Responsibility lower down in the organisation

In organisations where responsibility is lower in the organisation, the changes are often major. Employees are actually held responsible for the results they achieve. As a result, control is mainly focused on output (the result) rather than on the work processes themselves. The control also consists of support in realising the greater responsibility. Training, coaching and other facilities need to be available to master the problems that arise, especially in the first phase.

Self-managing teams

Steering is often organised on a responsible basis around self-managing teams. These are small teams that are responsible for results. This way of organising stimulates intensive cooperation and (informal) coordination between employees. After all, they are jointly responsible for the team’s performance. Problems are also tackled together and colleagues can help each other. By keeping the teams compact (on average between eight and twelve people) there are short lines of communication and bureaucracy is avoided.

Steer a balance – give space

In order to be able to steer on the basis of responsibility, it is very important to find the right balance between steering (setting frameworks, naming results/outputs, setting boundaries) and giving room (delegating, self-organisation, letting go). In practice, this remains more difficult than expected and after a start full of good intentions, the organisation springs back. However, employees, especially professionals, appreciate the control room (2), as long as there are not too many tasks to be managed for the team.

Self-management across departments

In the healthcare sector, the demand for nursing staff varies greatly from department to department. More and more nurses can be deployed in different departments. There is now a great deal of consultation between the heads of the various departments about employability. Experiments in which the nurses regulate this themselves show positive results. A number of heads go back in the execution. This brings more hands to the bed. Patients naturally appreciate this (1). Employees are also happy (3) to be able to think along with them about an optimal staffing whereby they can take more account of their own private agenda.

Change coaches

It often works well to train a number of informal leaders in the organization to become change coaches. These internal coaches ensure a better acceptance of all the changes an organization has to deal with. Employees appreciate this much better than using external coaches who do not know the organization (3).

Experience shows that internal change coaches who know the organization can play a very important role in making the new organization a success. These change coaches are usually carefully selected from the people who are estimated to have a lot of influence informally. The appreciation for these change coaches is then usually high (3). The change coaches are trained by an external party at the beginning of such a project.