Make teamwork visible

Beacon Star Global helps schools and universities grow the teamwork, cultural intelligence and global leadership of staff and students through PRISM® assessments, participant workbooks and facilitator guides, backed by research out of Boston University.

Developed out of Boston UniversityBuilt and validated by a university research team. Read the research brief
Research by David Livermore, PhDFounder of the Cultural Intelligence Center, with 20+ years of research.
Grounded in fieldworkDeveloped with more than 3,700 leaders and professionals across 27 countries
Expert facilitatorsMaster certified in PRISM and Global TeamLEAD, with deep experience across schools and universities

PRISM®: how people really work and lead

Developed out of Boston University by a research team including David Livermore, PhD, PRISM measures observable workplace behaviour, not personality, across five dimensions. Every option includes a participant workbook and facilitator guide for activities and discussion.

The first page of a PRISM Workstyle Profile, showing scores across Power, Risk, Identity, Speed and Messaging

The opening page of an actual Workstyle Profile. Each report goes on to explain what your position on each dimension means for the way you work, with two concrete practices per dimension and an action plan of reflection prompts.

PRISM® Workstyle

How you show up at work and in a team.

For anyone on a team, staff or student

  • A personal profile across all five dimensions
  • A team overview mapping how styles play out across a staff or student group
  • Includes participant workbook and facilitator guide

$69 AUD per profile

View a sample Workstyle Profile

Sessions with a Master Certifier

Intro discussionFree

15 minutes over Zoom to hear how the assessments work and whether they suit your setting. Book it through the enquiry form.

Team debrief$300 AUD

A one-hour Zoom call after your team completes the assessment, walking through your results and the steps to move forward.

On-site half day$1,500 AUD

Four hours in person with your team, working through your results and the steps to move forward. Travel and accommodation added where required; our facilitators are based on the Gold Coast, Australia.

See inside the participant workbook

Each page is clearly marked as a sample. Select any page to open all five as a PDF.

Book a free intro discussion

Rolling it out across a team?

Scoped pricing for 35 or more, and whole-of-school rollouts. Extensive in-class resources at both secondary and university level unpack the profiles: participant workbooks and facilitator guides for activities and discussion.

Reach out for your team

How schools and universities use it

Most teams never actually see how they work together. These are the moments schools and universities bring to us, and where PRISM earns its place.

Our executive team is new this year and we need to gel quickly.

Everyone completes PRISM before your first planning day, then a facilitated session helps the team read its combined profile and agree how it will work.

Our incoming student leaders need to work as one team from day one.

Run the Workstyle assessment across the cohort at induction, with the participant workbook and facilitator guide supporting activities and discussion through the year.

We are taking students overseas and the group has to work well together.

Build understanding of the team before you travel. A group that knows how it works and communicates gets far more from the programme.

Identify. Reflect. Improve.

The simple, evidence-based cycle behind everything we deliver. With each step, the picture of your team comes into focus.

Identify

Everyone completes PRISM® online in about ten minutes, mapping how they work across five behavioural dimensions.

Reflect

Reports and facilitated conversation give the team an honest look at itself, identify strengths and areas for growth, and build a shared language for how each person leads and collaborates.

Improve

People leave understanding themselves and their team members, with practical ways to collaborate on projects and get work done with less friction, supported by the workbook and facilitator guide.

Built for your staff. Built for your students.

The same assessment works at every level of a school or university. When staff and students share the language, teamwork becomes culture, not a one-off workshop.

A school leadership team in a relaxed, engaged conversation around a table

For your staff

Stronger teams across the staffroom

Every staff team mixes generations, disciplines and communication styles. PRISM makes those differences workable, so colleagues play to each other's strengths.

  • Executive and leadership teams understanding how they decide and communicate together
  • Departments and year-level teams collaborating better day to day
  • Strategic project teams working towards a shared goal under real deadlines
  • Cross-curricular and cross-faculty projects that bring different disciplines together
  • Greater understanding across the staffroom, so differences in style are read as strengths rather than friction
  • Staff professional learning days, retreats and induction programmes

Start with: PRISM® Workstyle for whole teams, the Leadership Bundle for your leaders.

Students walking and talking together in a campus corridor

For your students

Global leadership skills, made tangible

From Year 9 through to university, students identify their own workstyle, reflect on it with peers, and build the collaboration and leadership skills universities and employers now expect.

