The method

From working with over 1,000 leaders
into a book and a platform.

Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen spent 30 years in the leadership of large retail companies, most recently on the board of OBI AG and in the management of the Media-Saturn-Holding. Since then he has accompanied more than 1,000 leaders and teams as an advisor and coach – the method grew out of this practice. Murk Creusen turned it into a platform that makes it measurable.

Who is behind it

Two people who live the method themselves.

Method originator and co-author: Utho Creusen. Founder of the platform and co-author: Murk Creusen.

Murk Creusen — Executive Coach

Murk Creusen

Executive Coach · Author of The Strength Hack · Founder

I help leadership teams base decisions about roles and collaboration on data rather than gut feeling. Together with Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen I turned the method into the book and into the platform, which makes strengths and personality profiles from different assessments comparable in one model. I have used it in post-M&A integrations and in fast-growing tech teams at Airbus, Daimler and msg.

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Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen

Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen

Honorary Professor · Former OBI Board Member · Method Originator and Co-Author

Prof. Dr. Utho Creusen spent 30 years in the leadership of large retail companies – on the board of OBI AG and in the management of the Media-Saturn-Holding. Since then he has accompanied more than 1,000 leaders and teams with Positive Leadership as an advisor and coach; the method behind The Strength Hack grew out of this practice. He is an honorary professor (Münster, Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) and in 2006 received the Corporate Award for Excellence in Practice from the Gallup International Positive Psychology Institute.

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The Strength Hack: In 4 Wochen zum Höchstleistungsteam
The book

The method to read up on.

The book describes step by step how leaders get to know their team and build on its real strengths.

The Strength Hack: In 4 Wochen zum Höchstleistungsteam

Murk Creusen · Utho Creusen · Springer Gabler · ISBN 978-3-658-51774-8

To the book at the publisher
The method

Five key elements

Every chapter of the Season and every coaching session follows these five steps.

  1. Set the frame

    Frame work as learning, clarify expectations, leaders go first.

  2. Invite participation

    Questions and structures that give quiet voices room; strengths become visible.

  3. React productively

    Answer bad news, mistakes and dissent so people keep speaking up.

  4. Translate the data

    Turn scores, perception gaps and strengths profiles into a conversation, not a verdict.

  5. Turn it into action

    One ritual a month, commitments, re-measurement, renewal.

Psychological safety isn't harmony. A safe team is one where you can say difficult things — and still work together afterwards.

The measurement

Five dimensions the team check measures

Everyone answers on their own, in 5 minutes, without an account. The Season then re-measures four times a year.

  • Communication Safety

  • Conflict Navigation

  • Cognitive Diversity

  • Delegation & Autonomy

  • AI Readiness & Trust

Research

Built on more than 25 years of team research.

Amy Edmondson (Harvard) showed that teams only learn when they can speak openly. Google’s Project Aristotle found psychological safety to be the most important factor of successful teams. The method builds on this. Timothy R. Clark’s four stages (belong, learn, contribute, challenge) serve as the season’s map.

  • Edmondson, A. (1999): Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2).
    Where the term comes from.
  • Google re:Work: Project Aristotle.
    Psychological safety as the most important factor of successful teams.
  • Clark, T. R. (2020): The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. Berrett-Koehler.
    Four stages as a map, not a fixed order.
See all sources →
Data

Your data stays yours.

Stored in the EU. Coaches only see what you share. The privacy policy names every location and service provider.

To the privacy policy →
In context

What the Season does differently.

Comparison of typical offers by category. General assessment of typical offers per category, as of October 2026; individual providers may differ.
Enterprise coaching platformsOne-off assessmentsPsych-safety trainingsWorkshop trainersThe Strength Hack
Measurement in the team–one-offyes–Team check + 4 re-measurements
12-month programme––partly–yes
Guidance by people1:1–trainerone-offcertified coaches
Price for small and mid-sized companiesrather highmediumrather highusually several thousand € per dayfrom €2,990 / year excl. VAT
German-language, data in the EUpartlypartlyrarelyyesyes
Voices

What leaders who worked with it say.

"We reached the Performing phase in record time."

The frameworks, live in the team, were what actually moved us forward. Months of Storming skipped.

Nikita Schick
Managing Director · TechHub by efs
"Soft skills, translated into hard business metrics."

Radical clarity on roles and ground rules in high-pressure environments.

Dr. Alexander Frech
CEO · Symporo Culinary Group
"Cognitive Fit. Tangible boost in weeks."

Delegating tasks by fit — visible improvement in collaboration.

Jörg Ehlen
CEO · Speyer & Grund
"Crystal-clear map of my strengths."

Energy deployed more deliberately. Soft science becomes usable data.

Marius Foersch
Agentic AI · Cornelsen
"A new shared language for our strengths."

Friction minimized. Moving forward as a leadership team much faster.

Mathias Tholey
Co-Founder & CEO · the nu company

See where your team stands.

5 minutes, no account. Then you see where leadership and team read the situation differently.