Smart Collaboration

Our toughest and highest value challenges are becoming more VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. These complex problems require experts to integrate their knowledge in order to generate higher-impact solutions than anyone could produce on their own. Smart Collaboration is intentional integration of diverse skills and experience to tackle VUCA problems

Our toughest and highest value challenges are becoming more VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. Issues like climate change, regulation, pandemics, political uncertainty, technology disruption, cybersecurity and diversity and including are making business challenges more VUCA.

No one individual can solve these challenges on their own. This is why collaboration is essential and where the Accelerator can help – by understanding behavioral tendencies and effectively deploying them, organizations can improve the degree of collaboration, helping the company and the employees thrive.

When you are aware of your natural tendencies and make smart choices about how to deploy them in a team setting, you have the power to help the group to leverage members’ potential and make collaboration work better.

This is where the Smart Collaboration Accelerator comes in:  Understand your behavioral tendencies and effectively deploy them to drive improved collaboration and its financial, strategic and talent-related benefits.

Data Privacy 

It is important that individuals taking the Accelerator are confident that they can complete the report in an honest and confidential manner. 

You will receive a copy of the report immediately after taking the Accelerator. If you are working with a coach/talent development leader they typically received a copy of your report. If you do not want them to have access please talk with them directly.

Yes

We collect names, e-mails, reporting structures (in the case of Leader Insights Reports) and respondent’s answer to multi-choice survey questions

Data and reports are kept for up to 12 months – unless agreed otherwise

The provided data is used to create the Individual Accelerator and the Leader Insights Report.  Furthermore, the aggregated and anonymized data is used for ongoing statistical analysis and research. 

All data is hosted on servers based in the US.

All data in transit is encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS) v1.0 or higher.

Participant information is stored in secure data centers that are ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certified.

Platform/Access 

The latest versions of all modern desktop browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge) will support the Smart Collaboration Accelerator.

Smart Collaboration Accelerator

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator is a research-based psychometric assessment that helps individuals, leaders and teams understand their behavioral tendencies and turn those behaviors into ‘catalysts’ for Smart Collaboration.

Our research has identified seven behavioral dimensions associated with Smart Collaboration. Understanding your profile with respect to each dimension will allow you to become more thoughtful about when those behavioral tendencies promote effective collaboration, and ways to flex them dependent on the context, such as the business need, team dynamics, and your role.

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator is designed to help busy professionals collaborate effectively. The actionable insights now include recommendations specifically tailored to groups with remote workers.

Assessment: A short 10min psychometric self-assessment.

Individualized insights: An actionable, personalized report that identifies ways to leverage your attributes for Smart Collaboration, with specific insights on virtual work.

The Leader Insights Report to help understand the dynamics within the team and insights on how to coach, motivate and deploy the team’s collaboration skills.

The Leader Insights Report is an aggregation of multiple Individual Accelerator reports.  The report includes an overview of the team profile, specific actionable recommendation and watch out to help the leader drive Smart Collaboration.

We highly recommend working with an Accredited Partner to debrief the Accelerator and Leader Insights Report. We believe individualized support through one-on-one coaching is the best way to embed insights from an assessment and translate those insights into action. 

The Individual Accelerator and Leader Insights Report fee does not cover coaching.  We have developed a network of Accredited Partners who can deliver the Smart Collaboration Accelerator and work with you and your teams to implement more effective collaboration.

The insights and practical recommended actions from the Individual Accelerator and Leader Insights Report can be used in conjunction with coaching, workshops and other training situations to address a range of collaboration-related business challenges. The Accelerator helps individuals and leaders draw on the diverse strengths of groups to: 

      1. address VUCA issues
      2. drive innovation
      3. achieve the value of out post-merger integration
      4. successfully on-board senior hires
      5. drive engagement in distributed teams
      6. breakdown the barriers of organizational silos, functions and geographies
      7. support diversity and inclusion

Our research has demonstrated, across industries and geographies, the quantifiable commercial and talent benefits of Smart Collaboration. Building on these concepts, the Accelerator helps individuals and teams realize these benefits.

