Responsibility

The Dorsch Dictionary of Psychology does not define the term responsibility without the word "social". In the team context, we are primarily concerned with responsibility in relation to other people, which is why the definition of social responsibility is considered an important part of the construct. Social responsibility has both the aspect of supporting the welfare of others and pursuing one's own goals without harming others in the process (Bierhoff, 2020).

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Bierhoff, H. (2020, October 29). soziale Verantwortung. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/soziale-verantwortung

Personality

Personality is understood as the totality of all temporally stable characteristics that can be used to describe a person's experience and behavior (Asendorpf, 2020).

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Asendorpf, J. (2020, September 03). Persönlichkeit. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/persoenlichkeit

Ways of Working

According to the Duden dictionary, working methods are the way of working, the method of working. Components of a person's working methods are, for example, the desired way of interacting, the preferred focus working hours and the skills of a person.

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https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Arbeitsweise

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Motivation

The term "motivation" means movere in Latin, to move. Motivation describes processes that involve setting and evaluating goals (Achtziger, 2020).

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Achtziger, A., Gollwitzer, P., Bergius , R., & Schmalt, H., & (2020, October 29). Motivation. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/motivation<br>

Role

Derived from the French word "rôle," which refers to the role of an actor in theater, Driskell, Driskell, Burke & Salas (2017) define the role a team member takes on as an internalized, enduring repertoire of behaviors. Roles are important in teams because they represent patterns of behavior associated with the activities of other team members in pursuit of the team goal. Because performing a role is associated with a particular pattern of behavior-and behavior in a social context always affects those around us-the role one team member performs has an impact on other team members.

For example, a person joins a new team. She is used to making decisions as it suits her personality, and moreover, she also made the decisions in her old team. Now that role is already filled on the new team. The new team member can now either choose a different role that fits the personality or compete with the other team member for that role - a conflict can arise.

A team constellation in which multiple team members try to take on the same role can reduce the effectiveness of the team by leading to inefficiency and conflict. On the other hand, a team is more likely to be successful if every role is filled. In either case, role allocation has an impact on the team's behavior and thus on the achievement of the team's goal (Driskell et al., 2017). This shows the importance of first being clear about the roles in a team and second assigning them according to each individual's personality. soft.fact does this by using a model that assigns core role tendencies and links personality and roles.

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Driskell, T., Driskell, J., Burke, C., Salas, E. (2017). Team Roles: A Review and Integration. Sage Publications

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a translation of the Pali term sati, which refers to the mind's ability to stay with something and be present with attention (Walach, 2020).

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Walach, H. (2020, October 29). Achtsamkeit. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/achtsamkeit

Self-efficacy

Efficacy beliefs or self-efficacy beliefs serve to assess one's own possibility of being able to realize measures to cause consequences. Accordingly, self-efficacy expectancy is the generalized conviction or specific expectation of achieving desired results with one's own behavior (Heinecke-Müller, 2020).

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Heinecke-Müller, M. (2020, October 29). Wirksamkeitsüberzeugungen, Selbstwirksamkeitsüberzeugungen. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/wirksamkeitsueberzeugungen-selbstwirksamkeitsueberzeugungen

Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is understood as the multidimensional ability to recognise feelings, to deal with and use feelings and to express feelings appropriately (Rindermann, 2020).

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Rindermann, H. (2020, October 29). Intelligenz, emotionale. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/intelligenz-emotionale

Values

A value describes what a person considers desirable and worthwhile for himself and others (Kluckhohn, 1951). Values guide people's behavior and form the basis of decisions (Frey, 2016).

Kluckhohn, C. (1951). Values and value orientations in the theory of action. In T. Parsons, & F. A. Shields (Eds.), Toward a general theory of action (pp. 388-433). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Frey, D. (2016). Psychology of values. Springer Verlag: Berlin Heidelberg

Trust

According to the Duden dictionary, trust is a firm conviction of the reliability of a person or thing. Trust is defined in many different ways, but the definitions have in common that trust is an advance performance of the person(s) trusting associated with a positive expectation of the future. Trust implies taking individual or collective risks, as trust can be linked to negative consequences (Clases, 2020).

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Clases, C. (2020, October 29). Vertrauen. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/vertrauen

https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Vertrauen

Learning

Learning potential describes a competence that is not only about the ability to learn, i.e., the ability to learn, but also about the will to learn, i.e., the motivation to learn (Sarges, 2020).

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Sarges, W. (2020, October 29). Lernpotenzial. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/lernpotenzial

Resilience

Resilience describes an individual's ability to thrive despite adverse and critical life events (Warner, 2020).

