Using agility to better manage the Herculean tasks of a small municipality

The Ostbevern municipal administration is to develop significantly in terms of corporate culture, leadership quality and organisational structure in order to improve its attractiveness as an employer and at the same time increase trust, motivation, commitment, cooperation, identification, customer focus, efficiency, speed and citizen service. These were the objectives of the newly elected mayor Karl Piochowiak, with which he approached the noventum team in 2022.

The process

To this end, a process should be started that is accompanied by professional change management so that the change is first vigorously initiated and then systematically and consistently stabilised. The change experts at noventum, Rabea Wolters and Uwe Rotermund, have applied the tried-and-tested "Hercules" method.

In the first step, the need for change was recorded, structured and attractively formulated from the perspective of various stakeholders. In the second step, the need for change was discussed and finalised with the department heads. As part of a two-day closed meeting, which was attended by Mayor Karl Piochowiak, the department heads and other key players as well as the noventrum moderators, concrete measures were developed in the third step and agile project and change management was launched for the following months. This was achieved in a very effective and entertaining way. Finally, the fourth step involved the transition to agile project and change management.

The change core team worked dynamically in "sprints", adjusting and optimising monthly in "reviews", "retrospectives" and "plannings". In weekly "stand-ups", the team ensured that everyone "stayed on track" and that attention was maintained. To ensure quality and consistency in the implementation of the agile routines, Rabea Wolters from noventum worked part-time as an agile coach for 6 months and trained the future agile coaches of the Ostbevern municipality.

Today, the municipality of Ostbevern continues the agile project and change management independently.

The results

The measures agreed by the change team in a participatory manner were taken independently by the individual members in the workshop and in subsequent planning sessions according to the "pull" principle. For example, the following was initiated

• Development of a health management system
• Optimisation of project management
• Revision of job advertisements

The benefit

This project is a good example of how effective methods, great commitment, down-to-earth customer proximity and a manageable budget can create a big impact for small organisations. We at noventum really enjoyed it. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Mayor Karl Piochowiak and his strong team.