The ACT-Cube: a team behaviour assessment backed by science
The ACT-Cube team assessment maps team behaviour and collective culture to help HR leaders build high-performing teams. While tools like the AEM-Cube focus on individual contribution and management styles, this team behaviour assessment visualises the dynamics that emerge between people. Because successful strategy execution depends on collective habits, understanding these interaction patterns allows organisations to identify exactly where development is needed.
What is the ACT-Cube?
The ACT-Cube is a three-dimensional organisational assessment tool that visualises culture and interaction patterns at team, business-unit and organisational level. It turns the often invisible dynamics of business units into clear signals for your organisation.
Attachment
Attachment shows whether a team or business unit mainly focuses on content or on relationships.
This dimension highlights how value is created and where energy and attention are directed, for example more towards products or stakeholders respectively.
This dimension highlights how value is created and where energy and attention are directed, for example more towards products or stakeholders respectively.
Consistency
Consistency reflects whether teams act in line with what they say. It shows how clear values, priorities and agreements are experienced in day-to-day work.
High consistency supports trust and accountability, while low consistency often points to friction or cultural risk.
High consistency supports trust and accountability, while low consistency often points to friction or cultural risk.
Time
The Time dimension shows where a group contributes along the Growth-Curve: from optimisation and execution to exploration, innovation and renewal.
Healthy organisations show strategic diversity, meaning that different teams contribute at different points on this curve.
Healthy organisations show strategic diversity, meaning that different teams contribute at different points on this curve.
Why these concepts matter
These three dimensions show where groups are focused, how reliably they act and how they contribute to renewal over time. As a result, leaders see how well strategy, structure and behaviour are aligned across the organisation. This supports shaping teams with intent, reducing friction between units and strengthening execution. Unlike individual assessments, this tool focuses on what emerges between people: behaviour, cooperation, trust and strategic contribution.
The Growth-Curve
Every organisation, team and project is constantly evolving along a pattern called the Growth-Curve: an initial period of slow growth characterised by a focus on renewal and innovation, followed by a period of growth acceleration and a focus on operational excellence, and lastly a period of slowing growth and a focus on optimisation. Understanding this Growth-Curve allows you to recognize current and upcoming strategic challenges and priorities for your organisation.
The ACT-Cube with the Growth-Curve
The ACT-Cube visualises how teams and business units contribute to the different phases of the Growth-Curve. This allows you to see whether the organisation has the right strategic diversity and alignment to anticipate these phases and perform effectively across them.
The horizontal axis displays progress in time and the vertical axis represents growth.
The horizontal axis displays progress in time and the vertical axis represents growth.
How the ACT-Cube works across
teams and organisations
The ACT-Cube functions as a self-image and as a feedback tool, making differences between intention and impact visible.
Team level
Understanding cooperation, focus and alignment within a team
Understand how a team operates as a collective: where its focus lies, how consistently it acts, and how effectively it works together to deliver results.
Key application
- Team alignment and development
- Improving cooperation and communication
- Supporting team change initiatives
- Clarifying roles and expectations
Typical insights
- Team focus on people or content
- Consistency of behaviour and decision-making
- Alignment between intent and perception
- Sources of friction within the team
Business-unit level
Clarifying contribution, interaction and strategic fit
Understand how a business unit contributes to the value chain, how it interacts with other units, and how reliably it delivers on its strategic role.
Key application
- Business unit diagnostics
- Improving cross-unit cooperation
- Strategy-to-execution alignment
- Identifying operational weak spots
Typical insights
- Strategic contribution to the growth curve
- Balance between optimisation and renewal
- Consistency in delivery and interaction
- Misalignment between self-image and feedback
Organisational level
Visualising culture, coherence and strategic responsiveness
Understand how the organisation functions as an ecosystem, how aligned its parts are, and how well it is positioned to sustain performance and change.
Key application
- Organisational culture analysis
- Large-scale change initiatives
- Strategic alignment and governance
- Monitoring cultural health over time
Typical insights
- Overall cultural coherence
- Strength of organisational consistency
- Strategic diversity across units
- Emerging risks to performance or change
What organisations gain from using the ACT-Cube
The ACT-Cube provides insight at multiple levels, helping organisations align team contributions and their strategic priorities from the ground up.
Real-World Applications
ACT-Cube integrates seamlessly into culture, strategy and organisational development initiatives. Whether you’re aligning teams, strengthening cooperation across business units, or navigating strategic change, ACT-Cube provides clear insights into how the organisational ecosystem is functioning and where meaningful improvement is possible.
