This article will guide you through the metrics on the Overview Screen. Metrics are quantifiable measurements used to evaluate performance, trends, and insights across various areas of an organization. They provide data-driven evidence that helps leaders understand engagement, satisfaction, sentiment, and operational effectiveness.

Your Index and Your Percentile

The CA Index is a proprietary metric from 0 – 1000 that provides a comprehensive measure of your organization’s overall agility. It leverages your complete dataset, incorporating performance, cohesion, and proprietary weightings to deliver a holistic agility assessment.

The percentile reflects how your organization compares to others in our dataset. It represents the percentage of organizations that score lower than yours. For example, a percentile of 67 means your organization outperforms 67% of organizations on the CA Index.

Response Dispersion Index (RDI)

The Response Dispersion Index (RDI) measures how spread-out responses are across the Likert scale, using standard deviation to indicate variation in sentiment. A lower RDI suggests a high level of cohesion and alignment, while a higher RDI signals polarization or disagreement among respondents.

Why it matters?

The central hypothesis behind RDI is that less dispersion within an organization is generally beneficial. While healthy debate and differing perspectives are valuable, a high degree of alignment in ways of working can act as a proxy for organizational agility. When employees share a common understanding and approach, decision-making and collaboration become more efficient and effective.

Since lower RDI values indicate greater alignment, the best-performing organizations will be those with the lowest dispersion in responses, reflecting stronger cohesion and shared ways of working.

• Transformational Agility: RDI < (20th percentile)
• Advanced Agility: (20th percentile) ≤ RDI < (40th percentile)
• Progressive Agility: (40th percentile) ≤ RDI < (60th percentile)
• Foundational Agility: (60th percentile) ≤ RDI < (80th percentile)
• Nascent Agility: RDI ≥ (80th percentile)

Affirmation Index

The Affirmation Index quantifies the percentage of respondents who positively endorse a given survey item by selecting a 4 or 5 on a 5-point Likert scale. This metric serves as a key indicator of employee alignment, support, and confidence in the practices, initiatives, or cultural elements being assessed.

Why it matters?

By measuring affirmation levels, organizations gain valuable insights into:

• Areas where employees feel aligned, engaged, and confident.
• Aspects where there may be uncertainty, skepticism, or resistance.
• The effectiveness of leadership, processes, and cultural transformation efforts.

A high Affirmation Index suggests strong collective agreement and perceived effectiveness, while a low score may indicate misalignment, lack of clarity, or barriers to adoption.

Practical Applications

This metric is especially useful in organizational change efforts, as it enables leaders to:

• Track buy-in and confidence in new processes, leadership, and cultural shifts.
• Monitor alignment trends over time to assess the impact of change initiatives.
• Pinpoint specific areas needing improvement to drive more effective engagement strategies.

Negation Index

The Negation Index quantifies the percentage of respondents who disagree with a given survey item, as indicated by selecting a 1 or 2 on a 5-point Likert scale. This metric helps organizations identify levels of opposition, skepticism, or misalignment regarding practices, initiatives, or cultural elements being assessed.

Why it matters?

By tracking negation levels, organizations can:

• Identify resistance hotspots where employees struggle with adoption or trust.
• Uncover areas of confusion or dissatisfaction that may hinder engagement.
• Gauge the effectiveness of change efforts by monitoring shifts in sentiment over time.

A high Negation Index signals strong resistance, lack of trust, or disengagement, while a low Negation Indexsuggests broad acceptance or neutrality.

Practical Applications

This metric is especially valuable in organizational change efforts, enabling leaders to:

• Pinpoint areas requiring additional support, training, or clarification.
• Refine communication strategies to address concerns and improve alignment.
• Track sentiment shifts as initiatives evolve, ensuring continuous improvement.

Complementary Insights with the Affirmation Index

When analyzed alongside the Affirmation Index, the Negation Index provides a comprehensive view of organizational sentiment. This dual perspective helps organizations:

• Balance positive and negative sentiment insights for more informed decision-making.
• Reduce friction and resistance by proactively addressing concerns.
• Foster a culture of continuous engagement and growth through targeted improvements.

Engagement Score

The Engagement Score represents the percentage of survey responses that are either “N/A” or “3” on a 5-point Likert scale, indicating neutral or non-applicable responses. This metric helps assess how engaged respondents are with the survey topics and whether they feel strongly about the concepts being evaluated.

Why it matters?

Our hypothesis suggests that organizations with high levels of neutral engagement—where respondents frequently select neutral (3) or N/A responses—may also struggle with agility and transformational progress. To validate this, we analyzed correlations between the CA Index (a measure of overall organizational agility) and Engagement Scores.

Key Findings

• High Engagement Scores (more neutral/N/A responses) correlate with lower CA Index scores, suggesting that organizations where employees are disengaged or indifferent tend to struggle with agility.
• Conversely, organizations with lower Engagement Scores (fewer neutral responses) tend to score higher on the CA Index, indicating higher levels of clarity, commitment, and engagement in transformation efforts.

Implications for Organizations

A high Engagement Score (high neutrality) may indicate:

• Unclear or unimpactful survey questions that fail to resonate.
• A lack of strong opinions or emotional investment, signaling potential disengagement.
• Resistance to change or uncertainty about transformation initiatives.

CA Net Score (CNS)

The CA Net Score (CNS) is a summary metric that provides a single, clear measurement of an organization’s transformation progress and engagement levels. It calculates the difference between the percentage of positive (4-5) and negative (1-2) responses, similar to the Net Promoter Score (NPS) concept. By consolidating sentiment data into one proprietary index, CNS offers a quick, at-a-glance evaluation of overall organizational engagement and transformation efforts.

Performance Categories

A higher CNS indicates stronger agility and transformation success, while a lower score suggests challenges in adoption and alignment. Organizations are classified into five performance tiers:

1. Nascent Agility (Red) – Below 7

   • Facing significant challenges in transformation efforts.
   • Low or negative scores indicate misalignment, resistance, or disengagement.

2. Foundational Agility (Orange) – 7 to 16

   • Early signs of improvement, but progress is still limited.
   • Requires continued focus on alignment, engagement, and operational improvements.

3. Progressive Agility (Yellow) – 16 to 27

   • Indicates steady progress toward agility.
   • Some teams are aligned, but opportunities remain for broader adoption.

4. Advanced Agility (Light Green) – 27 to 42

   • Strong performance with high engagement and net positive sentiment.
   • Teams are largely aligned and operating effectively within agile frameworks.

5. Transformational Agility (Dark Green) – Above 42

   • Represents exceptional organizational agility and alignment.
   • These organizations are highly engaged, adaptive, and delivering strong results.

Why it matters?

• Simplifies complex sentiment data into a single, meaningful score.
• Helps leaders quickly assess transformation progress across the organization.
• Identifies areas needing attention to drive continuous improvement.
• Enables trend tracking to measure whether initiatives are positively impacting agility.