For Individuals:

  1. Understand your strengths – discover your collaborative tendencies and how to use them
  2. Enhance your impact – deploy your strengths to increase your collaborative effectiveness
  3. Engage your clients – identify needs and develop novel solutions through collaboration
  4. Grow revenue – provide unique solutions addressing complex higher-value issues

For Teams

  1. Differentiate – bring together deep functional and industry expertise to drive unique insights
  2. Innovate faster – identify novel solutions by accessing and combining cross-domain ideas
  3. Engage your leaders – drive strategy and execution by enhancing collaboration across silos
  4. Retain talent – engage staff, which makes them more productive and likely to stay
  5. Grow revenue – address the complex needs and deliver the higher value solutions
  6. De-risk the business – institutionalize clients through deeper and broader relationships

Individual Accelerator

The Assessment

It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire

The Accelerator is a behavioral assessment tool designed to help you understand your behavioral preferences.  Our natural behavioral preferences do not change based on the context.

You should answer the questions based on your behavioral preference. 

Your Individual Accelerator report is available on-line as soon as you complete the questionnaire. The report can be viewed on-line or downloaded as a PDF.

The Leader Insights Report is generated by aggregating the data from multiple Individual Accelerator reports.  We provide this report either when all respondents have completed their individual questionnaires or when the clients decide to run the report

The Accelerator is currently available only in English.

Research and Methodology

No. The Accelerator identifies and quantifies an individual’s ‘behavioral tendencies’. 

These are not immutable aspects of an individual’s personality but their natural ways of behaving. There are no good or bad behavioral preferences. No matter where a person sits on each dimension, this strength can be used as a ‘catalyst’ to improve collaboration when used with intentionality.

No.  The Smart Collaboration Accelerator assesses an individuals’ behavioral preferences.  These are not immutable aspects of an individual’s personality but their natural ways of behaving.

Individuals can flex their styles and may vary their behavior depending upon the context. Behavioral preferences generally do not change over time. 

The Accelerator identifies and quantifies an individual’s ‘behavioral tendencies’. These are not immutable aspects of an individual’s personality but their natural ways of behaving. There are no good or bad behavioral preferences. No matter where a person sits on each dimension, this strength can be used as a ‘catalyst’ to improve collaboration when used with intentionality.

  1. Wary / Trusting: The level of inherent and contextual trust in others
  2. Complex / Concrete: Attraction to more complex problems and innovation
  3. Risk Spotter / Risk Seeker: Balancing risk with opportunity when working with others
  4. Close / Distant: The frequency and nature of communication with others
  5. Hands on / Hands off: Level of need for control of one’s environment / work
  6. Responder / Initiator: Taking the initiative and anticipating events
  7. Individual / Group: Prioritizing working in groups on one’s own

Our research of hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals has identified seven behavioral tendencies which most influence Smart Collaboration.  These are the seven dimensions of Smart Collaboration. 

The seven dimensions of Smart Collaboration are independent behavioral tendencies.

Yes.

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator is a reliable instrument. The Accelerator scale shows strong internal consistency (alpha .82) All catalysts are conceptually and statistically valid

Each catalyst shows convergent validity. Initial research shows an ability to predict collaboration as measured by billing records. Exciting research ongoing to refine the instrument and our ability to predict various kinds of collaboration

Yes. While an individual’s catalysts are unlikely to change, their ability to flex might.

When team composition changes due to organic growth or M&A, the group report changes too – helpful for everybody and the leader to know the new makeup.

There are no ‘good or bad’ behavioral tendencies.   

The Smart Collaboration Accelerator measures the strength of an individual’s tendency from zero being neutral or Balanced to 5 being High. Since each dimension has two poles (for example Wary or Trusting) an individual will either by High Wary (5 on the Wary side of the scale), balanced (towards the middle or zero on the scale) or High Trusting (5 on the Trust side of the scale). 