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Warner, L. (2020, October 29). Resilience. In Dorsch Encyclopedia of Psychology. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/resilienz

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Motives

A motive is considered to be the latent evaluative disposition for goals and situation characteristics that lead to the expectation of goal achievement or goal failure. Motives refer to content classes of goals. Motives can be understood as organism-side determinants of motivation and thus as internal causes of behavior (Puca, 2019).

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Puca, R. (2021, January 12). Motiv. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/motiv

Communication

Communication refers to a process in which an individual or group conveys information about ideas, feelings, and intentions to another individual or group. Communication goes beyond the mere transmission of a message; in addition to the exchange of information, motivational, emotional and social aspects are significant (Bierhoff, 2021).

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Bierhoff, H. (2021, October 29). soziale Verantwortung. In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/soziale-verantwortung

Proactivity

Proactivity can be understood as a trait that includes identifying and acting on opportunities. Also characteristic of proactive behavior is showing initiative and taking action and maintaining action until meaningful change occurs (Crant, 1995).

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Crant, M. (1995). The Proactive Personality Scale and Objective Job Performance Among Real Estate Agents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80(4), 532-537.

Performance

The Dorsch Lexicon of Psychology defines performance as the value created by the expenditure of energy. Psychologically, performance is the use of a person's available abilities as well as their result. The term "collective intelligence" is also closely intertwined with team performance and is described in a study by the Boston Consulting Group and Awaris as "a groups ability to perform the wide variety of tasks required to reach a goal" (Greiser et al., 2020).

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Performance (2020, October 29). In Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie. Retrieved from: https://dorsch.hogrefe.com/stichwort/leistung

Greiser, C., Martini, J., Stephan, L., Tamdjidi, C. (2020) Tap Your Company's Collective Intelligence With Mindfulness. Boston Consulting Group x Awaris

Team roles of soft.fact

Driskell et al. postulate that the models of a variety of researchers simply use different labels for similar role dimensions. For this reason, they developed the TRIAD (Tracking Roles In and Across Domains) model, which describes three primary behavioral dimensions underlying team role behavior: Dominance, Sociability, and Task Orientation.

a diagram of a 3d scatter plot
Figure 2. Three-dimensional scatterplot of the 13 role clusters. Note: SOC = sociability; TASK = task orientation; DOM = dominance. Derived from Driskell, T., Driskell, J., Burke, C., Salas, E. (2017). Team Roles: a review and integration. Sage Publications

Based on this model, Driskell et al. conducted a cluster analysis of 154 team roles described in previous research. On this basis, they identified 13 primary team role clusters: Team Leader, Task Completer, Problem Solver, Evaluator, Teamwork Supporter, Follower, Coordinator, Social, Task Motivator, Critic, Attention Seeker, Power Seeker, Passive. These role dimensions are referred to as core roles. 10 of the 13 core roles are considered social roles (Team Leader, Task Completer, Problem Solver, Evaluator, Teamwork Supporter, Follower, Coordinator, Social, Task Motivator, Critic), 3 are considered antisocial roles (Attention Seeker, Power Seeker, Passive). The distinction is based on the positive or negative impact the role has on the functionality of the team.

Job satisfaction

The Dorsch Dictionary of Psychology defines job satisfaction as a positive emotional state resulting from one's evaluation of one's job or experiences in one's job (Locke, 1976).

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Locke, E. A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. In M. D. Dunnette, Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1297-1349). Chicago: Rand McNally.

Big 5

The Big 5 are a taxonomy of five basic personality dimensions: Neuroticism or Reversed Emotional Stability (tendency to be anxious and nervous), Extraversion (tendency to be sociable, dominant, and cheerful), Openness (tendency to be preoccupied with deep and fine subjects), Agreeableness (tendency to be friendly and harmonious), Conscientiousness (tendency to plan for the long term, self-discipline, and diligence). The Big 5 are broad personality dimensions that can be used to describe personality differences across cultures. Historically, similar five factors have been found repeatedly in different data sets (overview: John et al., 2008), so they can all be interpreted as Big 5 and a five-factor structure can be considered very robust. The Big 5 is the best known and most widely used trait taxonomy in personality research. The Big 5 allow psychology to have a common language for naming and communicating about basic personality dimensions. Therefore, they have an integrating and guiding effect on the field, which now has numerous studies on the predictive power, transcultural equivalence, stability over time, and development across the life span of the Big 5.

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Rauthmann, J. (2016). Fünf Faktoren Modell. Dorsch Lexikon der Psychologie

Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of personality and social psychology, 113(1), 117.

