Projects | How could it look?

Keywords: Resources | Organization

With its 4,500 employees, the Stuttgart Youth Welfare Office is one of the largest in the country. Services and needs have steadily increased in recent years. Its resources, especially in terms of personnel, are reaching their limits. It has become almost impossible to fill positions promptly and adequately. At the annual conference, "Youth Welfare Office in Dialogue," with participants from all areas and hierarchical levels, the problems were to be openly discussed. Ideas from the departments were sought, as were critical questions and suggestions for the office's management.

The clients chose the HEXGame to initially discuss the topic of resource scarcity in a fictitious situation. The game provided the participants with the distance they needed to objectively examine their own situation. During the evaluation and subsequent small group work, cross-departmental and cross-divisional issues were identified for the management team and the youth welfare office management. The conference concluded with a presentation of all group results.

Keywords: Complexity | Lightness | Holism

Following its reorganization, Deutsche Bahn AG's XY division faces the task of aligning all affected departments with a common strategy. Job descriptions and staffing have been successfully completed. However, department management has observed that there is, in some cases, a very different understanding of the new tasks and processes.

The difficulty lay in ensuring that the participants were neither bogged down in detailed discussions nor stuck on generalities. Therefore, the Serious Play approach was chosen. Within two days, all business processes of the divisions were presented, initially individually and later in context. The participants defined interfaces and concrete work allocations. The importance of the respective work tasks for the overall strategy was made transparent in collaboration with management.

The future of our villages and regions is an issue that affects many people. There are no patent solutions, but many ideas and communities in very similar situations. Based on numerous discussions, inquiries, and suggestions, the German Networking Center for Rural Areas (DVS) has launched a program to accompany villages and regions on their path into the future. The project supports local initiatives and civic engagement. The goal is to bring people together and formulate viable goals to improve the situation through their own efforts. Intrestik contributes its expertise in various participation approaches and cooperates with experts from local politics. Within a one-day workshop, participants formulate local challenges, explore possible solutions, and ultimately develop a roadmap for their joint approach.

Villages and regions from across Germany can apply to the DVS.

Keywords: Complexity | Eye level | Getting into action

In the Schweinfurt (Germany) region, a disproportionate number of employees use private vehicles to get to work. Those involved recognize the problem, but no one sees a way to address it. IG Metall Schweinfurt and the BUND (German Unity and Development Association) no longer wanted to accept this unsatisfactory situation. The flagship project for mobility in the region was born. After the kick-off event and a specialist conference, the participants were identified, and the facts were shared.

We developed the Traffic Planning game for this event to develop concrete actions and projects. The game radically reduced the complexity of regional mobility. Representatives from politics, planning departments, the works council, and the environmental association jointly developed perspectives for the future of mobility in the region. Within a single day, the workshop produced three concrete projects that improved the situation for commuters in the Schweinfurt region.

Keywords: Complexity | Mission statement process | Strategy

The municipal council of Lommiswil (CH) discussed the municipality's long-term direction. The committee agreed that such a mission statement process would be cumbersome and its themes difficult to communicate to the public. For this reason, the planning committee sought stimulating participation formats. It was important to the municipal council to reach as broad a cross-section of the population as possible and to engage in direct dialogue. Using the topic of "introducing electromobility in the municipality," the possible approach was explored together.

The playful tool Impasse explored the topic of electromobility and helped to playfully weight the aspects in the discussion.