We use a proprietary algorithm to generate the High Priority Actions and Watch Outs. Some of the factors in the algorithm include the strength of an individual’s position on the scale.

No. There are no ‘good or bad’ behavioral tendencies.  However, individuals can behave in ways that are highly collaborative or anti collaborative.

The Accelerator helps individuals understand their behavioral tendencies and use them as strengths and with intentionality to behave in a way that builds collaboration. The Recommendations and Watch Outs provide specific actions to improve collaboration and blind spots to watch out for.

No. We intentionally put the dimensions in random order from top to bottom as well as left to right

We did not want to imply that behaviors on the top or right are good nor that behaviors on the bottom or left are bad.

Results, Report and Access

We retain the reports on the system for one year unless a client requests that they be removed earlier.

Individuals can immediately download a copy of their report after completing the Individual Accelerator.

We will only share the results of the Individual Accelerator report with the respondent and their Accredited Partner. We do not share results with anyone else in the respondent’s organization. 

Use of the Report

No. The Smart Collaboration Accelerator is designed for developmental purposes.  It is not an aptitude test. 

The test may not be used for hiring, remuneration, performance evaluation, or promotion decisions.  You must not disclose information about individual team member profiles to any other party internally or externally without the permission of the individual.

Leader Insights Report 

The Leader Insights Report aggregates multiple individual Accelerator assessments to create a team profile. Like the Individual Accelerator Report, the Leader Insights Report provides specific, tailored and actionable recommendations for driving collaboration (within the team and across other silos) based on its unique profile. It also provides watch outs. When paired with the team leader’s Individual Accelerator Report, the leader will gain:

  1. a better understanding of their own collaborative strengths and how to deploy them
  2. insights into how to motivate and manage the team based on members’ behaviors and needs
  3. practical, actionable recommendations and watch-outs which can enhance collaboration
  4. a data-driven, objective way to engage with their team to drive collaboration
  5. an appreciation for how diverse styles enhance collaboration, which promotes inclusivity and engagement
  6. a shared, behavior-based language that supports a collaborative culture and enhances people’s ability to give constructive feedback
  7. The Leader Insights Report can be debriefed directly to the Leader and it can form the foundation of a workshop session for the entire team.
  8. Individual data is aggregated in the Leader Insights Report so that individual members cannot be identified.

While we believe it is important for the Leader to understand their own profile in the context of the team, it is not required for the Leader to take the Assessment in order to generate a Leader Insights Report.

Yes, the Leader Insights Report is the aggregation of multiple Individual Reports and contains unique insights, recommendations and watch outs based on the overall profile of the group.

Yes, if the Leader has taken the Accelerator. 

The Leader Insights Report is frequently shared with the entire team and used to facilitate group discussions. The responses in the Leader Insights Report are anonymized so that the responses of any one individual can not be identified. 

A team typically has a high degree of interdependence in their output whereas a group may share reporting lines but their daily work and responsibilities are largely independent. 

Yes. The Accredited Partner and Leader will gain important insights into the team/group dynamics from the Leader Insights Report.  The Accredited Partner and Leader will need to think about the specific work context, goals, and barriers to collaboration to refine and prioritize specific actions. 

Three

Yes. The Smart Collaboration Accelerator is a powerful tool to help new teams and new joiners.

Research has shown that new joiners have 6-12 months to integrate into the new organization before they have a high risk of derailing.   The Accelerator can help the new joiner understand their own behavioral preferences as well as those of the team and therefore more rapidly determine how to collaborate effectively for greater impact.  

Teams need to understand how to leverage the strengths of the individual team members to help solve complex problems.  This is a particular challenge for new teams where the group lacks experience-based insights into the strengths of the group. The Smart Collaboration Accelerator can help create a common language around behavioral preferences and enable the group to more effectively leverage the diversity of the team.