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Openness

Openness is one of the personality traits of the Big 5 personality model. It is defined by an outspoken nature and unreserved honesty.Characteristic of a high trait in Openness are a wide range of interests, curiosity about dealing with complex issues, and creativity in developing new ideas. Low levels of openness are characterised by a pragmatic focus, a consistency of ideas and a preference for routine with little interest in abstract or imaginative thought.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is one of the personality traits of the Big 5 personality model. It is defined by following socially prescribed norms for impulse control and by behaving in a purposeful, planned, and well-structured manner. Characteristic of a high expression in Conscientiousness are an efficient, consistent way of working, a preference for neatness and order, and reliable consistency. Characteristic of low Conscientiousness are a comfortable leisureliness with a tendency to procrastinate, a high tolerance for chaos, and a tendency to be erratic, which may be accompanied by recklessness or irresponsibility.

Extraversion

Extraversion is one of the personality traits of the Big 5 personality model. It is defined as a mental attitude characterized by concentration of interests on external objects. Introversion is understood as the opposite of extraversion. People with an introverted nature tend to concentrate their interest away from the outside world and toward inner-soul processes. Characteristic of a high level of extraversion is an energetic, enthusiastic drive, a high degree of assertiveness with a tendency to take the lead, and a high level of sociability and talkativeness. Characteristic of a low expression in extraversion is a less enterprising, with enthusiasm restrained nature, the tendency to adaptability in groups and a quiet reclusiveness.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness is one of the personality traits of the Big 5 personality model. It is defined by a sense of community, a willingness to cooperate and identify with others. Characteristic of a high expression in Agreeableness are a respectful, courteous politeness, a tendency to be empathetic, warm-hearted, helpful, and selfless in compassion, and a tendency to be indulgent and trusting of others. Characteristic of low levels of agreeableness are directness, which can come across as brusque and rude, a tendency to detachment and indifference, and emotional detachment, which can lead to mistrust and frequent criticism.

Emotional stability

Emotional stability is one of the personality traits of the Big 5 personality model. Emotional stability and emotional lability are two human patterns of dealing with emotions. For a person with a stable emotional system, only a high level of activation will cause them to react emotionally. For a person with an unstable emotional system, even a low level of activation causes them to react emotionally, their emotions "boil over" quickly. People who tend to react emotionally quickly also take longer to recover from the emotional outburst. In contrast, people who only experience an emotional outburst in response to very strong stimuli recover much more quickly. Characteristic of a high expression in Emotional Stability are a secure, calm composure, a self-assured, contented confidence, and a balanced relaxedness that is accompanied by a controlled communication of feelings. Characteristic of a low level of Emotional Stability are anxiety, which is characterized by tension and worry, a tendency to joyless dejection, and volatility of feelings, which is accompanied by irritability and moody, fluctuating moods.

Soft Facts

There is no precise definition of Soft Facts in the scientific literature (yet). We refer to everything that makes up a person - hard facts (professional competencies), soft skills (methodological competence, social competence, personal characteristics, etc.) - as well as the result that emerges from group dynamic processes as soft facts. This outcome includes personal experience, trust, responsibility, communication, mindfulness, resilience, motivation, emotional intelligence, self-efficiency, proactivity and learning. By looking at these dynamic processes that occur in the social context between people, it is possible to make Soft Facts measurable - just like hard facts.

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Greiser, C., Martini, J., Stephan, L., Tamdjidi, C. (2020) Tap Your Company's Collective Intelligence With Mindfulness. Boston Consulting Group x Awaris

https://wirtschaftslexikon.gabler.de/definition/harte-und-weiche-faktoren

https://wirtschaftslexikon.gabler.de/definition/soft-skills

https://dorsch.hogrefe.com





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What others say
"If you are even remotely thinking in the direction of "Data-Driven Leadership," you can't ignore soft.fact as a tool. It has allowed us to obtain reliable information in an international organization of 600 employees, which has made the selection of change agents many times easier. As a result, the effort in transformation projects is drastically reduced for all stakeholders. We at co:nufactur are not just customers but also big fans!"
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Daniel B. Werner

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"I can answer all questions for individuals and groups on the path to high-performing, healthy teams with soft.fact, because I finally have a solution that measures and makes performance and well-being visible. The soft.fact team development is not a one-hit wonder, but a continuous process in which my clients drive their own development and align it with their needs. In addition, soft.fact provides me with a tool whose scientific foundation combines singular competing products - a methodological diversity that I cannot use with any other solution for working with my clients. I find all of this brilliant and professional!"
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Anja Schramke

Consultant & Coach

"soft.fact offers a powerful software solution for building teams by addressing the key aspects of trust, communication and collaboration. Through the workshops, soft.fact enables team members to gain a better understanding of their personality traits and thus improve their ability to work together successfully. By strengthening cohesion and openness, soft.fact helps teams to build trust and increase enjoyment and fun. This makes soft.fact an excellent tool for organizations that want to develop high performing teams."
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Caroline Osswald

Head of Recruiting

"By using soft.fact, we now have a better understanding of each other and our different behaviors, which leads to a stronger - and above all, human - focus in our collaboration. We were able to distribute our tasks according to the strengths of each individual and also clearly define our criteria for new team members based on the team's needs and roles. In summary, everyone now feels seen and understood, and work is more enjoyable."
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Nora Alfen

