RRI Tools

The Sciencewise Departmental Dialogue Index (DDI) serves as a diagnostic and a toolkit to help any type of organisation, from a team to a department to a whole institution, improve its use of dialogue and engagement. DDI predictions and recommendations are based on the presumption that engagement or dialogue can be useful to each type of organisation and that current use of engagement or dialogue can be improved.

The DDI approach suggests that to improve an organisation’s use of dialogue and engagement, it is essential to first understand the organisation’s preferences and beliefs and how these affect the organisation’s propensity to engage. Then, rather than recommending wholesale culture change, the DDI suggests using these insights to find effective ways of promoting and employing engagement that mesh with the organisation’s character and, therefore, are more likely to be accepted.

To achieve their aims users must follow six concrete steps:

• Step 1: define the organisation
• Step 2: explore the organisation’s current engagement preferences using the Current Engagement Preference Questionnaire
• Step 3: establish the Organisational Character Index (OCI) by completing a questionnaire
• Step 4: read the Interpretation and Recommendation Card for the organisation’s character (identified in Step 3)
• Step 5: consider how to turn insights into actions using DDI-provided resources
• Step 6: give feedback to the tool’s developers

Step 3 is the key step in this tool. The OCI is used to describe organisations' character in a similar way as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is used to describe individuals’ personalities. Which actions have to be followed are based on an organisation's character.