Manager Spotlight: Why Cross-Company Cohorts Beat In-House Training

Overview

Strong managers aren’t just born. They’re built. In this Manager Spotlight, we’re sharing Natalie Mastroianni’s experience in Oxygen’s Management Essentials program, and why she found cross-company cohorts more powerful than traditional in-house training.

Key Takeaways

Natalie’s journey shows why cross-company cohorts give managers an edge over in-house training:

• Psychological safety: It’s easier to be candid when your boss isn’t in the room.

• Fresh perspectives: Managers from other industries bring new ways of solving old problems.

• Confidence through practice: Role-plays and real-world application turn theory into behavior.

• Better business outcomes: Supported managers drive engagement, retention, and succession planning.

From In-House Training to Broader Perspectives

Natalie is no stranger to management training. A few years ago, her company ran a structured in-house program: two intensive days in person followed by six monthly online sessions. While helpful, the experience stayed confined to her organization’s own culture.

The problem? Everyone in the room approached management the same way. When questions came up, the answers were filtered through one company’s values and norms.

By contrast, when Natalie joined Oxygen’s Management Essentials program, she found herself in a cohort that included professionals from diverse backgrounds. The difference was immediate:

“When I’m in a training class with the head of HR, I’m not as likely to speak up. With peers from other industries, I could be honest. And the perspectives were different; attorneys, for example, manage cases instead of people. That gave me a whole new way of thinking about management.”

For Natalie, the mix of voices made the learning richer and more practical.

Why In-House Training Isn’t Enough for Today’s Managers

Natalie’s reflection highlights a common challenge with internal training programs: participants often hesitate to share openly. Discussing your toughest management struggles in front of your boss (or HR) can feel risky.

Research backs this up. Studies on psychological safety show that employees are less likely to raise concerns or admit mistakes when senior leaders are in the room. The result? Less candor, fewer breakthroughs, and less growth.

Oxygen’s cross-company design solves this problem by removing internal politics from the equation. Managers can be real about their challenges—and in doing so, they build the skills that actually matter back at work.

Why Cross-Company Cohorts Work Better

Natalie found three major advantages to training alongside managers from outside her company:

1. Safer Candor

With no internal hierarchy in the room, participants were free to share the real challenges they faced. For Natalie, this meant admitting struggles with delegation and speaking openly about boundaries; conversations she might not have had with her company’s senior leaders listening in.

2. Fresh Ideas

Exposure to diverse industries disrupted the “this is just how we do things here” mindset. Seeing how attorneys, nonprofit leaders, and startup managers applied the same frameworks gave Natalie new approaches she could adapt to her own work.

As she put it:

“Sometimes managers think, ‘I’ve been doing this for 20 years, why change?’ Oxygen showed me new ways. Not necessarily better, but fresher—and that matters.”

3. Broader Network

The program included one-on-one discussions between participants, giving Natalie a chance to connect outside her industry. These conversations reinforced that boundary-setting, delegation, and confidence were universal struggles—not just challenges in her company.

The Confidence to Have the Hard Conversations

Like many managers, Natalie was initially uncomfortable with role-play exercises. Practicing conversations with strangers made her palms sweat. But by the end of the program, her perspective shifted:

“By the end, I realized—if I can get through the cringe of role-play, I can absolutely have the real conversation.”

This is one of Oxygen’s differentiators. Weekly practice builds the muscle memory managers need to give feedback, delegate effectively, and set boundaries; all skills that reduce burnout and strengthen team performance.

How Companies Gain When Managers Learn Together

Cross-company cohorts don’t just help managers. They benefit organizations:

• More engaged managers.
  According to Gallup, managers account for about 70% of the variance in team-level employee engagement. When managers are confident and supported, their teams perform better.

• Reduced turnover.
  Managers account for the #1 reason people leave jobs. Supporting them reduces attrition in high-turnover roles.

• Succession planning.
  Natalie’s employer, ACS South, uses Oxygen to prepare rising managers for leadership roles as part of a five-year growth plan.

As Natalie noted:

“It feels like they’re investing in me, not just the company. That makes me want to stick around.”

Why Cross-Company Training Matters 

Today’s managers face more pressure than ever. According to Harvard Business Review, 53% of managers feel burned out at work, even higher than individual contributors. The old model of occasional in-house training isn’t enough to prepare managers for modern challenges.

That’s why Oxygen built a different model: frequent practice, cross-company perspectives, and coaching that sticks.

As Natalie’s story shows, when companies invest in this kind of manager development, they don’t just get better managers. They get stronger teams, reduced burnout, and higher retention.

Want to see how Oxygen’s cross-company cohorts can help your managers grow?