Interview with Marijke Verstappen, Secretary of the Municipality of Wageningen

The Municipality of Wageningen is embarking on a change process within an organisation of over three hundred people. Before considering the outcome, Municipal Secretary Marijke Verstappen states, "What's more important than the content or the outcome is that the organisation begins to change and that the staff feel that they own that change." 

Senior Consultant Tim de Vos is working closely with Verstappen to move the organisation through a process that treats change as a positive energy that requires the Municipality Secretary to take a step back from everyday operations.

Marijke Verstappen (MV): There were a lot of internal conflicts. It was an atmosphere of suspicion. The municipal executives, the council, and the public servants criticised one another, which led to an enormous emphasis on rules and procedures.

It's something municipal organisations tend to do because the national government keeps a firm grip on the city authorities. It insists they account for their actions in all sorts of ways, so almost by definition, you get a culture that lives and dies by the rules. At the same time, there was a buzz when I arrived.

MV: People wanted something different; they were open to change – although they had no idea where to start.

During one of my first meetings here, one of the staff said she was hoping someone would shake things up again in the organisation. She'd worked for Wageningen ten years earlier, and when she returned, she found that something had fallen flat. When she expressed this, everyone at that meeting nodded vigorously in agreement.

MV: I didn't. Although that often happens, the new municipal secretary arrives, stands before the group and says, "Here's what I'm going to do." Then the group thinks: "Now what?"

 It's arrogant to believe you can push your ideas forward when you've just arrived and need to learn how the organisation operates. That only leads to resistance. People might assume that the ideas are cast in concrete and that their input isn't welcomed.

I tried to get the group to see me mainly as a colleague. "This is who I am; I've come here to do good work and meet good people. I hope I can learn here and make mistakes. I'll probably fail miserably sometimes, and I hope you allow me to redeem myself when I do. What am I going to do? I don't have the faintest idea."

My message came as quite a shock to them.

MV: I mainly listened so that I could find out what was going on inside the organisation. I also read a lot to avoid making the same mistakes as my predecessors [The Municipality of Wageningen had already run through several municipal secretaries – Ed.]. 

In other words, I started by giving myself and the staff some leeway for embarking on a change process. It was vital to empower people to make changes themselves. From the bottom up, in other words. In my previous municipality, Nederbetuwe, I learned that this method allows some lovely and unexpected things to happen. People need to receive space and trust. The outcome is secondary to getting people on board with the change. A new shift comes about when they realise they can make a difference.

MV: I firmly believe in the Rhineland organisational model, which focuses on expertise and cooperation. That differs from the Anglo-Saxon model based on vision, objectives and verifiability. 

I launched an initial project based on the Rhineland model with twelve staff members prepared to tackle our work culture. They immediately asked me what the purpose was, how much budget was available, and how many pages long their report had to be. "I don't know that," I admitted, "but I do know that we want to work together to make a change. Here's my wallet. Surprise me. I'll support you and help you in whatever way you wish. How long should it take? You tell me."

MV: A few people thought I was bonkers, but I was sure those twelve people would not abuse this power – and they didn't! 

They organised a conference that cost a hundred euros called Whistle while you work. The topics included taking responsibility, cooperating, and dealing differently with rules and procedures. About a third of the staff attended. This conference inspired the set-up of additional workgroups that continue to explore these themes. 

What I did and still do throughout the process is raise issues for discussion, sometimes to the point of irritation. For example, I said, "Screw the rules" initially. When someone proposed prescribing a format or procedure, I'd say, "Why? How is that going to help you or change you?" That gets people thinking about why they do something. 

My role is also to be a facilitator. I continue to offer more leeway. Every once in a great while, I intervene if I genuinely think things are going wrong. Even then, I'd rather not discuss content. I restrict my comments to the process, emotions and relationships between people because as soon as I say something about the content, it's viewed as cast in concrete.

MV: After six months, I noticed that people needed more guidance. I feared that the fast-flowing stream we created would gush into a delta and slowly dribble to a halt. 

I invited Veldhoen + Company in as an accelerator to keep us moving forward and offer us guidance without forcing us in a specific direction. Wageningen's problem is that the administrative organisation is spread out over many buildings, many of which are old. 

I felt strongly that Activity Based Working would propel us forward. It integrates the mental change with physical change and supports digitisation. Remarkably, the Works Council wanted to talk to me about a New Way of Working without knowing what it entailed. Since I'd already worked closely with Tim in Nederbetuwe, it felt like an excellent time to get Veldhoen + Company on board in Wageningen.

Your job was to help make the change slowly more visible and tangible. Then you came along with a bunch of flashy presentations about The New Way of Working!

Tim: No, not at all. I also made sure to refrain from proposing any solutions. I mainly tried to get staff members to understand and be aware of how a New Way of Working might offer the organisation more direction as it develops and how it could help them change existing routines and patterns of behaviour. 

Once that awareness has been created, there’s a stable basis for seeking suitable solutions. The potential solutions offered by a New Way of Working are so numerous and have become such common knowledge that ownership has to lie with those affected by it: the municipal government’s employees. 

Our experience in the field has shown us that awareness and ownership will lead to a level of ambition that extends far beyond what someone like Marijke or even Veldhoen + Company could imagine.