Head of Acceleration

"With soft.fact, we have found a way to get to know and understand each other better as a team. The exchange about personal strengths as well as the resulting growing understanding for each other has a positive effect on the climate and cooperation in the team."
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Head of Marketing

"My team is responsible for the most important business customers and is in constant exchange with all customers and all relevant interfaces at Telefónica. Thanks to soft.fact, we have improved our cooperation. soft.fact has held up a mirror to us and shown us where we can use our strengths even better in order to position ourselves even better as a team and as mediators for our customers. I am very happy to have advanced our team development with soft.fact - thank you!"
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FAQs

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What distinguishes soft.fact from its competitors?

With us, customers get the full package. They understand the culture of an organization, what teams need for better collaboration, and the needs of employees. This is possible through the most comprehensive analyses and results on the market, in order to fundamentally understand team dynamics in their diversity. In addition to the results for understanding one's own behavior, triggers, and potentials, we also provide direct action measures for improving the situation of employees.

How do employees benefit from using soft.fact?

In essence, it’s about discussing what makes people who they are at work.Through our analyses, employees get the opportunity to a) get to know themselves better and b) talk to their colleagues about it, as they are visible as individuals. In this way, employees can be who they are at work, as there is an understanding in the team of the Role, Personality, Values, Ways of Working, etc. of each and every individual - and whoever can be who they are at work is happier, more productive, and more satisfied.

How do we convince the works council?

Through a consistently implemented concept for user safety and privacy. In addition to GDPR and IT security compliance, databases are also secure according to the latest standards. Our software allows for fully anonymized work. All functionalities and results are also available to teams that want to work anonymously and still generate added value for themselves. Users can voluntarily share results with others within a team. They always have control over who sees what. This allows works councils to approve a tool that enables employees to grow personally while protecting the privacy of individuals.

What distinguishes soft.fact from other tests such as MBTI or DISG?

Tests such as MBTI or DISG don’t meet the professional requirements of the International Society for Psychological Assessment. We do - soft.fact works scientifically and combines a variety of test procedures from personality, values, motives, resilience and mindfulness, allowing us to identify synergies between these areas - something other tests cannot do. In addition, we calculate team dynamics and provide recommendations for action.

How does the team development process work?
  • Organization owner creates the team on soft.fact
  • Invites team members
  • Each team member answers questions about their Personality, Role, Values, Ways of Working, and Communication - and gets the results.
    The results of all team members are then summarized in the Team Analysis, resulting in Team Roles, Team Personality, Team Values, Team Ways of Working.
  • The team potentials are then calculated based on the above.
  • Team development then covers 10 different soft facts (trust, responsibility, mindfulness, communication, resilience, motivation, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, proactivity, learning), which are then worked on together as a team from the greatest growth potential the team has to the smallest
What are the benefits for organizations of using soft.fact?

soft.fact covers the entire life cycle of employees: From hiring and team development to large transformation projects, our analyses can help you find the right people, develop them according to their needs, and then drive organizational change.

What are Soft Facts?

There is no precise definition of Soft Facts in the scientific literature (yet). We’re talking about everything that makes up a person - Hard Facts (professional competencies), Soft Skills (methodological competence, social competence, personal qualities, etc.) - as well as the result of from group dynamic processes, as Soft Facts. This includes personal experiences, trust, responsibility, communication, mindfulness, resilience, motivation, emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, proactivity, and learning. By examining the dynamic processes that arise in social context between people, it’s possible to measure Soft Facts - just like Hard Facts.
You can find more information about this and other (scientific) terminology in our soft.factionary. Log in to access it.

What about GDPR and security?

Privacy is one of the highest values of humanity. In addition to an anonymization procedure to protect user data, data protection is a top priority on our platform.As such, our default mode is privacy on. This means that you’re always asked if you want to share information or results with your team. Also, our users always remain the owners of the provided data.Because this topic is really important to us, not only is our founder a member of Amnesty International in their working group for digital human rights, but we also work with an external data protection officer, the Hanseatic Society for Applicant Data Protection. We are annually tested and audited by them, among others.

What payment methods do you offer?

You can pay by credit card, Paypal and direct debit - except for workshops and coaching sessions, which are on account.

How scientific is soft.fact?

All soft.fact elements are calculated based on a variety of scientific findings on group dynamics, cognitive diversity in teams, and current insights into collective intelligence. In addition, all findings are iteratively integrated. Basic theories that underpin our approaches include the Five-Factor Model, the HAPA Model for behavioral modification from health psychology research, as well as our own models of communication and working methods. Our instrument is gradually revised and improved based on new scientific findings from psychological research and our own research projects.

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