A new organisational approach - WVP Ijsselmeergebied, Rijkswaterstaat - 12th January 2009


How to keep the knowledge in the organisation? How do we improve the quality of our work? And how do we organize ourselves to meet the challenges for the future? What will be my role in a changing organisation? And which competencies do I need to develop? And which knowledge do we need? These were some of the key questions, which were discussed by staff members from the WVP unit of Rijkswaterstaat Ijsselmeergebied.

WVP is a unit which is active in keeping up the infrastructure for waterinfrastructure and physical infrastructure to protect The Netherlands from wateroverflow. The unit is now in a phase that it wants to maintain the quality of its work by working more efficient. One of the challenges is to delegate more responsibilities to the Commercial Constructors and focus more on product and process controls. During the workshop on the 12th January 2009 staff members visualised and discussed on how they see their organisation develop towards 2012.


The workshop was led by Frans Scheepens from Scheepens communication. My role (Simon Koolwijk) was to be co-facilitator with Karen Boerdam and Ad Dijkstra in guiding the staff members in vizualising their future organisation. Main part of the workshop was to work in different small groups, which were adding and deepening their ideas on others. How to organize, what to include and some relevant key aspects such as how to keep and expand the necessary knowledge were some key items in the discussions.

Small groups were working in a varation of setting. The meditation room, the kitchen room, the sitting room with an open fire and the sports hall were the pre-sets used to help the participants to change their perspectives. Added value of the settings gave participants the opportunity to share freely, move and work hard.

The pre-sets are one of the unique selling points of the LEF Future Centre. They play an important role in assisting the Dutch government departments in dealing with complex issues in the area of water-, road and air infrastructure.


After the brainstorm workshops 4 different groups presented their ideas to the Management of WVP Ijsselmeergebied on how they would like to see their organisation develop in the next three years. Both the Director and the Management Team had an opportunity to respond and give clearity on the next steps.
Karen Boerdam facilitated the final part of the meeting with music creating the mindset for an inspiring closing. Sounds of blues, celtic, rock, reagea, classical and rap music provided towards a warm and spontanous ending. Participants shared their wishes through a written handprint on a galary. The noise of clapping ballons symbolized the closing of an energetic and hardworking day.

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