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Mergers & acquisitions
This is our origin: we did our very first thorough sociological analysis of teams in the context of a large international merger about twenty years ago. This means that we have two decades of extensive experience in evaluating the fit between merging teams, of accurately predicting what their post-merger dynamics will be, and how much effort and cost will be incurred in the process of homogenizing distinct organizations into one functional unit.
Our experience reaches way beyond diagnostics again: we've both contributed and run point on post merger integration processes, supplying both the personnel side as well as the process landscape design side with insights that kept everything running smoothly. We've even won international awards for leading branding initiatives with insights about culture and behavior, and supported the actual corporate development teams while designing the merger.
The effect of our involvement was always significant: less friction, less frustration, team designs that worked like a charm instead of resulting in conflict, and a significantly reduced quota of unwanted talent turnover.
Productivity improvements
You're probably already tracking your teams' capabilities: what are they trained to do? What are they good at? What tasks have they successfully completed in the past?
But are you also aware of how much load they can take? Do you know how well their social and procedural surroundings support them in bearing the burden of their assigned tasks?
Your most experienced crew will perform worse than a bunch of trainees if they're overextended, forced to tiptoe around preposterous behavioral norms, or have been promoted out of a job they did really well into a job that brings them only stress and sorrow.
Modern sociological metrics can both determine and predict if a team's situation allows for their full productive potential. We use this to precisely define what a team needs to thrive and provide the best balance of creating value and requiring investment.
Cybersecurity
Even if your teams have passed their cybersecurity training with flying colors: are you confident that they can sustain the secure behaviors they learned, all day, every day? If their surroundings stress and exhaust them, they will make bad decisions. Regardless of how educated and willing they are to act securely, regardless of how well they do in phishing tests.
Bad actors know this, which is why social engineering today isn’t just »googling data about your employees to make fake emails look less fake«, but also things like flustering attacks: someone who woke up to an anonymous icky text message and got their car scratched will not be focusing on security that day. Hackers know how to lay the groundwork for a successful attack better than you know how to maintain conditions that foster secure behavior.
We can accurately measure the cybersecurity related weaknesses of your teams: not only whether they are at risk of being inattentive, distracted or complacent, but also whether they are capable of coping with them.
Sales development
There is almost no team in a modern enterprise that needs to master human nature more than sales, and we have very special relationships with them – mostly because we don't annoy them with »techniques«, but because we reveal to them the reasons and causes of the many behaviors they've already learned to read over the span of their careers. We help them become better at all the things they're already good at.
The most exciting type of project we can do in the context of sales empowerment is a combined analysis of the cultures of both the supplier and customer side. When sales teams have a good relationship with their buyers, we know how to help convince them to take part in a lightweight culture diagnostic, while the sales teams' organization goes through a full scale diagnostic.
The outcome is magical every time: just like a sociological analysis of teams within a single organization, an analysis of teams in multiple companies sheds new light on their interactions and dynamics, revealing new potentials and opportunities.
The result, averaged out over the last 5 such projects, is a 12% increase in business with existing customers, and this normally being mostly larger key accounts, translates into considerable growth.
Corruption prevention
One of the most exciting things about modern quantitative sociology is how often it is used for forensic analyses: numerous organizations do their very first sociological assessment when they're in deep trouble, whether it's in the context of a #metoo incident, or when there have been massive breaches of trust.
This is sad for the affected companies, but great for everyone else: it gives us access to extensive sociometric datasets that provide us with a deep understanding of the behavioral and cultural patterns that either lead to or indicate a risk of corruption or fraud.
In the past two decades, we saw these patterns only three times. On two occasions, investigations confirmed that there were indeed massive compliance issues in the corresponding teams, and the third instance revealed a very disgruntled team that was quite understandably on the verge of quiet quitting.
Technology adoption
Few things hurt organizations more than technologies that are bought but not adopted. They bind capital but don't contribute to productivity, they displace previously functioning systems, and they demand intense corrective attention. Deployed ≠ used.
But whether it’s grounded airplanes or unused software: adoption rarely fails because of the technology, since nowadays even the most daring systems »just work«. The cause is instead human nature.
A new way of doing things might be objectively better and faster, but the old methods are already learned and effortless. And to humans, »effortless« trumps »better« every time. See for yourself: we challenge you to learn this obviously better and faster technique of tying your shoes without feeling frustrated and drawn to the »old way«.
Technology adoption is currently one of the most studied sociological processes, since it is so impactful for the times we live in. Almost all research shows that every team needs their own unique pathway to adoption, and that there is no »one size fits all« solution. We know how to reveal these paths for each team in your organization, and our track record proves us right: On average, we take six months to sustainably increase use rates by 35% – without changing anything about the technology. A few years ago, we even got a very large sales team (n≈400) from 20% up to 65%, and the rate has been continuously increasing ever since.
Instability & restructuring
Sometimes, organizations require drastic changes to maintain their integrity or even existence. We've only had the chance to accompany a few such rationalization and restructuring processes, since the teams tend to get the least attention when it's about bare survival. But in the instances that we did, the result was a measurably reduced loss of top talent and a faster return to »old form« once the turmoil has passed.
We're not at liberty to discuss these experiences in detail, but rest assured that we're a reliable and discrete partner in helping you with some of the toughest decisions leaders are required to make.
Behavior change
Humans are uniquely capable of adapting to changing conditions and environments, yes, but it is no easy feat. Just reflect on your own experience: how often have you actually changed? How easy was it, and were »engaging change communications« and »exciting kick-offs« enough to rewire your behaviors? Probably not.
For a specific behavior to happen, teams need a motivation to act a certain way, the ability to act a certain way, and the opportunity to act a certain way. That third one is what most organizations skip: they train their talent to master new creative ways of being productive, but then drop them into the same old context, where any deviation from the »old ways« creates strife and stress.
If organizations invest heavily into teaching new behaviors, they shouldn't get a team into trouble with still »unchanged« colleagues and the outside world, who are irritated that their long time partners are suddenly behaving differently. If you allow this to happen, the new behaviors, while learned, will never become second nature and efficient.
To manage this, you need a full map of not only the dynamics of the teams as they are before any change, but also an accurate projection of what their dynamics will be as new behaviors unfold. With this knowledge, you need to build tolerance for a phase of months or weeks where your teams are readjusting and giving up on their old habits. During this phase, they won't be using the proven »old ways« anymore, and they won't yet be efficient and fully productive with the new ones. If the changing teams now get pressured about results, they will fall back on the »old ways« of getting things done, which then often gets mistaken for »resistance« against the new methods... as you see, once you look past the polish of simplified »change frameworks«, actual change is a mess that promises significant returns, but also requires more effort than you probably imagined.
Still want to do "change"? We're here for you, and you're in good hands. What you're about to go through once has been our daily work for the last two decades.
Internationalization
We don't leverage our cultural competence only for working across borders with clients across four continents. We also make it available for our clients to help them manage their international activities.
All our analyses take into account the mix of nationalities in an organization anyway: the culture in which someone grows up, and the norms and habits they instill, have a measurable impact on team behavior. Especially in Europe, where you can drive for half a day and pass through four different cultures, mastering this is essential, since you can neither apply nor force your deeply rooted criteria on teams with completely different deeply rooted criteria.
Outside of a full sociological diagnostic of various international teams in order to empower them to understand each other better and cooperate more productively, we also provide intensive training and coaching to leaders tasked with running highly heterogenous teams and organizations. We provide them with both the insight and the tools to make good, fact based decisions and provide bias control with as little effort as possible.