  • Student leadership cohorts, captains, councils and service teams
  • University students, including international business and other global courses, study abroad programmes and exchanges, with the team ready to work together before departure
  • Links with international curricula such as the International Baccalaureate and their focus on competencies of the future and ACARA's general capabilities
  • Extensive in-class resources that unpack the profiles through activities and discussion
  • Evidence of global leadership development for learner profiles and resumes

Start with: PRISM® Workstyle for cohorts, the Leadership Bundle for senior student leaders.

Consultancy

Work directly with the Beacon Star Global team to turn your PRISM data into development your people can act on.

Our consultants are master certified in the delivery of PRISM assessments and Global TeamLEAD certification, and are members of the Society of CQ Fellows. They work with schools and universities on what sits behind the reports. There are two ways to work with us. A consultant can work alongside your key contact person, taking them through the programme and showing them how to use the workbook and facilitator guide with their own group, so the capability stays in your organisation. Or a consultant can facilitate directly, running a workshop or professional development session, from a shorter after-school slot through to a half day with your team. Either way, the focus is on understanding your team's profiles, drawing out the deeper cohort data, and making sense of what it means for the way you actually work together.

See the full detailHide detail

Two ways to work with us

Guide your key contact

A consultant works alongside a nominated contact in your school, university or organisation, taking them through the programme and showing them how to use the workbook and facilitator guide with their group. The capability stays with your people.

Facilitate a session

A consultant runs a workshop or professional development session directly with your team, from a shorter after-school session through to a half day, shaped around what your group needs.

What a session looks like

Read the group profile

We unpack your team's combined results and the deeper cohort data behind them.

Surface the differences

We explore where workstyles, strengths and blind spots sit across the team, in a way that feels safe and useful rather than exposing.

Work through real situations

We apply the language to the actual challenges the team is facing, not abstract case studies.

Agree how you will work

The group leaves with clear, shared agreements, and knows how to keep using the workbook and facilitator guide together.

Who it is for and how it runs

Who it suits

  • Leadership and executive teams
  • Staff teams and departments
  • Student leadership cohorts
  • Conference, retreat and staff development days
  • Preparing a team before an international experience

How it runs

Consultancy runs from a single half-day session through to an ongoing professional development programme across a year, shaped around the goals your team brings to the room. An on-site half day is $1,500 AUD plus travel and accommodation where required.

Why educators choose this work

More than 600 schools and universities worldwide have built cultural intelligence into classrooms and leadership development. PRISM applies that same research to the way teams actually work, helping graduates become not just knowledgeable but globally capable.

"In a world where crossing boundaries is routine, cultural intelligence becomes a vitally important aptitude and skill."

Harvard Business Review

Across staff teams

Bridge differences in department, generation and communication style, so colleagues work better together.

Around global programmes

Develop understanding of the team before you travel. A group that can work together and communicate well sets the programme up to succeed.

For career readiness

Students who can work across difference are better prepared to lead in global workplaces and stand out when they leave school.

Your questions, answered

Common questions about PRISM®, the Global TeamLEAD™ ecosystem and how it all runs in schools and universities.

How do we order PRISM?

Email info@beacon-star.com to express interest. We talk through your organisation's needs and settle on what suits. Once numbers are confirmed we send an invoice, and once paid, an online code your participants use to take the assessment. No email addresses are collected, and participants use only a first name and last initial for privacy. Everyone saves their profile and brings it to a session, where the full set of profiles and cohort-level insights guide the conversation. If you'd like to talk it through first, the free 15-minute intro discussion is the easy place to start.

What does it cost?

The Workstyle Profile is $69 AUD per person and the Leadership Bundle is $119 AUD per person. Both include a participant workbook and facilitator guide for activities and discussion. For groups of 35 or more, or whole-of-school rollouts, email info@beacon-star.com for scoped pricing. A free 15-minute intro discussion over Zoom is available before you commit. A one-hour team debrief with a Master Certifier after the assessment is $300 AUD, and an on-site half day, four hours with your team, is $1,500 AUD plus travel and accommodation where required. Pricing is transparent, invoiced once, with no ongoing subscription fees.

Is PRISM a personality test?

No, and the difference matters. Personality tools such as the Big Five, MBTI or DISC describe relatively stable traits. PRISM measures observable workplace behaviour: how you actually make decisions, communicate, respond to authority, handle uncertainty and pace your work when deadlines tighten or expectations differ. Because these are learned practices rather than fixed traits, your profile can shift as your role and context change, and that is by design. The framework was developed through a literature review, qualitative research with leaders in 27 countries, and multi-year scale testing with more than 3,700 leaders and professionals.

