Culturalytik

A new era of cultural and behavioral change

We unlock human potential, by applying cutting-edge analytics and targeted interventions based on new discoveries developed at the LSE

Evidence based cultural and behavioral analyses

We apply new discoveries in behavioural science and cultural evolution to old problems in corporate culture

1. Measure

Our competitive approach to survey construction:

  • Random Anonymization
  • Intelligent Adaptive Testing
  • Ability-Proclivity Assessment
  • Mental Model Mismatch Identification
  • Values, Goals, Ways of Working

 

Supplemented by rich qualitative and quantitative data:

  • Outside-in Snapshot
  • Interviews and Focus Groups

2. Analyze

Cutting edge data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence analytics: 

  • Cultural Substructure Mapping
  • Cultural Fixation Distance
  • Overlaps and Gaps Identification
  • Optimal Diversity Analysis

 

Presented through intuitive visualizations and scores.

 

Fancy analyses don’t matter if they can’t be understood and actioned.

3. Intervene

Cultural evolutionary behavioral science informed by measurment and analyses:

  • Nudges and Incentives
  • Workshops, Training and Education
  • Leadership Communication Strategy Recommendations
  • Cultural Evolutionary Change Strategy
  • Culturally-Aware Policies
  • Smart Targeted Interventions 
  • Closing Feedback Loops for Rapid Learning
Michael

Michael Muthukrishna

Michael Muthukrishna is the founder of Culturalytik. He is a professor of Economic Psychology and affiliate in developmental economics and data science at LSE.

Michael's research is regularly covered in media outlets such as CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Scientific American, PBS, Vice, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Fortune Magazine, The Times, Telegraph, Mirror, Sun, and Guardian. Michael’s work is informed by his educational background in engineering and psychology, with graduate training in evolutionary biology, economics, and statistics, and his personal background living in Sri Lanka, Botswana, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Canada, United States, and United Kingdom.

Team 1

Roger Frosh

Roger Frosh is the Client Relationship and Business Development Manager

Roger spent much of his career as a lateral thinking and commercially creative practical adviser and project deliverer to FTSE 100/S&P 500 corporations, Academic Institutions, SMEs, Start-Ups, Spin-Outs, consultancies and agencies, concentrating on the design and implementation of integrated business performance improvement programmes, marketing, communications and brand engagement strategies.

Team 2

Matthew Hindhaugh

Matt Hindhaugh is an Innovation and Sales Advisor

Matt was responsible for the creation and growth of one of the largest automotive contract hire companies in the UK and went on to create a number of other business ventures throughout the UK. Matt joined LSE Innovation as Research Innovation Manager in March 2020 and supports academics across LSE in the development of research ideas from conception to full market exploitation. He has previous experience of working with translational research projects and start up support programmes with organisations like Newcastle Science City and Oxford Innovation.

Team 3

Charlotte Rowan

Charlotte Rowan is an Innovation and Sales Advisor

Charlotte works as a Research Innovation Officer in the LSE Innovation team, generating new applications and extra impact from LSE research. She provides support to innovation projects on their journey from novel research to a commercial product or service, resulting in an LSE spin-out, social enterprise or licence. The role involves guiding LSE researchers through market validation, product/service development, securing funding, industry engagement and new venture creation.

Charlotte previously worked in STEM innovation, managing the licensing and creation of engineering and physics based companies. She has an MSc in Chemistry and professional training in technology transfer and business creation.

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Applications

We apply our proprietary analytic and intervention approaches to identify and mitigate the cultural and behavioral challenges in these areas

Mergers and acquisitions

$3-4 Trillion worth of M&A happen every year. Of those 70-90% fail. Leaders attribute 7 out of 10 of those failures to culture. We use a science-backed approach to analyze the firms from the outside using reviews, company reports, and social media discussions, from the inside using existing employee data and quick surveys. We contextualize these findings using our own cross-national cultural and sectoral data and knowledge to identify the pain points to offer recommendations for how to avoid cultural clashes before they happen.

 

Through clear communication and expectation management we increase employee performance, retention and satisfaction.

Global expansion

People around the world think and act differently. They have different values, goals, beliefs, and ways of working. When your firm becomes cross-cultural, it needs to understand the new customer base and new employees. We offer cross-cultural training to anticipate cultural challenges and how to approach them.

 

Maintaining your firm’s unity and culture while integrating people from across the world is a difficult challenge. Most often, unless the cultures are close, firms fail. 

 

Culturalytik’s competitive edge is its ability to connect organizational culture and national culture, providing  one holistic picture. We identify overlaps and gaps and reveal sub-cultures within your firm that could serve as a bridge between worlds.

 

Our training and report offers concrete recommendations for mitigating risks associated with multiculturalism, solving the paradox of diversity, and harnessing the maximum potential of your employees.

Diversity and inclusion

Our world is more diverse and so are your employees. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging matter, but most approaches are not based on good evidence and so end up being tokenistic or even harmful.

 

We take a unique approach – diversity is a paradox, a double-edged sword that a firm needs to learn to deftly wield. Diversity is divisive, but also a powerful source of innovation and creativity.

 

Culturalytik resolves the paradox of diversity by moving beyond surface diversity to analyze deep cognitive and cultural diversity.

 

We offer recommendations and training for how to make culture explicit to create a psychologically safe environment in which all employees feel valued as members of your firm.

 

We reap the benefits of diversity without paying the costs.

Innovation

If you don’t innovate to create a better version of your product or service, your competitors will.

 

But innovation is often stagnant, especially in big firms.

 

Innovation isn’t just the product of a few innovative individuals, it’s a product of your company’s collective brain. 

 

We analyze the poor feedback loops, cultural and behavioral blocks, and policies that are stifling individual creativity and preventing your firm from realizing it’s full potential. 

 

Every company is different. We provide training and work with leaders to match the best practices of an innovative culture to your specific company’s ways of working. We unlock the hidden potential of your company and people.

<span data-metadata=""><span data-buffer="">Research/ Insights

Culturalytik applies the cutting-edge of  behavioural science and cultural evolution research to the thorniest corporate challenges

 

Cultural Fixation Distance

Cultures are not made up of homogeneous wholes. Just as there is diversity and differences between the employees, divisions, offices, and regions of your firm, so too in other firms, cities, and countries. 

 

The Cultural Fixation Distance is a way to capture that complexity, zooming in and out like an MRI machine to see the structure of culture in a simple and intuitive way.

Cultural Evolutionary Behavioural Science

Muthukrishna is a pioneer of the next wave of behavioral science: Cultural Evolutionary Behavioral Science. 

 

This framework integrates insights from many disciplines to ask why, how, and when culture and behavior vary to design targeted interventions tailored to the cultural context.

 

That cultural context includes differences across countries, within regions of a country, within classes and cities, and within your firm.

Collective Brain approach to Innovation

The Collective Brain approach to innovation discredits the common myth that innovation is due to the genius of a single inventor. Innovation is instead the product of how ideas flow within a group or society. Each person acts as a neuron in our collective brains. The brilliance of that collective brain depends on who people are, how they communicate, and the culture that supports them. 

 

For example, the term “paradox of diversity” was coined by Muthukrishna to describe the double-edge sword that is diversity: a diverse work environment fosters innovation but if poorly designed can create divisions hindering collaboration.