You hire good people. The real question is whether the workplace lets what they're capable of actually come through.
37 Questions doesn't just report the size of a gap, it points at what's causing it. Sometimes a capacity genuinely needs developing, someone's curiosity, creativity or connectedness hasn't had room to grow yet. More often, the capacity is already there, and it's the climate that isn't making space for it, low engagement, low job satisfaction, or wellbeing under strain.
Two different strands of workplace research sit behind the model.
One looks at what people bring: their capacity for curiosity, for creative risk-taking, for genuine connection with colleagues. The other looks at what the environment does with that capacity, how much of it actually gets used, and what it costs someone when it doesn't.
That second strand draws on ideas like the job demands-resources model, which treats engagement and wellbeing as a balance between what a job asks of someone and what it gives back, and on research into psychological safety, which shows people only bring forward creative or curious contributions when they trust the room won't punish them for it.
37 Questions doesn't try to adjudicate between theories. It asks something more practical: for this person, in this team, right now, how big is the distance between the two.
Score capacity or climate on their own, and you get a personality test, or an engagement survey, both well covered elsewhere already. What's less well covered is the relationship between the two, because that's what actually tells you whether a real strength has anywhere to go.
Same instrument, two very different conversations, and two different responses.
A good person, working somewhere that isn't using what they've got.
Someone in a genuinely decent environment, without much left to draw on right now.
A few illustrative examples of what a gap looks like in practice, and what usually follows once you can see it.
Read the case studies → for teamsWhen you're ready to move past your own result, this is what bringing your team in looks like, and what it costs.
Explore the team version →37 Questions is a commercial programme built on research into playfulness, adaptability and human thriving at work, carried out by The Playfulness Lab, a UK non-profit.