RASP framework
Teams are rarely simply “high-performing” or “dysfunctional.”
They can be highly supportive but resistant to change. Productive but reluctant to raise concerns. Open to ideas but inconsistent in turning them into action.
RASP provides a way to understand those differences through four interconnected dimensions:
Receptive. Adaptive. Supportive. Productive.
Together, they offer a clearer picture of the behaviors shaping how a team communicates, responds, collaborates, and delivers.
Teams don’t move through neat stages.
A team does not become Receptive, graduate to Adaptive, move into Supportive, and eventually become Productive.
All four dimensions are present at the same time. And they do not always develop evenly.
A team can excel in one area while struggling in another. A dimension that was once a strength may become more difficult as leadership changes, priorities shift, pressure increases, or the team itself evolves.
RASP is designed to help teams see that changing picture.
Traditional linear model
RASP
The goal isn’t to “complete” RASP.
It’s to understand how the four dimensions are working together now.
The four dimensions
Four lenses. One team.
Each RASP dimension explores a different aspect of how people experience working together. No single dimension tells the whole story.
Together, they help reveal where a team has a strong foundation, where behavior may be creating friction, and where experiences may be uneven.
Configuration
The score isn’t the story. The relationship is.
The four dimensions become most useful when you stop looking at them independently.
Consider two teams with the same Productive score.
One may also be highly Supportive: people accomplish the work while consistently helping one another succeed.
Another may score much lower in Supportive: the outcomes may be getting delivered, but the experience of producing them may feel very different.
RASP helps make those distinctions visible.
Illustrative · not customer data
Configuration matters.
High and low are only part of the story.
Schematic profiles, not measured scores. Only the named dimensions are plotted; the others are unspecified.
The assessment
RASP starts with how the team experiences the team.
The Octahedron assessment asks team members to respond to questions about the team as a whole, not to evaluate or diagnose individual colleagues.
In approximately three minutes per person, those responses create a collective view across Receptive, Adaptive, Supportive, and Productive.
What emerges is not a label. It is a pattern.
This is about understanding the team.
Reading results
A result is a starting point, not a verdict.
RASP helps teams understand where each dimension currently sits and how those results compare with previous assessments when comparison data is available.
The purpose of the zones is to help make the results easier to interpret, not to define the team.
Results by dimension
A dimension that needs attention.
The team’s responses indicate that experiences associated with this dimension may not currently provide a dependable foundation.
A dimension with a foundation, and room to strengthen it.
The team may be experiencing more consistency here, without assuming that the work is complete.
A stronger part of the team’s current experience.
This may provide a foundation the team can continue developing and, where appropriate, draw upon as it works on other dimensions.
Fictional examples · not customer data
Same average. Very different team.
Illustrative values on a 0–10 scale. Averages rounded from 7.175. No scoring zones, benchmarks, or thresholds are implied.
From results to development
First understand the behavior. Then decide what to do with it.
RASP is not designed to jump from a score to a generic recommendation.
The assessment first helps teams understand what their results may suggest about how people are experiencing the work together.
- Where is the foundation stronger?
- Where might behavior be creating friction?
- What appears to be changing?
- And how do the dimensions interact?
That understanding creates the context for more purposeful development.
Illustrative dashboard
The results suggest that adjusting established ways of working may be difficult when circumstances change.
Handled separately through team development, facilitation, or Octahedron programming.
Score ≠ Insight ≠ Intervention
A shared language
The framework is designed to live beyond the assessment.
Understanding the team’s pattern is the beginning. RASP also provides a shared language teams can return to as circumstances change.
A team can ask:
The language is intentionally simple enough to become part of how a team reflects on its own experience.
The team journey
Understand today. See what changes.
- 1
Assess
Understand the team’s current RASP profile.
- 2
Interpret
Explore the behavioral patterns behind the results.
- 3
Develop
Where desired, use targeted development experiences based on the team’s needs.
- 4
Reassess
See how the team’s experience changes over time.
Who it’s for
Teams don’t have to be broken to benefit from understanding themselves.
RASP can be used with leadership, established, newer, and cross-functional teams.
A team coming together
Understand the behaviors being established before they become habits.
A team navigating change
See where the team is adapting and where the experience may be creating friction.
A team that feels stuck
Move beyond “something isn’t working” toward a more specific understanding of the team dynamic.
A team already performing well
Identify what is helping the team succeed, and what could become important as circumstances change.
Why RASP
Built to make team dynamics easier to see and easier to talk about.
RASP looks across four dimensions rather than reducing team experience to a single measure.
Teams do not complete one stage and move to the next. The dimensions can shift as people, pressures, priorities, and circumstances change.
The framework is centered on how the team experiences working together rather than assigning individual personality types.
The language is designed to be understandable enough for teams to continue using after the assessment.
Your team is already showing you how it works.
RASP gives you a way to see the pattern.
Understand where your team is Receptive, Adaptive, Supportive, and Productive, and where the experience may not be as consistent as it appears from the outside.
RASP doesn’t tell you what kind of team you are. It helps you understand how your team is working together right now.