Client overview
Laboratoires Expanscience is a long-term partner of Perpetual. They are a global purpose-driven dermo-cosmetics company (with brands like Mustela and Babo Botanicals), recognized for its commitment to people, innovation, and positive societal impact.
For the past 6 years, in partnership with the US leadership team, we have focused our efforts on taking them to the next level of team performance, building on their culture of trust, engagement, and collaboration.
The context
The leadership team offsite in October 2025 confirmed the need to focus on communication within the team, including feedback.
Using our proprietary tool, Team-to-Tribe (t3®), we highlighted the strengths and areas of development of the team at that moment:
- Amazing scores in Togetherness, Belonging, Empowerment and Clarity & Alignment.
- Need to improve in Agile Execution: all behaviors that allow the team to adapt, debate, decide, and move quickly under pressure
With this in mind, we crafted an all-team immersive offsite touching on the following topics:
- How do we lean into productive discomfort to keep improving?
- How do we make feedback more direct without eroding safety?
- How do we strengthen execution when conditions change?
- How do leaders model trust, ownership and accountability at the next level?
The solution
In November, Perpetual facilitated a two-day team-wide offsite in the Catskills, bringing together approximately 30 participants.
The experience was deliberately designed as a stretch moment, pushing an already strong team to think differently, challenge habits, and elevate how they work together.
Key highlights included:
Data-informed reflection
The offsite was anchored in the t3® diagnostic results, providing a shared language and objective foundation. Rather than debating opinions, the team worked from clear insights about what was working, and where greater discipline and courage were required.
Psychological safety & productive discomfort
Leaders explored the neuroscience of psychological safety, understanding how threat responses shape behavior, communication, and feedback. From there, the group engaged in conversations and exercises designed to si just outside their comfort zone, strengthening their ability to speak up, listen deeply, and stay present in tension.
Feedback & feedforward practices
A central focus was placed on feedback: when to give it, how to make it safe, and how to ensure it actually serves progress rather than avoidance. The team reframed feedback as a tool for building the future – not reliving the past – and practiced more intentional, courageous conversations.
Trust, empowerment and accountability
Through interactive, challenging experiences, team members experienced trust and authenticity, logic, and empathy, explored empowerment, and discussed what it truly takes to build a culture accountability rooted in ownership rather than control.
Envisioning the “next level”
The experience concluded with a forward-looking set of actionable tools: identifying the mindsets, behaviors, and ways of working that would help the team move from working well to high-performing.
The results
The offsite generated strong resonance across a demanding leadership audience:
- Over 90% satisfaction with the delivery across the participants, reflecting both the relevance and impact of the experience.
- Leaders reported deeper awareness of team dynamics, increased comfort with candid dialogue, and a stronger shared responsibility for how the team shows up day-to-day.
- The team left with a clearer, more explicit commitment to feedback, psychological safety, and accountability as enablers of performance – not soft concepts, but practical leadership tools.
Importantly, participants embraced the value of discomfort as a driver of growth, recognizing that maintaining high performance requires continuous reflection, challenge, and intentional practice.
Why it matters
This engagement was not about fixing dysfunction, it was about choosing excellence on purpose.
By creating the space to slow down, reflect, and engage in honest conversations, Laboratoires Expanscience US reinforced its ability to adapt, execute, and lead with clarity in an incredible complex environment. Teams that are willing to step into discomfort, while preserving trust and safety, are the ones that sustain performance over time.
This is Perpetual’s mission: help teams unlock their next level through clarity, courage, and experiences that create lasting momentum.
