Order of a dialogue with と言えば and となって

Question

I've been reading examples of how to use 肝に命じる, and in one of the examples there's this part:

また、いつまでもくどくどと説教する上司に 「分かりました。課長のおっしゃることを肝に銘じておきます」 と言えば、 「分かってくれたか」 となって話がスムーズに終わりやすいです。

I'm thinking the situation here is that first your boss gives you the same lecture again and again and at the end he says 「分かってくれたか」, to what you can respond with 「分かりました。課長のおっしゃることを肝に銘じておきます」. In this way the conversation will end easily(話がスムーズに終わりやすいです)

Is this right or is the situation different? I'm asking because It kind of seems like someone(not sure if the boss or the speaker) says 「分かってくれたか」 after the speaker said 「分かりました。課長のおっしゃることを肝に銘じておきます」

Answer 1

This sentence is putting forth the theoretical:

If your tell your boss, who is giving you an endless lecture, 'Yes sir, I'll be sure to remember what you've told me.', (the rest of) the talk will end smoothly, with him thinking 'He gets it now, doesn't he.'.

Or, put in the form of a conversation:

'Blah, blah, blah. Do this. Don't do that. Blah blah.'
'Yes. sir. You are absolutely correct. I'll be sure to remember that.'
'You've got it, huh?'

The final か in 「分かってくれたか」can be viewed as rhetorical in the sense that the boss is making a statement of observation, either to himself or to the theoretical employee. Related answer here.

「分かってくれたか」 となって doesn't mean that it is spoken, it can just be a thought or a tone.

*Incidentally, according to Kotonoha, the 肝に銘じ～ is by far the most popular way of writing the expression with 149 results. 肝に銘ず～ and 肝に命～ having only 13 results between them. Use of 命 in this circumstance seems to be considered incorrect.