„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 learnt a lot of positive things for our work and look forward to further collaboration. Recommendation!

Sabine Radtke, Pedagogical Director

On the way to founding our co-operative as an employee-managed company, Nicola & Lysan from socius accompanied and supported us together - as a perfect team of two in complementing legal issues and practising a culture of social and human interaction in the team process - and asked exactly the right questions to enable us to continue on our path in a relaxed and goal-oriented 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 Zukunftsmanufaktur - there was a lot of spirit and you could feel how familiar Nicola is or was with alternative school concepts and the Riesenklein
• 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 longer crisis period, we finally were able to speak again with each other. While steering the process in an empathic and intelligent way, adapting flexibly throughout to the dynamics arising, they left to us as a team all the agency to fill the spaces they held. Eventually, we as a team were enabled to re-establish relations of trust with each other, and take back into our hands the further guiding 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 coordination of deadlines and the flexibility with which Joana responded to our needs was great. In our special structure, in a fast-moving industry, we needed more than a standard construction kit for our organisation - we needed individual 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 in various projects and constellations. The spectrum ranges from project support and strengthening a new team, the joint moderation of workshops on organisational development to the development of self-learning material for changing processes in schools. I particularly appreciate the appreciative, solution-orientated view and the clear attitude towards 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 impulses and tools provided were practical and helpful, enabling us to integrate many approaches directly into our day-to-day 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 the conception and moderation of 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 in a joint learning process as a flexible and empathetic partner. This was particularly important in difficult and challenging moments, when we sometimes had to spontaneously find new ways and methods to achieve a good joint result. The fact that this was also successful thanks to Socius is demonstrated by the lasting results of the technical discussions to this day.“

Anja Kräutler

Nicola enabled us to look at ourselves and our team development in a benevolent and appreciative way and to recognise our progress. As a team, we have 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 the opportunity to make corrections. Working with Socius combines a high level of professionalism and expertise with the ability to relate to each other. Within this framework, each individual in the team was finally able to talk about issues that had long stood between us. This made things easier for us and changed the atmosphere in 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