Eight dimensions. Forty statements. One connected picture.
Most ways of measuring an organisation ask one question at a time. States of Vitality measures a system - eight distinct lenses on organisational health, designed to be read together. Each dimension is scored across five angles, so you see the shape inside each score, not just the number. And because the eight connect, the picture they make together tells you more than any of them can alone.
Each one measures a different condition. Together, they are the system.
Whether people understand where the organisation is heading - and can see it in their work.
Whether systems and processes help people do good work, or get in the way.
Whether what the people you serve need gets heard - and changes what you do.
Whether purpose guides real decisions, or lives only in words.
Whether people are growing through their work, or being worn down by it.
Whether the lived experience matches what the organisation says about itself.
Whether people can make sense of what is happening around them.
Whether people can absorb change - or are being overwhelmed by it.
We do not measure eight separate areas.
Each dimension influences the others. A strategy that has not arrived will show up in Flow. A culture problem may originate in Change. A strong Development score means something different depending on whether Flow, Culture and Purpose are holding it up or pulling it down.
That is why the eight are read together. A score on its own is a finding. The same score read against the dimensions around it begins to explain itself.
Five statements per dimension, forty in total. Each answered on a five-point frequency scale: almost always, often, sometimes, occasionally, rarely.
The prompt asks how often something is true, not whether someone agrees with a statement about the organisation. That is a deliberate choice. Agreement measures what people think. Frequency measures what they encounter.
Every dimension also carries one open question. The responses appear in the dashboard as written - not scored, not summarised, not averaged. The numbers and the words sit side by side, because both belong in the picture.
We can talk through what an assessment would look like - scope, timing and price.