Poke around our case studies a bit and you’ll get a sense of how we spend our days: auditing ad strategies and rebuilding them; implementing digital analytics capabilities; engineering websites to grow leads and conversions.
Knowing our high-tech inclination, you might imagine Lineout’s staff work in isolation — pivoting data tables or tinkering with code.
Well, that’s not us. Not even close.
The cliche runs so counter to our agency’s culture that we’re dedicating a blog post to mythbusting it.
The truth is, we value interpersonal connection so highly that we have literally shaped the agency around it. Our biggest organizational mission is forming a deeper understanding between one another, a concept explored in the fascinating area of psychology called Theory of Mind (TOM).
As they say on the internet, let’s get into it!
What is Theory of Mind?
Imagine having the ability to decipher the thoughts and feelings of those around you. That's the core principle behind TOM. It refers to the cognitive capacity to understand that others possess their own unique perspectives, motivations and emotions. (The term “theory of mind” refers to an individual’s ability to step outside his own mental state and develop a theory of another person’s consciousness.) While "mind reading” is the stuff of comic books, Theory of Mind is a research-validated concept that examines something very ordinary — intuiting the feelings of other people.
The theory emerged in the 1970s as developmental psychologists tested how children understand the concept of belief, including how and when they grasp that others have minds distinct from their own. This research has since expanded to explore how adults use TOM in social interactions, communication and collaboration – areas that hold significant value in the modern workplace.
Why Theory of Mind Matters for Our Work
Extensive research, including Google's Project Aristotle, has revealed an important correlation between strong TOM-anchored behaviors and successful teams.
Teams that coalesce around empathy as a group norm are better equipped to understand and share each other's feelings, fostering a supportive and encouraging environment. This leads to a feeling called psychological safety, where individuals feel comfortable taking risks and expressing ideas openly without fear of judgment or criticism. When groups support each member’s voice, it leads to a more diverse and innovative pool of ideas.
The Covid-19 pandemic and its abrupt shift to remote work triggered a wave of deepened interest into the soft skills and the cognition that underlies them. (Soft skills refers to interpersonal behaviors such as communication abilities, emotional intelligence, and other non-technical skills that enable individuals to work well with others.)
Understanding the research into the cognitive roots for collaborative behaviors lead us to our ah-ha moment. We saw a valuable opportunity to strengthen our workplace, using Theory of Mind as a lodestar.
Major TOM: Building a Collaborative Advantage
At our agency we like to go to the root of things, understanding complex issues holistically. Working with a fully-remote team and with our client partnerships dependent on virtual connections, the stakes for collaboration are high.
It’s why we have explored Theory of Mind research and adjacent social cognition work so deeply. It has given us a framework to build a culture of successful and supportive partnership, both internally and externally.
In the context of partnering with clients, Theory of Mind consciousness is particularly impactful. By dialing into our empathetic capacities and welcoming psychological safety into our work lives, we break down the traditional "us vs. them" rivalry that can exist between clients and agencies. In a true partnership, ideas flow freely and openly across the table. This uninhibited exchange leads to faster innovation as members feel encouraged to take risks and explore bold concepts. Additionally, it supports longer-term client collaborations, which has a virtuous-cycle effect, leading to deeper connections, a richer knowledge base and more strategic decision-making.
In the two case studies that follow, Lineout was engaged to support complex projects with high stakes for team collaboration and problem solving.
Tape Jungle
As the premier online superstore for adhesive tapes, Tape Jungle sought our expertise to reverse a downward trend in site traffic and conversions. For this client’s business, we focused on several growth levers, including Conversion Rate Optimization, SEO, paid search, analytics tools and product-catalog systems. But there was another important project for us to contribute to — an eye-catching new tool for customers. Tape Jungle envisioned an interactive 3D tape design interface for custom orders. Against the backdrop of a business challenge and numerous high-priority projects, the pressure of time and the complexity of the new product could have strained the partnership.
Drawing on our Theory of Mind research, and holding space for safe, equitable communication, we listened to our client’s needs and helped deliver the launch of the tape tool and achieved a material improvement to their business. The results came from the process; and the process flowed from a shared culture that kept all parties secure in high-stress moments. A true partner, Tape Jungle remained open minded to our feedback, and today we continue to work together to improve the user experience for shoppers on tapejungle.com.
Online University in South Florida
A prominent state university in South Florida — one of the top 10 largest academic institutions in the nation — had established itself as a remote learning powerhouse. Its online programs were so successful, they were spun off to form a standalone school. When a change in university leadership challenged the marketing team to deliver stronger remote-learning recruitment, Lineout stepped in to support our client.
The backdrop was obvious: a complex, high-pressure scenario for our client. We needed to deliver rock-solid leads for enrollment while remaining sensitive to the organizational dynamics at play. We had scoped to-dos — Google Ads management, SEO, analytics systems, ad-creative strategies — and an important interpersonal function that was critical but unspoken.
We followed our instincts to partner closely with the client and their team, recalling Theory of Mind research to listen, intuit and create a safe space where trust could thrive. And it did. The demarcation between agency and client faded. Bolstered by positive performance results, we marshaled broader buy-in and trust within the client’s organization. Our work with the university — both measurable and immeasurable — continues to add value years later.
Safety First
Work is social. When a team clicks, it feels great. When the group culture curdles, work becomes agony.
Can that magical “click” be engineered? Probably not, but smart leaders familiar with the research are trying. We know that establishing healthy group norms can provide the crucial feeling of psychological security that workers need.
Add remote work into the mix, and developing a supportive culture becomes more challenging and more imperative. Zoom is a powerful tool, but it flattens our intuition. Remote work degrades the fidelity of human-to-human signals that we depend on: facial expressions, body language, eye gaze, voice tone, etc. Limiting access to these cues interferes with our ability to read each other — to understand, and to feel understood.
At Lineout, this challenge only motivates us to work harder at building a shared culture that feels safe for all.
Theory of Mind isn’t our shorthand for empathy, or worrying about what our clients think. It’s a reminder that the success of our agency hinges on our ability and willingness to see the world through the eyes of others.
What’s on your mind? We’re not mind readers, you know! Send us an email growth@lineout.com.
Explore More:
Tape Jungle Case Study: Guiding a Direct-to-Consumer Retailer Through a Sticky Situation
Bombas Case Study: Lineout Builds Content-Rich Microsite That Socks It to ‘Em
“What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team,” The New York Times
“Opinion: Why Some Teams Are Smarter Than Others,” The New York Times