Darwin Strategies
Issues
The changes are simultaneous, far-reaching and rapid. The environment, technology, geopolitics and society: three major trends are converging and reinforcing one another, and each calls for decisions whose effects will be felt over several years.
Companies invest in infrastructure, technology and compliance, yet the ability to adapt lies primarily elsewhere – in the way men and women observe, make decisions and cooperate when the environment becomes unstable.
Whilst the relentless rush forward distances us from life itself, the organisations that will make a difference in the face of today’s challenges are those that know how to slow down, observe and chart new courses.
For a long time, organisations have sought to become resilient. To withstand challenges. To absorb shocks. To maintain balance. Faced with the current climate of instability, we do not merely see crises to be weathered. We see an opportunity to bring about a profound transformation in our behaviour in order to build a sustainable world.
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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.