A PRACTICAL STARTING POINT / CHANTAL VAN KEMPEN

How do you engage employees in change?

Start by understanding what is changing for people. Concerns can reveal workload issues, a lack of influence, unclear goals or practical obstacles. A shared experience can make those differences visible and help people explore alternatives.

Everyone hears the same plan. Not everyone experiences the same problem.

A new process may create clarity for one department and extra work for another. Another presentation will not automatically open up that difference. First ask what consequences people expect, which concerns have been explored and where people can still influence the change. A game is not always the answer: sometimes a decision, capacity or a clear agreement is missing.

Four starting questions

Be specific: what behaviour or collaboration needs to change, and why?
Explore perspectives: let people share their dependencies and trade-offs.
Practise in a recognisable situation where decisions have consequences.
Reflect on what happened and choose one agreement to test at work.

AN EXAMPLE FROM MY WORK

Plan je Rot — Rijkswaterstaat / E2i

For Rijkswaterstaat, I designed and facilitated a game about fixed and collaborative scheduling. Employees took on different roles to experience the consequences and competing interests behind planning decisions. This illustrates my approach: making a challenge something people can explore together.

Explore my projects

Who is this for?

For change leads, project managers and HR professionals who want to explore different perspectives. We begin with the challenge, the participants and the room to act differently afterwards. A session does not replace a complete change programme.

What change are you trying to make, and where is it getting stuck?

Tell me about your situation. We’ll explore whether an experiential approach fits and what preparation and follow-up would be useful.

Let’s explore your challenge ↗