Sway Review

SWAY – review

The billion-dollar engagement survey business is now being disrupted by Sway. I’m reviewing why this is important, how is it done and just who are Sway.

Peter Evans

Why …

Let’s start with a dramatic example of business transformation

While all business transformations are disruptive the move from traditional (often family owned) business to Private Equity owned can be a minefield

The employees of the business have been accustomed to success and continuity. There will be a mixture of excitement for potential growth tempered with anxiety and a fear of the unknown in the air.

The leaders of the business will have their own motivations and incentives often linked to the way the deal has been structured, and a feeling of loyalty to the team that has got them so far.

The Private Equity Partners have their mindset influenced by the requirement to deliver the best possible returns to their own Investors, looking to scale and transform the business into an even more successful enterprise.

AND – they all want the new business to succeed.

So – looking above the spreadsheets what about the people ?

How are the team going to react – in particular how engaged will they be? This is the why. At this point Sway step in.

How…

Based on deep research into Organisational Health, Sway have crafted this research  to be directly relevant to the world of M&A.  Their Organisational Heath index works on 7 key foundations

These are Growth Readiness, Justice, Trust and Care, Psychological Safety, Resilience, Identity and Loyalty, Engagement.  Using a classic Likert scale of responses in their survey they refine and craft based on their experience and research.

I particularly liked the way that they didn’t accept the middle ground with replies of  neither agree nor disagree being thoroughly unravelled and investigated – throwing light on the “silent majority” who have a deep behavioural influence. A focus on this and the correlations between the 7 indicators led to some of the most valuable insights and stood out for me when looking at their outputs.

So what’s the big difference Sway bring – it’s a forward looking report telling the client today what the traditional engagement survey is likely to show in 12 months time. This enables action now before it’s too late. This is the critical difference.

Who…

Sway are a growing company founded by Mike Cerillo and Marina Mayer – both with research backgrounds in Organisational Psychology and with strong commercial experience. It was this mix which drew my interest to Sway because when it works the combination of theory and practice produces real and lasting business results.