What do I receive after completing the assessment?

A personalised PDF report plus a participant workbook and facilitator guide. The Workstyle Profile scores you on each of the five dimensions (Power, Risk, Identity, Speed, Messaging), explains in plain language what your position means for the way you work, gives two concrete practices for each dimension, and finishes with reflection prompts you can bring to a session. The Leadership Bundle includes all of that plus your dominant and secondary leadership archetypes, with guidance on what you value, how you like to work, how you want feedback, your growth opportunities, and how others can work well with you.

What are the six leadership archetypes?

Trailblazers lead with vision, Architects with process, Coaches with support, Guardians with protection, Directors with authority and Navigators with responsiveness. Your dominant archetype comes from the pattern across your five dimensions, identified through cluster analysis of profiles from around the world. No archetype is better than another, and an archetype is a lens, not a label. The report shows the strengths of your style and the situations where deliberately flexing it will serve your team better.

Is PRISM appropriate for school and university students?

Yes. In schools, Year 9 and above is a common starting point for student leaders, and the language links naturally with international curricula such as the International Baccalaureate and their focus on competencies of the future and ACARA's general capabilities. Students apply it to real situations where they're working in a team: student councils, house leadership, service projects, co-curricular groups. In universities it suits student leadership programmes, colleges, international business and other global courses, and study abroad cohorts, and extensive in-class resources at both secondary and university level unpack the profiles. Many run PRISM at induction so the group starts with a shared language, and the workbook and facilitator guide carry that conversation through the year.

Who built PRISM?

PRISM was developed out of Boston University by a research team including David Livermore, PhD, founder of the Cultural Intelligence Center, drawing on fieldwork with more than 3,700 leaders and professionals across 27 countries between 2022 and 2025. It sits inside the Global TeamLEAD™ ecosystem, licensed exclusively through certified Master Practitioners. You can read the research brief or find more at davidlivermore.com/prism.

How soon can we start?

Assessment links are sent within two business days of payment, along with the participant workbook and facilitator guide, so your team can complete the assessment, read their reports and start working with the material straight away. For whole-of-school rollouts we usually agree a launch window so all links go out together.

Do you work internationally?

Yes. Our facilitators are based on the Gold Coast, Australia, and we deliver to schools and organisations globally over video. In-person work is available Australia-wide and on request internationally, with travel and accommodation costs added where required. The assessment itself runs online in any time zone.

Read the research: PRISM research brief (PDF)  ·  PRISM  ·  David Livermore, PhD  ·  Society of CQ Fellows  ·  Hub for Applied CQ

Tell us a little, and we will do the rest.

Answer a few short questions and we will come back to you with the right information for your setting. There is nothing to fill in at length and no obligation, and we reply within two business days.

Transparent pricing, invoiced once, no subscriptions.

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Portrait of David Livermore, PhD

David Livermore, PhD

David Livermore, PhD (Michigan State University) is a social scientist devoted to the topics of cultural intelligence (CQ) and global leadership and the author of several award-winning books, including Leading with Cultural Intelligence, Digital, Diverse & Divided, Driven by Difference, and Serving with Eyes Wide Open. His newest book, the third edition of Leading with Cultural Intelligence, is the bestselling book on cultural intelligence and is filled with the latest research, case studies, and strategies for anyone who has to lead someone who is different from them.

David is a founder of the Cultural Intelligence Center, Director of the Society of CQ Fellows, and the Ahmass Fakahany Visiting Professor in Global Leadership at Questrom's School of Business at Boston University. He consults with global organizations around the world, including Harvard, Google, Coca-Cola, the US Department of Defense, BMW, Qatar Airways, the United Nations, and dozens more. He has traveled to more than one hundred countries and is a frequent speaker at conferences. He also serves on several boards and is a Fellow with the Society of Leadership Fellows, Windsor Castle, a select leadership community that meets to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing us globally.

David loves to make social science accessible to practitioners. He has been interviewed and referenced by myriad news sources, including The Atlantic, CBS News, Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, Forbes, NBC, the New York Times, USA Today, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the South China Post.

David and his wife, Linda, have two adult daughters, Emily and Grace. Emily is a litigation lawyer, and Grace is a graphic designer. Some of their favorite family activities are traveling (fortunately!) and discovering new foods together.