Team Performance
Use ACT-Cube to shape teams, surface friction between roles and units and identify strengths and gaps in how teams contribute to strategy and delivery. Gain insight into how teams interact, coordinate and follow through, enabling focused dialogue, clearer alignment and targeted interventions that improve collective performance.
Business-unit
Performance
Use ACT-Cube to clarify how business units contribute to the value chain, surface misalignment between units and identify strengths and gaps in strategic execution. Gain insight into how units interact, deliver on their role and are perceived by others, enabling targeted interventions that improve coordination, reliability and performance.
Organisational Performance
Use ACT-Cube to visualise how the organisation functions as an integrated ecosystem and where cultural or strategic weak spots may limit performance. Gain insight into alignment, consistency and strategic diversity across units, enabling leaders to strengthen execution, reduce systemic friction and improve overall organisational health.
Leadership Performance
Use ACT-Cube to support leadership teams in understanding how their direction, decisions and messaging are experienced across the organisation. Gain insight into consistency, alignment and strategic impact, enabling leaders to foster trust, guide change more effectively and strengthen organisational performance.
Get certified to work with the ACT-Cube
Our concise yet thorough certification process ensures that you get a deep understanding of the underlying behavioural constructs, can interpret profiles accurately, and apply the insights responsibly and effectively in development, coaching and team settings. This allows you to use the ACT-Cube completely independently, either in your own organisation or as an advisor for your clients.
Human Insight Academy
A self-paced online programme that guides you through the ACT-Cube framework using video modules, assignments and an exam. This pathway is ideal for individuals or distributed teams who prefer flexible learning with structured guidance.
In-person certification
A one and a half-day interactive training led by an ACT-Cube certification expert. This format includes hands-on exercises, case simulations and direct feedback followed by an exam to build confidence and skill in applying the ACT-Cube in real organisational situations.
Human Insight Platform
Once certified, practitioners gain access to the Human Insight Platform, where they can administer assessments, generate reports and apply the ACT-Cube across individuals, teams and organisations.
What the ACT-Cube process looks like
The ACT-Cube is an online assessment that fits smoothly into development, team and organisational programmes.
Invite participants
Individuals receive a secure online invite to complete the ACT-Cube at a time that suits them.
Complete the assessment
Participants answer a series of questions about their natural tendencies; this can be done on any modern device and should take no more than 10 minutes.
Receive report
Results are presented in clear, actionable reports at individual, team and organisational levels, visualising the cognitive diversity across your context.
Translate into action
Reports can be used in leadership programmes, team sessions and talent discussions to inform decisions, roles, collaboration and development priorities.
Assessing an entire team can be done in a matter of days, from initial contact to explaining the process, filling in the questionnaires and debriefing the results and putting these insights into practice. This can be done by a trainer or advisor, a business leader or even a member of the team.
Comprehensive reporting and insights
The ACT-Cube provides structured insights at team, business-unit and organisational levels. Each ACT-Cube project results in a clear, visual report that provides actionable insight.
Team level
- Team-level ACT-Cube profile with clear interpretation.
- Visual representation of attachment, time and consistency dynamics.
- Insights into cooperation, alignment and team contribution.
- Both self-image and inter-team feedback reporting available.
Business-unit level
- Business unit ACT-Cube profiles across the value chain.
- Visual comparison of self-images and feedback images between units.
- Insights into strategic contribution, interaction and execution gaps.
- Clear identification of misalignment, friction and weak links.
Organisation level
- Integrated organisational ACT-Cube overview and ecosystem view.
- Visual mapping of strategic diversity and cultural coherence.
- Insights into consistency, alignment and systemic performance risks.
- Benchmarking over time to track change and intervention impact.
Trusted by organisations and institutions worldwide
ACT-Cube is grounded in over 30 years of behavioural science and used across industries.
Research Foundation
- Evidence-based behavioural frameworks linking insight to business performance
- Referenced in academic and management literature
- Proven impact on alignment, adaptability and sustainable growth
30+
Years of validated assessments
20+
Years of research
80,000+
Supported individuals
1,200
Organisational applications worldwide
What people say
Contact Information
Tell us briefly what you are looking to improve, explore, or solve. Our team will review your request and get back to you with relevant information or next steps.
If your inquiry relates to a potential project, partnership, or service, include a few details about your company and goals so we can respond more effectively.
Are you ready to put our insights into practice?
Our evidence-based behavioural frameworks link collective dynamics to business performance. Grounded in over 30 years of behavioural science, this methodology is trusted by organisations worldwide.
Discover how to optimise your team dynamics today.