Getting Started With Columinity

Over the past few years, we've been fully focused on developing and implementing Columinity. Along the way, we've helped organizations of all sizes get started with measuring, understanding, and improving teamwork. Some implementations took off immediately. Others struggled to gain momentum. Each experience taught us something about what works, and what doesn't.

Looking back, one lesson stands out. Successful implementations rarely depend on the survey alone. They depend on the conversations, decisions, and follow-up that surround it. Based on these experiences, we've gradually refined the implementation approach that we now recommend to organizations using Columinity. It consists of four simple steps that help teams, stakeholders, and supporters get the most value from Columinity. In this article, I'll walk you through that approach.

The four-step implementation approach

The implementation approach consists of four connected steps that build on one another. It starts with creating a clear implementation plan, followed by a kickoff that aligns everyone around a shared purpose and process. From there, the focus shifts to regularly inspecting the results, identifying opportunities for improvement, and taking action. Finally, organizations evaluate their progress and use those insights to further strengthen their implementation.

Although the four steps are straightforward, they create a solid foundation for long-term success. They help establish a shared way of working, involve the right people from the start, and ensure that the insights generated by Columinity lead to meaningful conversations and tangible improvements. Once this foundation is in place, organizations can gradually expand Columinity to additional teams with confidence, following the same four-step approach.

Step 1: Create an implementation plan

Identify a strategy for a successful implementation

One of the most important lessons we've learned is that successful implementations begin well before the first survey is launched. Organizations that treat Columinity as a strategic improvement initiative, not just another survey, tend to achieve much better results over time.

That's because implementing Columinity is a change initiative in itself. It introduces a new way of listening to teams, reflecting on collaboration, and using data to guide improvement. Like any organizational change, it benefits from a clear purpose, committed leadership, and shared ownership from the very beginning. The goal isn't simply to measure teamwork. The goal is to create the conditions for teams and organizations to continuously improve.

Before inviting teams, it's worth taking the time to develop a simple implementation plan. This creates clarity for everyone involved and helps ensure that Columinity becomes part of an ongoing improvement process rather than a one-off measurement.

Some of the questions we typically discuss with organizations include:

• What are we hoping to achieve with Columinity?
• Which teams will participate, and how will the rollout take place?
• Who will coordinate the implementation, support the teams, and ensure that improvement actions continue over time?
• Who should be part of the Columinity implementation and support team?
• How often will teams complete the surveys?
• How and when will results be discussed and translated into actions?
• Which stakeholders need access to the results, and how will they use the results?

We've also found that appointing a dedicated Columinity implementation and support team makes a significant difference. Ideally, this team has the mandate to coordinate the rollout, support teams, remove obstacles, and keep the implementation moving forward.

Taking the time to answer these questions creates alignment across teams, leaders, and supporters. More importantly, it establishes clear ownership and a sustainable rhythm for working with Columinity from the very beginning, making it much easier to maintain momentum and turn insights into lasting improvements.

Step 2: Facilitate a kickoff

Kickstart the use of Columinity with teams, stakeholders, and supporters

Once the implementation plan is in place, it's time to prepare the teams. We've learned that a good kickoff makes a significant difference. Rather than simply asking people to complete a survey, the kickoff helps everyone understand why Columinity is being introduced, what to expect, and how the insights will be used.

In our experience, every participating team benefits from its own kickoff session. This creates space to explain the purpose of Columinity, answer questions, address concerns, and agree on how the team will work with the results. It also helps build trust by clarifying how anonymity is protected and what happens after the survey has been completed.

Over time, we've developed a standard kickoff workshop that we now use with every new implementation. For larger implementations, we've found it effective to first facilitate this workshop with coaches, Scrum Masters, managers, or team representatives. They experience the kickoff themselves and can then facilitate the same session with their own teams. This creates a consistent experience across the organization while making it easier to scale the implementation.

A successful kickoff isn't about explaining Columinity. It's about helping teams understand why they're participating and how Columinity can help them continuously improve.

Step 3: Inspect & improve

Make sense of the results together and translate insights into action

Once the first surveys have been completed, the real work begins. While the data provide valuable insights, they don't explain why teams score the way they do or how they can improve. Those answers emerge through conversation.

In our experience, data don't create change on their own. Meaningful conversations about the data do. That's why the most successful organizations don't treat the survey results as a report to read, but as a starting point for reflection. By bringing together team members, supporters, and sometimes stakeholders, they explore the results, identify patterns, share different perspectives, and agree on concrete improvement actions.

To support these conversations, we've developed a range of workshops and facilitation guides that help teams make sense of their results together. The exact format matters less than the quality of the conversation. What matters is creating a safe environment where people can interpret the data, challenge assumptions, and decide which actions are worth experimenting with.

Just as important is creating a regular rhythm. Rather than discussing the results once and moving on, we've found that organizations benefit from regularly inspecting both their survey results and the impact of the actions they've taken. This creates a continuous cycle of learning, experimentation, and improvement.

Step 4: Evaluate progress

Inspect what changes over time, and identify new actions

After teams have had time to work on their improvement actions, it's important to take a step back and evaluate what has changed. While it's tempting to focus only on whether the survey scores have improved, we've learned that the conversation behind the numbers is just as important.

Revisiting the survey results helps teams identify where progress has been made, where challenges remain, and whether their improvement actions have had the desired effect. Sometimes the scores improve. Sometimes they don't, but even then, the discussions often reveal valuable insights about what's helping, what's getting in the way, and what should happen next.

We've found that organizations get the most value from Columinity when they treat every measurement as an opportunity to learn. Each evaluation provides new insights, informs the next set of improvement actions, and often highlights opportunities to involve additional teams or address organizational challenges that individual teams cannot solve on their own.

Continuous improvement isn't about chasing higher scores. It's about creating the conditions for teams and organizations to continuously improve.

Closing

The four-step approach described in this article wasn't designed overnight. It has evolved through years of working with organizations, learning what helps implementations succeed, and continuously refining our approach together with our customers.

Every organization is different, and there is no single implementation that fits every situation. Still, we've found that these four steps provide a solid foundation for introducing Columinity in a way that creates shared ownership, meaningful conversations, and lasting improvements.

We hope this article helps you get off to a strong start. If you're looking for additional support, you'll find more implementation guides, workshops, templates, and facilitation materials on our blog and in our public GitHub repository.

After all, the goal isn't simply to measure teamwork. The goal is to create the conditions for teams and organizations to continuously improve!