Case Study

How Norway's leading bioeconomy research institute used values data to align 750 people behind a new strategy

When NIBIO launched their 2025–2030 strategy, the challenge wasn't the ambition — it was alignment. With 750 specialists spread across research, advisory and field operations, a strategy document alone wasn't going to create One NIBIO.

So before deciding what their culture should look like, they started by understanding what was already there — which values were strong, which needed to grow, and what the data actually showed.

One of our three strategic focus areas is data-driven service development. For us it is therefore natural to take a data-driven approach to working with values and culture as well. We now have that opportunity.

Three strategic priorities. Three cultural demands.

To achieve One NIBIO required people to collaborate across disciplines they'd historically worked alongside, not with. Leading in data-driven development required a culture willing to be measured, challenged and guided by evidence — including evidence about themselves. Driving green transition required boldness and forward-thinking at an organisational level, not just in individual research.

people discussing aligning collaboration

Culture initiatives

Strategy and culture workshops with the leadership team
Organisation-wide values mapping
Data visualisation of actual culture — values that were strong, values that were absent
Culture Café with employees: "How do our values show up in practice — and what gets in the way?"
CI app rolled out to all leaders for ongoing team development
Ongoing pulse measurement and culture tracking via the CI platform

What we did together

We worked with NIBIO's leadership to first build a shared understanding of why culture is measurable, how it can be done in practice — and why that matters for strategy.

From there, the entire organisation was invited to participate in a values mapping, identifying which values were already strong and which needed to grow.

More than 80% of employees completed the assessment. That's not a small detail — at that participation rate, we created the fundament to reflect the organisation as it actually is, not as it hopes to be: not a guess, not a feeling, but data. This created the fundament to move forward together to the aspired culture.

The results were then calibrated against NIBIO's vision and strategy, and leadership worked through multiple rounds of workshops before the final values were confirmed. A deliberate process, designed to build genuine ownership rather than hand down a decision.

This work is an important contribution to implementing the strategy, we have operationalised it into concrete values, attitudes and behaviour. This is a step in the strategy process that many organisations unfortunately skip. We now look forward to activating the values and measuring how we develop against them over time.

A culture built to carry the strategy

NIBIO emerged from the process with something most organisations don't have: a defined culture built on evidence, not assumption. Values that leadership could stand behind because they came from the data, and that employees recognised because they helped shape them.

The next phase is already underway: embedding those values into how leaders lead, how teams develop, and how NIBIO measures its own progress over time, with culture data as a genuine organisational KPI.

Outcomes

Leadership team aligned on the value of culture data
Clear picture of actual culture — strengths identified, gaps defined
Four values defined with concrete behaviours: United. Reliable. Bold. Forward-thinking.
Values set across leadership before organisation-wide rollout
Desired culture integrated into HR processes, performance and team development
Culture data set as organisational KPIs