We help organisations, leadership teams and leaders stay adaptable and resilient in a changing world. Led by organisational psychologist William Bos MA, who brings more than twenty years of experience.
A checklist suggests there is an ideal picture you simply need to tick off. A compass tells a different story: there is movement and uncertainty, and yet you can still choose a direction. Each compass point tells you something about a different part of the system. The model combines Patrick Lencioni’s insights (smart and healthy) with Edgar Schein’s layers of culture.
The framework within which the organisation moves. North is necessary, but not sufficient.
Where everything comes together in visible output. West tells you whether the effort leads anywhere.
The often unconscious beliefs about people, mistakes, power and success. They lie beneath all four compass points and drive actual behaviour.
The personal dimension: who the people are and why they do this work here.
Everything that happens when people meet, from the coffee machine to the crisis meeting.
Content · Managing the SMART side. Strategy, structure, figures and systems: everything that is easy to count and plan. This is where the espoused values sit: what the organisation says it considers important, in goals, rules and plans.
Process · Leading the HEALTHY side. Trust, safety, collaboration, leadership and meaning. This is where you see the artefacts: the visible behaviour and ways of working that show how things really are. Hard to measure, yet it makes the difference between an organisation that performs and one that is alive.
The arrows in the compass show that both sides are in motion. According to Patrick Lencioni, around 95 per cent of executive attention goes to the north-west: strategy, structure and figures. That is why the greatest leverage often lies in the south-east. Where trust, safety, collaboration and morale grow, internal bandwidth increases, and that carries through to results in the north-west. Individual wins only count when the whole wins. With the FutureProofScan, this compass gained a yardstick, so the healthy side becomes visible too. Research by McKinsey and Gallup shows how closely that side is linked to the hard figures; read more in the evidence.
Developed by Out of Area B.V.
An organisation can have a compelling strategy and still struggle to change. The FutureProofScan (FPS) shows whether the way people collaborate, lead and organise makes that movement possible.
FPS brings eight dimensions together. Each dimension receives a score: a Future Proof Index (FPI). Together, the eight indices form a single picture of your organisation that guides your development choices.
Five to eight members of the leadership team complete the scan, followed by a half-day working session. You see how the leadership experiences the organisation, and then decide whether to involve teams and employees.
Team development has been at the heart of our work since 2005. The FutureProofScan shows where the lever lies; we then support the development with teams, with leaders and with the organisation as a whole. Always tailored, never off the shelf.
From a group of capable individuals to a team that trusts one another, has the difficult conversations and delivers results together. For leadership teams, middle management and specialist teams, from a two-day programme to a longer journey with follow-up peer sessions.
How we work with teamsPersonal coaching and leadership programmes for leaders who want to grow in setting direction, creating room and bringing people together.
From knowing to doing. Support for change initiatives in which behaviour, culture and structure need to move together.
For teams that have stalled to the point where talking alone no longer helps. Clear about the process, careful with people.
Away days and workshops around a concrete question, such as turning strategy into action or closing the knowing-doing gap.
Training and group interventions for English-speaking and international teams, in the Netherlands or on location in Europe.
That is exactly what the FutureProofScan is for. Or we can start with an exploratory conversation.
“Everyone knows what needs to happen. The art lies in actually doing it together.”
Since 2005 we have worked with boards, leadership teams and teams in sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure, healthcare, financial and business services, technology and culture. A selection of our clients:
“As a result, we work together more effectively, with room for personal passion. The programme also gave everyone valuable self-insight. William is highly driven and knowledgeable, and he is committed to a strong group result.”
The search for balance · written in Dutch
Healthy first. Then smart. And along the way… make it a celebration.
Organisations become addicted to external solutions: another strategy, another tool, another reorganisation. In Pura Vida, William Bos shows why real change starts somewhere else: with the health of the system itself. Using the ZIB theory, his model of self-regulating internal bandwidth, he connects physics, biology and psychology with what happens every day in boardrooms and teams.
Not another step-by-step plan, but a clear way of seeing whether an organisation is still moving within its bandwidth. For leaders, consultants and professionals.
Since 2005, Out of Area B.V. has been a consultancy specialising in team development, leadership and change, and is the developer of the FutureProofScan.
William Bos is an organisational psychologist (MA) with more than twenty years of experience in management, organisational culture, change management and organisational psychology. He holds a master’s degree in Management, Culture and Change with a specialisation in Organisational Psychology.
Before becoming a consultant, William worked as a meteorologist in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. There he learnt that in an unpredictable environment you cannot plan everything, but you can make sure people understand the intent and have the room to act well on their own. That lesson still runs through his work.
From Wellerlooi, we work with organisations across the Netherlands and Europe, in Dutch and English. Where needed, we collaborate with a trusted network of experienced partners.
“What drives me? The moment a team discovers for itself what is needed, and then actually does it.”
It usually happens the other way round. For us, it began with the Out of Area Foundation, which organises community projects in areas where help is still very much needed, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Georgia.
During those projects, we saw the same thing time and again: people working together towards a meaningful goal develop a strong sense of connection and visibly grow. At Out of Area B.V., we turned this around. Here, stronger collaboration is the aim, and a social challenge can be a powerful means of getting there.
No. The scan is a strong starting point if you first want clarity on what is going on, but we can also start with conversations or an exploratory session.
A leadership team of five to eight people already gives a useful picture of how the leadership sees the organisation. The scan works best in organisations of around a hundred employees or more, as that is where follow-up steps have the greatest effect. This is not a strict limit, and there is no cap on the number of participants.
We handle data with care, in line with the GDPR. Arrangements on privacy, reporting and responsibilities are agreed in advance. Results are discussed at group level.
Organisations in a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, manufacturing, industry, infrastructure and professional services. We work with boards, leadership teams, teams and individual leaders.
Yes. We also work with international and English-speaking teams, in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. The FutureProofScan is available in English at futureproofscan.com.
Completing the FutureProofScan takes around 48 minutes per participant, and it takes around three weeks from intake to working session. For other programmes, it depends on your question. A working session may take half a day; a team development or coaching programme usually runs for several months. We always agree the length and format together.
No, and we deliberately don’t. What a programme delivers depends on the situation and on everyone’s commitment. We do agree on goals together beforehand, and we review progress along the way and at the end.
Every programme is tailored. After an introductory conversation, you will receive a proposal with a clear quotation.
Do you have a question about your team, your leadership or a change in your organisation? Or would you like to know more about the FutureProofScan, the DGI or the book Pura Vida? Please get in touch. An initial conversation comes with no obligation.
