Making Change Stick: Clarity, Candor, Collaboration, Capability
Overview
Chesapeake Employers Insurance is Maryland’s largest workers’ compensation insurer. It was established as a state agency over 100 years ago as the state’s insurer of last resort, taking on the riskiest clients in Maryland - such as firefighters, police officers, etc. Today, it operates as a quasi-state agency with both a non-profit arm that manages state-based claims and as a stand alone for profit company that attracts and retains its own clients. Its Claims leadership team manages thousands of cases annually, directly shaping customer experience and organizational reputation.
The Claims department operates under demanding regulatory, budgetary, and emotional constraints, requiring time sensitivity, attention to detail, and public service commitment. Historically, this environment led to reactive communication and unclear role expectations. While staff developed strong technical skills, a lack of recognition and open communication resulted in fatigue, uncertainty, and reduced psychological safety.
Challenge
The Claims leadership team at Chesapeake Employers Insurance reflected a familiar pattern seen in many large and bureaucratic organizations: transformation on paper without real change in practice.
Symptoms Experienced:
Role ambiguity and duplicated effort
Urgency-driven, reactive communication
Burnout from constant firefighting
Low trust and disengagement
Success measured by outputs, not outcomes
Constantly shifting priorities and manufactured urgency
For Chesapeake, solving these issues was about safeguarding delivery. A claims operation running on rework and disengagement cannot consistently meet service expectations. For Unison Solutions, this case was a proving ground: demonstrating how to move beyond transformation in name only and build clarity, candor, collaboration, and capability for reliable delivery. These lessons mirror challenges in defense organizations where unclear decision rights and output-driven metrics stall modernization and compromise mission execution.
Approach
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Unison Solutions designed a structured program to shift behaviors and embed new ways of working.
Workshops: Cohort sessions on trust-building, structured communication, and collaborative problem-solving.
1:1 & Paired Coaching: Personalized coaching for all leaders to reflect on habits and test new approaches.
Peer Forums: Regular Identify–Discuss–Solve (IDS) sessions to normalize cross-role collaboration.
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Authority Matrix & Decision-Making Tool clarified who decides, who provides input, and who executes.
DiSC, Bridging to Behavioral Styles & Johari Windows improved self-awareness and communication across styles.
Shared Norms: Simple anchors like “clear is kind” reinforced psychological safety.
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100% of participants rated the module highly valuable (9–10).
Trust (8.4/10), communication (7.9/10), and collaborative problem-solving (8.4/10) all improved.
100% reported high intent to apply skills learned.
Leaders reported calmer, more deliberate communication, faster execution within clear decision bounds, and less isolation in problem-solving.
Staff described feeling “part of a team again” and more willing to speak candidly.
Conclusion
The Chesapeake Claims engagement shows how organizations can move from transformation on paper to transformation in practice.
Three lessons stand out:
Clarity of decision rights is essential; tools like the Authority Matrix reduced ambiguity and rework.
Culture change requires lived practice. Psychological safety and trust grow from repeated behaviors, not memos.
Outcomes drive engagement when delivery improvements are tied to meaningful results, morale and retention follow.
For DoW organizations, the broader implication is clear: sustainable change depends on leaders modeling new behaviors, clarifying decision rights, and tying outcomes to mission progress. Doing so enables faster, more reliable delivery and reinforces the pride and commitment teams need to sustain modernization.