We believe in the power of defining a common language. On this page you can find a list of mostly used words in our business constantly updated.
We work with leaders and organizations in highly regulated industries to build trust-based, future-ready teams. This glossary explains the most important terms from New Work, Organizational development, and Digital Leadership.
Each entry offers:
A clear definition in plain language
Practical context for regulated environments (Life Sciences, Pharma, MedTech, etc.)
Links to related terms and tostep services
Our goal: to make complex concepts accessible, actionable, and understandable.
Adaptive Operating System (Org-OS): A flexible structure for how organizations coordinate, decide, and learn.
Agile Transformation: Shifting structures and mindsets to support iterative, customer-driven ways of working.
Change Fatigue: Exhaustion and resistance caused by too many parallel change initiatives.
Compliance by Design: Building regulatory requirements directly into processes, tools, and culture.
Employee Experience (EX): The holistic journey employees go through across their work lifecycle.
Freedom Framework: A holistic leadership model rooted in trust, love, intuition, and communication.
Future-Ready Organization: A company designed to adapt quickly to new technologies, markets, and rules.
Holacracy vs. Sociocracy: Two structured models of distributed authority and decision-making.
Hybrid Work Models: Flexible setups combining remote, onsite, and asynchronous collaboration.
Intuition in Leadership: The ability of leaders to integrate gut feeling and experience into decision-making.
Leadership Gap: The misalignment between management expectations and People & Culture realities.
New Work: A future-oriented philosophy of work based on autonomy, purpose, and collaboration.
Organizational Development (OD): Systematic processes to improve effectiveness and adaptability.
Organizational Resilience: The capacity of organizations to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to disruptions.
PEACE Framework: tostep’s method for building trust-based, adaptable teams.
People & Culture (P&C): A modern alternative to “HR,” focusing on human potential and culture shaping.
Psychological Safety: A team climate where people feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and share ideas.
Regulated Industries: Sectors like Pharma and MedTech where compliance is central to operations.
Self-Organization: Teams or units that manage their own priorities, processes, and accountability. > Read more.
Trust-Based Leadership: Leadership built on transparency, reliability, and empowerment over control.
