Asking Human-Centered Questions Leads to
Human-Centered Solutions
Research Rooted in Humanity
Research can get a bad rap. It's easy to see why. We've all seen data manipulated to fit an agenda. Read a clickbait statement supported by flawed studies. Participated in an overly long survey that leaves us wondering if our feedback matters.
Research without a human focus reduces people to decimal points. Research rooted in humanity can become the heart of your culture. Our guiding principles help us to seek out and act upon your people's authentic voices in a process that feels human.
Our Research Principles
Keep It Simple
Asking too many questions or measuring too many topics makes research cumbersome and curates bad data. When measuring human issues, less can be more. We collect a better data set by asking fewer, more targeted questions. This allows us to pivot to further targeted study or offer measurable solutions.
Keep It Human
In centering your people's humanity, we account for the realities your people face. This includes considering their busy schedules, underlying cultural influences, industry trends, external factors, and beyond.
Ensure Everyone Feels Safe Speaking Up
Only capturing engaged perspectives misses out on the feedback needed to grow. We tailor our process to seek out the voice missing and ensure everyone feels safe speaking up.
Understanding & Overcoming The Barriers
Preventing Your People From Speaking Up
In Create Safe's inaugural studies, we identified three primary barriers that prevent people from speaking up. We can help you discover the factors preventing your people from sharing their ideas and feedback through research consulting. Using research tools, we will identify the barriers prohibiting your people's voices, highlight ways to overcome these obstacles, and provide you with a plan to resolve these issues.
I Don't Know How: A Barrier of Skills and Tools
Sometimes, people do not know the channels available to speak up. Other times, people are unsure how to advocate for themselves, lacking the skills or confidence to voice their concerns.
If people don't know how to speak up, we will never hear their authentic insights.
No One Will Care: A Barrier of Formal and Informal Reactions
On a formal level, people worried that expressing concerns might lead to them being labeled as "troublemakers" or used against them. On an informal level, people feared standing out. If everyone else seems happy with "how things are," it is hard to be the outlier.
If people fear reprisal when speaking up, we will never solve their concerns.
Nothing Will Change: A Barrier of a Lack of Trust, Buy-In, or Clarity
People withheld their voices when they struggled to see how speaking up led to change. People distrusted many formal measures and worried these feedback tools were for show only. Others spoke up only to feel like their voice went ignored.
If people don't trust us to act on their voices, we will never hear their creative ideas
How I Help Clients with Research Consulting
What is the value of studying your people’s beliefs and perceptions? When done properly, it's profound.
Outside research estimates that 40% of people don't trust their organizations to act upon their voices. This silence costs organizations an estimated 12% decrease in productivity and a 27% increase in turnover.
Our research found that if people consistently feel unsafe speaking up, they leave. In 2023, the estimated cost of acquiring one new employee starts at $4,200.
Conversely, Google's Project Aristotle found that the number one factor of high-performing teams was that people trusted they could voice divergent and honest opinions without fear of harm.
There are innumerable reasons to invest in better collecting and acting upon your people's voices. If you are curious but cautious, we'd love to help ensure your internal research creates a return on investment, impact, and insights.
Deploying the Feel Safe Assessment
Using the Feel Safe assessment, we can help you learn what stops your people from sharing their voices. This assessment:
Identifies the barriers limiting your people's voices
Determines which proven best practices might help you overcome these obstacles
Reveals how to use your people's insights to overcome harm, foster collective buy-in, and cultivate trust
We deploy the Feel Safe assessment with every educational client to customize our training to fit their needs. And we can customize the Feel Safe assessment for your organization.
Customization can include focusing on specific issues or using tailored tools. For past clients, we have deployed surveys, hosted focus groups, conducted interviews, and audited policies. We also conduct benchmarking to measure ongoing change.
Helping You Conduct Meaningful, Human-Centered Research
We can help you demystify the research process to ensure that your questions and tools yield a meaningful return on investment. We also believe in a return to humanity, leveraging research to ensure your people feel seen and heard.
Make Sense of Your Existing Data
It's easy to get overwhelmed with even the best data. Sitting on or failing to weigh insights properly can degrade trust and buy-in.
In reviewing your existing data, we will offer an external lens to identify patterns and highlight potential gaps.
We also help you figure out how to use your data to tell a compelling story for various stakeholders.
Assessing Your Assessments
Whether you are a curious leader, human resources professional, or event designer, we know that you value your people's voices. Let us help you ensure your research is beneficial by asking the right questions in the right ways.
Working with your internal stakeholders, we will review your existing research processes. We will explore the questions you hope to answer, review your various instruments, and assess how you weigh your collected data.
Creating a Research Process from the Ground Up
Do you want to understand your people's perspectives but worry about how? Are you afraid of investing time or energy without a clear idea of how to demonstrate a return on investment?
If you are curious but cautious, we'd love to help remove doubts and ensure your internal research creates a return on investment, impact, and insights.
Through ongoing partnerships, we can help you establish or restart your internal research processes, including:
Exploring your capabilities, limitations, and missing resources
Identifying the immediate and long-term issues to explore
Defining the questions you should ask and teach you a framework to identify human-centered questions in the future
Figuring out the measurement tools that will fit your organization, paying attention to time, budget, and staff limitations
Outlining processes and policies to guide ongoing research
Teaching you how to turn data into cohesive stories, including visualization and presenting to various stakeholders.
I’d Love to Hear From You!
I love learning about new perspectives and ideas. And I love questions, whether answering any you have or asking a few of my own to learn how I can support your work.
Let me know what is on your mind, and I will be in touch!