AN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INITIATIVE
Cloverleaf Labs studies how people actually work better together.
Communication, decision-making, feedback, trust, conflict. The lab studies these closely and publishes what it finds, in plain language, for the people who can put it to work.
ABOUT THE LAB
Most of what happens between two people at work never gets studied closely.
The friction gets chalked up to personality. The stretches where a team just clicks get chalked up to luck or chemistry. Either way, it rarely gets a real look.
Cloverleaf Labs takes that look. It’s a research effort with its own team and its own agenda, separate from Cloverleaf’s day to day product work. Its only job is to study how people actually work better together, across everything from communication and decision-making to feedback, trust, and conflict, and to put what it finds into the hands of the people who can use it.
The lab exists because this subject deserves study on its own terms, not as a side effect of building software. If you lead a team, work in HR, or spend your days trying to understand the people around you a little better, this is where that work will live.
THE RESEARCH
Peer reviewed
Coaching That Carries Over
Published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. Across 84 automated coaching users tracked daily, coaching raised reflection in the moment and the appetite to keep learning the day after.
Research Report
The Relational Work Index
The hardest part of work is almost always another person. Nearly 30,000 coaching conversations show employees ask to understand a colleague 2.5x more often than to resolve conflict.
Research Report
The Relational Risk Inside Your AI Rollout
We ran five workplace conflicts through five leading LLMs. Of 638 pieces of advice, fewer than 1% helped repair the relationship. Every model raised quitting.
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Scott Dust, PhD
Senior Scientist
Scott sets the research agenda behind Cloverleaf Labs. He is a professor of management at the University of Cincinnati’s Lindner College of Business, with more than 25 peer-reviewed articles on leadership and teams in journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Kirsten Moorefield
Head of Research
Kirsten co-founded Cloverleaf in 2017, after leading a young team with no playbook for the hardest part of the job. She speaks and writes on psychological safety and diversity of thought, including a TEDx talk on what makes teams work.
GET IN TOUCH
Request a briefing or ask about the work.
For press enquiries, data requests, and research collaboration.
PRESS COVERAGE
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Put me in coach: A daily examination of automated coaching on need for self-knowledge and learning goal orientation through metacognitive activities · 2025 · Learn More →
MSN
Employees are turning to AI for career advice. Cloverleaf’s research says that advice is: quit
· 2026 · Learn More →
News18
AI gives worse workplace advice to employees with less power: Report · 2026 · Learn More →