Helping organisations implement change
Enterprise’s first Operating Division in the SHAPE space is Mindset Dynamics, founded by Dr Abena Dadze-Arthur, an assistant professor in the University’s College of Social Sciences, to help leaders implement change initiatives.
Enterprise’s first Operating Division in the SHAPE space is Mindset Dynamics, founded by Dr Abena Dadze-Arthur, an assistant professor in the University’s College of Social Sciences, to help leaders implement change initiatives.
All governments and companies must adapt in an era of rapid change. But often initiatives for change—whether overhauling software systems, merging businesses, or reforming public services—fail. In 70% of cases that is due to human factors, such as employee resistance. Mindset Dynamics offers a toolkit to help leaders improve those outcomes.
Dr Dadze-Arthur first developed the approach in 2016 when working for the Abu Dhabi government, which was trying to make its public services more customer-centric. In 2021, the Abu Dhabi Government received a UN award for its public services.
For someone like me who doesn’t have major funding, the Operating Division is fantastic. It allows academics to operate and present their business to the market much like a limited company, and test our product until it is packaged in a way that resonates with customers.
The methodology first identifies the range of views on a change initiative, and then delves deeper into the psychology behind them, revealing why some employees will support change programmes and others will always resist them. That information is used to develop bespoke engagement initiatives for clients. “If you tailor your strategies to the realities and emotions your employees’ experience, you have a much higher likelihood of achieving the changes you want,” says Dr Dadze-Arthur. The toolkit is easily scalable, and can be applied in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, helping organisations respond to almost any issue.
Dr Dadze-Arthur says that enrolling in the University of Birmingham’s flagship business training programme, Medici, helped her start to commercialise her research. “Academics are overly-steeped in theory and Medici brought a much-needed real-world angle on the fundamentals of developing a business,” she explains.
Dr Dadze-Arthur established a Mindset Dynamics Operating Division in May 2024.