Daring to Learn
Daring to Learn was a multi-year and multi-level project empowering a Dutch city including the legislators, professionals and citizens leveling the interests between people and stones to improve mutual engagement and collaboration.
Introduction
Co-creating Change
In the heart of the South of the Netherlands flourishes a bustling city known for its historical context and its vibrant bourgeoise lifestyle. In 2009, the City Council, bound by a new political-administrative agreement, resolved to forge a better future—a municipal government that was compact, effective, professional, and, above all, civic-focused. This urban vision addressed the city’s future aspirations and key challenges, provided a governance framework for decision-making and policy development, emphasized the creation of a vibrant and sustainable city while addressing the spatial, economic, infrastructural, social, and human dynamics.
The vision portrayed the future of the city as “compact city in a thriving landscape, within a complete region, and part of a networked society.” This mosaic concept highlights, creativity and connectivity. Goals included fostering a balanced demographic, strengthening the labor market, and enhancing livability through spatial and social-cultural initiatives. Collaboration with the Dutch national government, local citizens, housing corporations, commercial property developers, including other relevant (eur)regional public-private business partners were defined as critical to achieve these urban restructuring ambitions. This is the story of the city’s’ transformation.
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The Context
In light of the City’s long-term 2030-2040 vision, a public-administrative transition process was designed based on several core strategic re-organizational policies. Led by a new municipal secretary, the organization focused on integral board advice, targeted program management, and operationalizing project management policy involving a change in the competencies of the professionals. In contrast to the expert model of the past and moving toward a co-creational model, professionals would operate as a knowledge brokers with certain expertise, developing policies from the ‘outside to inside.’
The Challenge
Yet, beneath its lively surface, the city’s government, struggled with inefficiency. Departments operated in silos, citizens felt unheard, and resources dwindled under the weight of outdated systems. In 2009, the city’s leadership, guided by a new political agreement, committed to building a brighter future with a government that was streamlined, efficient, professional, and deeply focused on civic priorities.
” Any participation, even in the smallest public function, is useful.”
– John Stuart Mill –
The Hypothesis
The organization had already undergone various development processes in recent years. The most recent plan adopted by the municipal executive board outlined a multi-year vision for all municipal services and the development of the administrative organization. This led to the establishment of several multi-year, programmatically interrelated improvement projects. Specifically, the administrative organization would shift towards a project-based organization where interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary self-managing project teams were to work in public-private partnerships (PPP’s) to be managed programmatically. In this context, the three-way division of the organization would be abandoned and efforts were being made to implement programmatic and project management based on a client-contractor working relationship.
The Collaboration
The director of the social domain invited Peter to collaborate for his versatile expertise and ability to operate in a variety of roles focused on analyzing, facilitating, coaching and changing the human and organizational dynamics to empower the initial start and the implementation of a multi-year and multi-level strategic initiative to transform the sector society into a compact, effective, professional, and civic-focused organization amidst a €22 million budget cut, generational workforce changes and the professionalization of civil-servants.
Based on the above context, several executive meetings were held with the Domain Director (SCZ), the Sector Manager for Society, the Operations Manager and the Senior HR Advisor. Based on these meetings Peter presented a comprehensive strategic development plan, the core concepts were thematically placed within a Contextual Guidance Model resulting in a multi-faceted GuideWork™plan.
During the collaboration, there was continuous feedback between the sector manager for society and the higher echelons of the administrative organization, including the legislator responsible for the urban development. In summary, the sector society had a dual mandate:
1. Delivering Three Core Functions:
• The sector must function compactly, effectively, and more cost-effectively.
• Conceptual networking at the strategic and administrative levels.
• High-quality implementation and process management.
• Unorthodox development pathways provided.
• High-quality implementation projects.
2. Developing Professionality:
• Professionals need to transition from solely behaving as experts, working in silos towards general knowledge brokers with (multiple) expertise as flexible teams.
• Professionals need to create future policies in close collaboration with the people able to work from ‘Outside to Inside.’
• Professionals need to transition into intrapreneurs willing to embrace a life-long learning culture.
The Methods
– Action Research
– Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
– Changing Conversation
– Civic Participation
– Changing Conversation
– Experiential Learning
– Generative Dialogues
– Organizational Learning
– Reflective practitioner
– Soft System Methodologies (SSM)
– Systems Thinking
” Democracy is not a spectator sport, it’s a participatory event.
If we don’t participate in it, it ceases to be a democracy.”
– Michael Moore –
The Tools
– Strength Conferences (Facilitating legislative Vision labs)
– World Café (Leading several Staff focused Learn labs)
– Strength Conferences (Facilitating civic-focused Work labs)
– Team Development (Policy innovation, realization and execution)
– Guidework™ Pro (Executive Coaching)
– A variety of practical assesments (e.g. learning, communication)
– Circular Communicative Techniques
The Actions
Throughout the project, Peter worked in various roles, and implemented the plan in collaboration with the executive team. The strategy used action learning, competency-based frameworks, and co-creation models (e.g. Arnstein’s Ladder, Ostrom’s principles), validated through inter-subjective testing. In the initial phase, the following activities were carried out:
• Pre-analytical Snapshot
– Based on all the available and relevant political-adminstrative agreements, including internal organizational plans and policies, conceptual frameworks, cultural analysis, Executive and management plans, team meetings, neighborhoods meetings, etc.
• Design, Educations & facilitation
– VisionLabs (Legislators, Executives)
– LearnLabs (Executives, Professionals)
– WorkLabs (Professionals, Citizens)
– Senior Team Development Meetings
• Civic Worklabs
– Civic Strength Conferences (CSC- Citizens)
– Neighborhood Summits (Administrators/Residents Meetings)
• GuideWork™ Coaching
– Sector manager during the initiation phase using Move & Improve™ methodology
– Senior project manager using Act & Reflect™ methodology
” Opportunity is missed by most people
because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.“
– Thomas A. Edison –
Securing the results:
Continuation
From 2009-2011, before he legally immigrated to the United States, Peter served in a variety of interwoven roles to lay a strong foundation to ensure the progress of this, highly-complex multi-year, multi-level and multi-faceted process. In countless interconnected projects he served as; Political Strategist, Organizational Consultant, Expert in Human Dynamics, Interaction facilitator, Executive coach, Educator and Mediator.
” Courage enables us to do what is right despite our fear.“
– Peter Cuijpers–
Recommendations
His final report (Learning together, Daring to do work together – Ambition plan, 2009) provided an extensive academic summative analysis including a detailed multi-level strategic organizational framework and a robust operational plan including timeline, methods and practical tools to start building the internal professional capacity, aligned with the policies and the city-vision including detailed actions to address the internal/external human and organizational sensitive dynamics within a high-risk political-administrative context.
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