History and background

joint action was founded in 2014 by Jacob Storch, who had a vision of getting to the essence of consultative practice – a vision combining research, manager training and persistent curiosity as the driving force for continuous improvement. The mission of joint action was rooted in work with and in the public sector, where welfare services developed toward a more relational, dialogic and citizen-centric approach. This development sparked a rethinking of the way the public sector engages with citizens. To further this development, Jacob Storch and Carsten Hornstrup merged their respective companies to form the consulting firm joint action a/s in 2015. Carsten and Jacob had past experience as leading forces in two of Denmark’s fastest growing consulting firms, Ramboll Attractor and MacMann Berg. Carsten brought his highly relevant research project in management of Relational Coordination, which supported joint action’s visions, research ambitions, mission and goal that the public sector of tomorrow be centered on cooperation and dialogue-based work with and in regard to citizens.

To gain deeper insight into the cooperation with and in regard to citizens, joint action developed Joint Action Analytics. This development came in response to the lack of a means for companies to measure and document their organization’s ability to cooperate across departments as required by a given task. Joint Action Analytics is based on the research of joint action a/s, as well as other relevant Danish and international research. With JAA, joint action was able to use the questionnaire-based analysis tool to expand their consulting practice. Before long, however, Joint Action Analytics outgrew the consulting firm joint action and became its own entity. The potential in analytics proved greater than that in the consulting services. Therefore, in 2017 the management made a strategic decision to scale down the consulting business and focus on operating as an SaaS company. Joint Action Analytics became one of the world’s first suppliers of key figures in cooperative relations, which are vital to a company’s ability to ensure quality and effectiveness in their work with the most complex tasks.

To gain deeper insight into the cooperation with and in regard to citizens, joint action developed Joint Action Analytics. This development came in response to the lack of a means for companies to measure and document their organization’s ability to cooperate across departments as required by a given task. Joint Action Analytics is based on the research of joint action a/s, as well as other relevant Danish and international research. With JAA, joint action was able to use the questionnaire-based analysis tool to expand their consulting practice. Before long, however, Joint Action Analytics outgrew the consulting firm joint action and became its own entity. The potential in analytics proved greater than that in the consulting services. Therefore, in 2017 the management made a strategic decision to scale down the consulting business and focus on operating as an SaaS company. Joint Action Analytics became one of the world’s first supplier of key figures in cooperative relations, which are vital to a company’s ability to ensure quality and effectiveness in their work with the most complex tasks.

In late 2018 and into 2019, Joint Action Analytics exported its services for the first time, to Trondheim Municipality in Norway. Trondheim and Norway thus became the first organization outside of Denmark to conduct analyses of their relational capacity.

2018 saw the publication of the first major written work chronicling the first work with relational capacity. The book indicates an important turning point from consultants toward research and data-support platforms to analyses of relational capacity. You can purchase the book here: http://www.forlagetmindspace.dk/udgivelser/udgivelser-om-ledelse-og-organisationer/relationel-kapacitet

The Joint Action Analytics analysis platform proved ideal for providing an overview, clarity, and strategic interventions to improve the quality of cooperation and thereby ensure better coordination and better results in cross-organizational efforts. To further the development of Joint Action Analytics and make it available to as many users as possible, the natural next step in 2019 was to find the right person to head sales, in Denmark and throughout the Nordic region. This search led to the choice of Ole Dalvang, who joined the company from a previous post at Ramboll Management.