Atlant project team at work with Symbol to further professionalize

“Our Symbol consultant, Paulien Nienhuis, advised us to also involve the MT, as the client of the team, in the process. So we took a step back and scheduled a session with the MT first. When do they consider a project successful, what do they think is going well and what do they think could be improved? Then we held the same session with our team, in which we also eventually fed back the outcome of the session with the MT. This was sometimes quite confronting – “Is this what they are asking of us?” – but also enlightening. It allowed us to further sharpen the plan for our series of custom training courses with Symbol.”

The common denominator between MT and project team

The common denominator between the wishes of the MT and the needs of the project team? More attention to the front end of projects, think about exploring and clearly formulating the project brief, establishing the preconditions, accepting and investing in the project. “When we pay more attention to this, we can avoid many problems in the execution of projects. Moreover, projects run more smoothly, faster and with more energy, and the results are better. And it ensures that project leaders can act as a critical sparring partner to the MT. That they can not only execute, but can also form an independent opinion, really think something of it. That was an important wish of our client,” says Geuzendam.

Being a critical sparring partner

“However, we were not used to paying so much attention to that front end; our project managers were happy to get to work quickly,” Geuzendam continued. “So in the first session with Paulien, we tackled this right away. How to be a ‘critical sparring partner’? What I found special was that Paulien tackled both the blue side (which structures can be used for this) and the red side (which behavior must be exhibited as a sparring partner). That red side emerged more than we had thought of ourselves beforehand, but precisely this has been an eye opener for all of us.”

Apply in one’s own practice

In total, Paulien organized four one-day interactive work sessions for the Atlant project team. In addition to being a critical sparring partner, key topics covered included: where does the role of project manager begin and end? How do you handle re-contracting, that is, changes in a project? And what intervention techniques can you use when a project isn’t going so well and you need to get colleagues moving? Geuzendam: “What I really liked: it did not stop at knowledge transfer and doing exercises on the days themselves. The application in our own practice and securing it in our own working method was really central. For example, on one of the days we were given great tools for conducting a stakeholder analysis. One of the project leaders came up with a proposal on how to embed this in our own working method and, between the work sessions, worked this out in more detail. And so now more topics from the training sessions are being taken up further – in January 2020 we want to have this finished. As a result, we have not only had inspiring days, but we can apply what we have learned on a permanent basis.”

Knowledge (sharing) and awareness

“What did the process yield in concrete terms? I can answer that briefly: a lot of knowledge, but above all awareness and knowledge sharing,” Geuzendam says. “Every six weeks, during our peer review meeting, we now discuss as a team how we are doing. Project leaders also seek each other out much more in practice. To give an example: our toolbox of tools, which we use in sessions around projects to enthuse and motivate colleagues, has expanded enormously over the course of the work sessions. We have been given many new ways of working and have learned from Paulien to share them with each other. Two project leaders recently prepared a session together, following a new working form: a great success.”

It really moved our team forward

Consequently, the seven project leaders and two project supporters who participated in the process with Symbol are satisfied. In January 2020, Geuzendam will feedback the process to the entire MT, and here too she expects positive feedback. “I’ve often experienced that external consultants don’t make a difference, that they don’t really move you forward. Symbol’s strength is its focus on practical applicability. Our work sessions were not very theoretical, but rather perfectly aligned with our practice. Paulien supported the theoretical knowledge with many examples from her practice, but also with cases from our own organization. Because of her years of experience in healthcare, she was above the material. And not only that. In our team there is a lot of difference in seniority, and because of the group dynamic that Paulien created, everyone was willing to share and make themselves vulnerable. That also really moved our team forward.”

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