„At the beginning of organisational development, I was a proponent of the classic hierarchical structure. But thanks to the support of SOCIUS, I learned how to make my contribution in a collegial organisation. This experience opened up new opportunities for collaboration and autonomy. Thanks to the more agile structures, we can now implement decisions more quickly and simply „try things out“ first. This brings a lot of joy and a positive spirit to the entire team!“ 

Nadine Schott, Human Resources Department

SOCIUS fully met our expectations. We worked together in different formats and with different employees. All events were professionally prepared, creative with a variety of methods and very well tailored to our needs. We are very satisfied, have gained a lot of positive insights for our work and look forward to further cooperation. Highly recommended!

Sabine Radtke, Pedagogical Director

On the path to establishing our cooperative as an employee-led company, Nicola and Lysan from SOCIUS accompanied and supported us as the perfect duo, complementing each other in legal matters and practising a culture of social and human interaction in the team process. They asked exactly the right questions to enable us to continue on our path in a relaxed and focused manner.

This includes practising and teaching methodical approaches as well as sharing the knowledge and experience gained from founding our own cooperative. And sometimes it was really challenging for us, as predominantly engineers, to not always see or pursue the straight line between the question and the goal.

Lysan and Nicola's open, appreciative attitude, characterised by attentive listening to the different voices of our team - even when things got emotional -, the bundling and summarising of the key points and the joint development of the next steps, supported by important tips, hints and food for thought, were very valuable for us.

For us, this support was a very valuable, strengthening handrail in the 2-year process of founding the cooperative. Dear Nicola, dear Lysan - thank you very much!

What did you and your team particularly appreciate about working with SOCIUS?

• Respect for our work as a starting point, eye-level dialogue and thinking outside the box

What impulses were of lasting value to you and your organisation?

• our training course on organisational development - We have learned that crises are simply part of the game.
• our collaboration on roles in the team and how they change and are constantly reassigned
• The joint preparation of the first Future Factory – there was a lot of spirit and you could feel how familiar Nicola is with alternative school concepts and the Riesenglein.
• the appreciative exploration addressed us as a team, developed us further, impressed us and left a lasting impression on us
• the serious objection as a magic question

Susanne Horn, Managing Director and Kaschka Häder, Educator

Julia and Christian from SOCIUS opened spaces of trust for our team where, after a prolonged period of crisis, we were finally able to communicate with each other again. While steering the process in an empathetic and intelligent manner, adapting flexibly throughout to the dynamics that arose, they left us as a team with all the agency to fill the spaces they held. Eventually, we as a team were able to re-establish relationships of trust with each other and take back control of the further guidance of our organisational development process.

Wilma Strothenke

Photographers are creative loners and certainly not easy to accompany through an organisational process. Joana worked with us on many difficult topics in an open, calm and noticeably joyful manner. 

The way Joana coordinated schedules and responded to our needs with such flexibility was fantastic. Given our unique structure and fast-paced industry, we needed more than just a standard modular system for our organisation – we needed customised solutions, which we were able to develop thanks to Joana.

The team emerged from the process strengthened and enriched. We were able to grow together and go our way equipped with sustainable tools.

Ute Grabowsky

I have known SOCIUS for many years and have worked with the SOCIUS team on various projects and in different constellations. These range from project support and strengthening a new team, jointly moderating workshops on organisational development, to developing self-learning materials for changing processes in schools. What I particularly appreciate about this multidisciplinary team is their appreciative, solution-oriented approach and their clear commitment to a democratic culture based on justice and equality, in which people can grow and develop.

Bianca Ely, Head of the „Concepts and qualification“ field of action“

If you are convinced that change can only succeed with - and not against - people, then SOCIUS is the right place for you. And if you are still looking for orientation at this point, you are also at the right place, because here, above all, people listen attentively. What I appreciate about SOCIUS is the combination of this attentiveness and conscious methodological diversity. In my day-to-day work, I regularly draw on the content and methods that I learnt at SOCIUS.

Vinzenz Himmighofen, Team Leader

We conducted organisational development workshops with SOCIUS and were impressed by their professional yet personal approach. We particularly appreciated the customised solutions and the atmosphere of trust that enabled an open exchange. The very good preparation and the ability to respond to our personal needs helped to make the process effective yet appreciative.

The ideas and tools provided were practical and helpful, enabling us to integrate many approaches directly into our everyday work. SOCIUS is a good choice for anyone who wants to develop their organisation in a targeted manner and feel that they are in good hands.

From summer 2019 to February 2020, a team from SOCIUS (Joana Ebbinghaus and Christian Baier) supported us in designing and moderating a series of expert discussions with project partners from Germany who work with survivors of Nazi persecution and their descendants. The collaboration was very enriching for both us and the project partners. The SOCIUS team reliably supported us as a flexible and empathetic partner in a joint learning process. This was particularly important in difficult moments, when we sometimes had to spontaneously find new ways and methods to achieve a good joint result. The ongoing results of the expert discussions to this day show us that this was also achieved thanks to SOCIUS.

Anja Kräutler

Nicola enabled us to look at ourselves and our team development with kindness and appreciation and to recognise our progress. As a team, we internalised what is important to us in supporting our employees: celebrating successes, recognising resources and strengths, and trusting each other. Working with Nicola involves pausing, reflecting and having the opportunity to correct. Working with SOCIUS combines a high level of professionalism and expertise with a sense of connection. Within this framework, issues that had long stood between us finally became discussable for each individual in the team. This brought us relief and changed the atmosphere within the team for the better.

We have learnt to give each other feedback and benefit greatly from this in our collaboration. Nicola offered us a change of perspective on every team day without being judgemental.

Ines Neubert, Head of Children and Youth Services

Joana from SOCIUS has produced an impressive piece of work for the alliance „Legal Certainty for Political Decision-Making“: an evaluation of almost ten years of work with helpful findings and groundbreaking recommendations.
The collaboration was excellent and reliable, and the discussions were inspiring. The document will guide our future work.

SOCIUS has given me a tremendous amount of inspiration for my work in organisations, with people, and as a manager. Whether it was the „big“ organisational development training course or the smaller, stimulating formats that I attended time and again. Thank you!

Stefan Diefenbach-Trommer