Darwin Strategies
Issues
Organisations are facing impacts that they struggle to measure. Heat impairs the performance and safety of exposed teams, cognitive load affects the quality of decision-making, and interpersonal dynamics determine a group’s ability to cope under pressure. These phenomena are very real and are felt on a daily basis, yet they often remain invisible to conventional management tools.
In the absence of objective measures, decisions are made on the basis of intuition. It is difficult to identify areas of vulnerability, to justify investments in adaptation, and to monitor the actual impact of the actions taken. Adaptability thus becomes a topic that everyone talks about, but which few organisations quantify.
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Our response
Darwin Strategies makes adaptability measurable. Backed by the Human Adaptation Institute, we operate as a consultancy that assesses teams’ adaptability across three complementary dimensions: physiological, cognitive and social.
Our protocols have been developed in two complementary areas. They have been tested under extreme conditions, in arid deserts and humid jungles, where physiological, cognitive and social responses manifest themselves with rare clarity. They have since been applied in the workplace, across organisations of all sizes and in all sectors, ensuring that the results are both scientifically robust and easily interpretable in an everyday working context.
During the Deep Time and Deep Climate projects, we have accumulated thousands of hours of physiological and cognitive measurements in real-world conditions. We adapt these tried-and-tested protocols into studies tailored to your organisation, to objectively assess how people feel, prioritise what matters and track progress.
We carry out assessments to ensure that adaptation can be treated in the same way as an industrial investment. An organisation that understands where its vulnerabilities lie protects its teams, safeguards its operations and undertakes its transformations on a solid footing, which ensures its long-term viability and makes a tangible contribution to building a liveable world.
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What we are developing
- Physiological markers. How the body responds to stress and the strain of adaptation, as measured using tried-and-tested protocols under extreme conditions.
- Cognitive tests. Fatigue and cognitive load, in order to identify the threshold beyond which decision-making deteriorates, and thus to take action before the load becomes a risk.
- Sociometric tools. The real dynamics of a group: cooperation, the flow of information, tensions and informal roles, beyond the official organisational chart.
- Adascore®. Mapping the adaptability of a team or organisation to provide an objective and shared understanding of its strengths and areas for improvement.
- Global Adaptability Index (GAI®). Our most comprehensive method for assessing an organisational system as a whole and tracking its development over time.
- ACTE³™, our framework. Four pillars and twelve parameters which link each measure to a specific course of action, and which provide a common framework for all the studies.
Darwin Strategies
Our Formats
Quick diagnosis
A rapid assessment of a specific area, to quickly gain an objective view of an issue and decide on the next steps.
Instrumented study
A real-world cohort study combining physiological markers, cognitive tests and field observations.
Adascore® & GAI® mapping
An assessment of adaptability at team level or across the entire organisation, with a report and prioritised recommendations.
Bespoke study
A protocol tailored to your specific issue, designed by our research team by combining scientific methodology with practical experience.