Our HISTORY
Percept was founded by Shivani Ranchod and Dave Strugnell, both of whom are actuaries and were academics at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The leap from academia to Percept is surprisingly small: deep curiosity, an endless supply of problems worth solving and questions worth answering, an appreciation of intellectual rigour, and the desire to create a learning environment in which people can thrive.
The name “Percept” arrived in Shivani’s dreamspace before there was even a sense of what Percept might be. When the name first reverberated, she did not even know if it was a real word, which it is:
“The word ‘percept’ describes the process of fully experiencing the world: those rare moments when our sensory experiences (including thought) harmonise with each other.”
The multi-dimensional nature of that perception, which goes beyond the superficial, accorded with our transdisciplinary approach and our appreciation of diversity. We delivered solutions that seamlessly threaded together an array of skills and perspectives. Percept drew together a range of experts, including actuaries, economists, data scientists, public health specialists, social scientists, and healthcare professionals, who worked in transdisciplinary teams to solve complex problems.
We forged enduring relationships with clients who were also working towards a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient world, because we knew that we could achieve more together. This allowed us to work on projects that had a systemic impact, both in South Africa and transnationally.
Our work was delivered through the principles of transdisciplinary collaboration, right effort, generative curiosity, and everyday courage.
Our values
Our people, and our work, will carry forward Percept’s values.
Transdisciplinary collaboration
“Multi-disciplinary brings the base metals together; trans-disciplinary performs alchemical magic with them.” – Percept Emergent Positioning
Transdisciplinarity is inherently transgressive, crossing many boundaries to achieve a holistic approach to understanding and approaching big questions. It is also inherently inclusive, inviting in different epistemologies, lived experiences, languages and expertise – and treating this diversity as a superpower. Genuine transdisciplinarity is radically in opposition to systems of oppression that are grounded in hierarchies of knowledge.
Connected to our transdisciplinary aspirations was our deep commitment to collaboration. Rather than ‘parachuting’ in with solutions, we strived for meaningful partnership with clients and collaborators that was attuned to their context and surfaced their innate knowledge. We dynamically constituted and reconstituted teams and roles attuned to the needs of the work, nurturing a diversity in ways of working, styles of leadership, and approaches to problem-solving.
In Percept’s sense-making, and ways of working, we aimed to dissolve the boundaries between:
- Quantitative science versus qualitative interpretation
- Analytical versus creative
- Head versus heart
- Numbers versus stories
- Big data versus thick data
- User and provider
- Consumer and creator
- Birds-eye view versus worms-eye view
In the words of Perceptors:
“Transdisciplinary collaboration is the magic that happens when you mix the varying skills of people from diverse backgrounds, allowing things to be created that couldn’t have been created in the absence of any one of the many parts.”
Right effort
“I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.” – Maya Angelou
Right effort is to act diligently, with courage and compassion, towards goals that are meaningful. We consciously directed our energy towards our vision of a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient world. We achieved this by enabling our people to do their best work, recognising them in their full human context and cultivating an agile environment in which their ingenuity could thrive.
In the words of Perceptors:
“Right effort is knowing how to prioritise both your time and your (emotional) energy in ways that best serve the work, the collective, and your ability to show up fully.”
“It is understanding context. Knowing what the moment requires from me, in what intensity, and for how long.”
Generative curiosity
“Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.” – Mae Jemison
We believed that new possibilities were unlocked by continually asking questions and investing energy in seeking out their answers, often making unexpected discoveries along the way. That is why we prized curiosity so highly, and why we created a workplace that values continuous learning. Generative curiosity births new ideas and possibilities into being.
In the words of Perceptors:
“To me this is a ‘doing’ kind of curiosity. It speaks to wanting to learn about something, learning about it, then doing something about what you have learned. It also creates opportunities for more learning and even deeper curiosity.”
Everyday courage
“Courage does not always roar.” – Tomi Adeyemi
We practised moral, empathetic and intellectual courage in our everyday work. Everyday courage is not about heroism, but about consistently showing up with integrity and compassion.
In the words of Perceptors:
“Everyday courage means facing every day, and every challenge of the day, with equanimity and clear conviction; to be in service and support of others; to show up bravely for what is right.”
manifesto
We have translated our values into a set of practices and ways of working – we call this the Percept manifesto. The manifesto was co-written in early 2018 by Percept’s first four employees. It formed part of our employment contract – in other words, there was explicit contracting on the basis of values. The lines from the manifesto, in turn, were used to name our digital spaces and projects – they were actively part of the day-to-day way in which we worked. The manifesto stood the test of time: calling us back to a way of being again and again.
