making muscles that people can use when Lo isn't in the room.​

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The accountability piece comes through clear expectations and consistent follow-through. If someone commits to delivering something by a specific date, that commitment matters. But accountability conversations focus on understanding what happened and how to improve, not punishment. This distinction is crucial, especially when things go wrong. A learning organization treats mistakes as data rather than crimes.​

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Lo also emphasizes the importance of mental health and organizational resilience as foundations for accountability. Embark offers work-from-anywhere policies and enforces mandatory vacation time because burned-out employees can't be accountable. When people feel supported and valued as whole humans, they show up differently. They take ownership because they're invested in the organization's success, not just avoiding negative consequences.​

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Preparing for the AI-Driven Future of Work

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Ask most leaders what skills will matter most in five years, and you'll get vague answers about adaptability and innovation. Lo offers something more concrete: soft skills will become the ultimate differentiator as AI handles more technical work.​

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Think about what's already happening. AI can analyze data, write code, and process information faster than any human. What it can't do is build genuine relationships, navigate complex human emotions, or exercise creative judgment in ambiguous situations. These capabilities, relationship building, emotional intelligence, and nuanced problem-solving, are exactly what organizations will need from their people.​

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This insight shapes how Lo develops talent at Embark. Rather than focusing exclusively on technical skills that might become obsolete, he prioritizes helping people become better collaborators, communicators, and critical thinkers. The learning opportunities he creates, conferences, cross-functional projects, hackathons, are deliberately designed to build these human capabilities that AI can't replicate.​

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For leaders trying to prepare their teams, Lo's advice is practical: start now by creating opportunities for people to practice these skills. Put them on projects where they need to influence without authority. Give them complex problems where the right answer isn't obvious. Help them build relationships across the organization. These experiences develop the judgment and interpersonal capabilities that will be invaluable as work continues evolving.​

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The other piece is maintaining transparency about how AI will impact your organization. Rather than avoiding uncomfortable conversations about automation, Lo advocates for honest dialogue about changes ahead and involving employees in thinking through solutions. This demonstrates respect and gives people agency rather than leaving them anxious about an uncertain future.​

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From Theory to Practice: What This Means for Your Leadership

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Building learning organizations that balance empowerment and accountability is about consistently modeling the behaviors you want to see, creating systems that reinforce those behaviors, and having the patience to let organizational culture evolve.​

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• Start by getting clear on how your organization defines success. Can every employee articulate the three most important metrics your business tracks? If not, that's your first priority. Once you have clarity, make those metrics visible and review them regularly with your entire team, not just executives.​

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• Next, examine where silos exist in your organization and create cross-functional opportunities to break them down. This doesn't mean restructuring your entire company, it means forming project teams that bring together different perspectives to solve specific problems. Pay attention to whether these teams have real decision rights or are just advisory, because collaboration without authority to act frustrates people quickly.​

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• Then look at how you're building learning into your culture. Do people have time and budget for development? Are you modeling curiosity by admitting when you don't know something and asking questions? Are you celebrating smart experiments that didn't work out alongside successes? These signals matter more than any formal training program.​

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• Finally, think about how you're developing the soft skills your team will need for an AI-driven future. Are you creating opportunities for people to practice relationship building, emotional intelligence, and creative problem-solving? These capabilities don't develop from online courses, they develop from experience.​

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The leaders who thrive in the coming years won't be the ones with the best AI tools or the most sophisticated technology. They'll be the ones who built cultures where people take ownership, collaborate effectively, learn continuously, and bring uniquely human capabilities to their work. That's the kind of organization Andrew Lo has built at Embark, and it's the kind of organization any leader can create with intention and consistency.

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Ready to take empowerment and accountability to the next level?

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• To get practical tools and actionable tips that will jumpstart your journey, download the empowerment and accountability kick starter booklet here.
  
  
• Join the newsletter to be notified when a new episode is ready for you to listen and get every Kick Starter Booklet for all future episodes.
  
  
• And if you’re looking to elevate your entire C-Suite leadership team, learn how Craig Dowden can help your leaders perform at their highest-level visit https://www.craigdowden.com/executive-mastermind
  
  
• For a deeper dive, listen to the full-length episode of the Do Good to Lead Well podcast featuring Wes Adams & Tamara Myles:
  
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