Ministry of Infrastructure and Water

What was the objective?

The Directorate of Information and Operations (IenE) is the entity responsible for information provision, digitalization, and innovation (I) for the core management of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. To achieve this, an innovative culture and mindset within the directorate itself are indispensable.

But to what extent is such a culture already present? How can such a work culture be stimulated? And what obstacles are there that hinder this?

Philip van der Kolk of Studio Nooitgedacht, together with Geert Klein Entink, the directorate secretary of IenE, developed a comprehensive program to examine these kinds of questions with the entire directorate. Civinc played a central role in opening up the conversation within the directorate and mapping out where the obstacles and opportunities lay.

What did we do?

Within the program, two Civinc sessions were organized for all colleagues of the directorate. The first took place during a physical directorate event, a day focused on bringing together different perspectives. In the Civinc session, all colleagues were challenged to exchange thoughts on statements about the existing culture in an accessible and anonymous manner.

A month later, a deepening Civinc session was held to zoom in on the most relevant and pressing themes that emerged from the data insights of the first session. Based on this, we formulated new statements together with IenE and Studio Nooitgedacht for colleagues to discuss, in order to get to the core.

What was the outcome?

The sessions enabled colleagues to openly express themselves about the prevailing culture, what was good about it, and what could be improved or changed. Nearly half of the participants indicated that they felt safer expressing their true opinions in this setting than in a group setting.

This led to candid conversations and a great deal of insight into how the culture within the directorate was experienced and where the main areas of tension lay. It revealed how colleagues viewed decision-making from the MT, how job satisfaction could be improved, and whether/how colleagues felt they could optimally contribute to the mission and services of the directorate. These insights were widely shared within the directorate and help to guide the organizational development process.

What did the customer say?

Geert Klein-Entink, directorate secretary:

The first session was a pilot for us, to see if something like this would work with our people. Participation was good, although we did notice that concentration for such an exercise was not entirely optimal at the end of an intensive afternoon. Nevertheless, interesting points of attention emerged. We conducted the second deepening session in a hybrid manner because we simply cannot get everyone together for short meetings. Some colleagues were present on-site, while others listened in from home and logged onto the website. This ensured broad participation, which worked well. The deepening session provided more clarity on several subjects, and we are using the report as a basis or context for initiating actions or discussions. As far as I’m concerned, this calls for more!

What did users say?

“Fun way to share experiences!”
“Great to have anonymous conversations with each other”
“We should implement this at the ministry”