Case: learning about the perception of Germany’s foreign policy

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How the German Foreign Ministry used Synthetron to learn about the perception of Germany’s foreign policy  in a new and modern way.

“Within the IT-architecture of the Foreign Office, the crowdsourcing approach offered a new, modern approach from which we learned a lot.”   — Dr. Thomas Bagger, former head of Planning Staff, German Foreign Office

Situation

In November 2013, the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, launched a “What goes wrong?” reflection on Germany’s foreign policy. As part of the 2014 review process, the aim was to consider what aspects of the foreign policy needed to be changed.

Approach

Synthetron came into play in order to complement external expertise with the internal knowledge of the central staff in Berlin and their colleagues in embassies around the world.

Starting in November 2014, we ran four 75-minute discussions, each spotlighting different aspects of cultural and procedural issues.  Three concentrated on culture, creativity and organisation.  One focused especially on how to handle European policy in the light of the newly established European External Action Service.

Around 350 participants exchanged nearly 3,250 ideas.

The analytical work was done in four steps:

  • An immediate response converting significant raw data from each discussion into a readable layout
  • An in-depth analysis for each the 3 discussions focusing on culture, creativity and organisation
  • An additional analysis on European Policy issues
  • An analysis of attitudes shown via language patterns.

Results

We reported back on the following:

  • What participants expect as an appropriate internal culture and how they would react to it (shown as well in segments differing between central and embassy staff)
  • Top actions required to achieve the desired culture
  • Which parameters need to be reflected in the course of achieving progress
  • What suitable communication could help to bridge gaps in a consistent way.

“The Synthetron online debates were an important integrative element amongst the various formats of people involvement in the “Review2014” Process. It was only with the assistance of this methodology that we could offer the chance to take part in the process to colleagues from all over the world in a very short time. The technical potential of your product as well as the manifold options for evaluating the data were a big gain for us. We were also impressed by the quick analysis of the underlying patterns of the participants on the basis of the structure of the language they used.
I realised that an efficient cooperation between your specialists and my team is indispensable in order to coordinate the Synthetron expertise with the knowledge of the processes and specials of the Foreign Office and to make use of them in a most efficient way. This was a success.” — Dr. Thomas Bagger, former head of Planning Staff (now Director of Foreign Policy for the office of the German President)

 Read the article about this project in the Economist

Or download the full case by clicking “download file” below.

Case: inviting citizens to share their views

Hear what citizens have to say in Synthetron online dialogues

How citizens were invited by the Dutch Ministry of Environment to share their views on their future environment.

Situation


The VROM (Dutch ministry of Environment) is responsible for the environment in which citizens live, work, and relax.

The Netherlands is a densely populated country requiring careful consideration of issues such as living space.

VROM decided to set up a vision development project for the ‘Randstad’ – the urban region including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague – called ‘Randstad 2040’.

Citizen participation was key to the vision development and VROM looked for innovative ways to go about this.

Approach


As part of the ‘Randstad 2040’ vision development project, 400 citizens were invited to discuss their views of the ideal future for the ‘Randstad’ through Synthetron online discussions.

Participants had lively discussions about mobility, environment, living conditions, transportation, housing, urbanisation, etc. They visualised their ideal world, discovered dilemmas and explored the downsides of their choices.

Synthetron consultants developed the script alongside representatives of VROM. The questions were specifically made to suit the wishes of VROM.

We moderated the sessions, making sure that all participants had a good experience. All voices were heard and the citizens filtered out the most important statements themselves.

Results


The raw data, among other things, provided the most supported statements, controversial statements, and non-supported statements.

The results of these Synthetron sessions were used as input into meetings where citizens were invited to explore the issues further. Therefore these meetings had a “head start” and could go deeper into the matter from the beginning. This proved more efficient than the traditional focus groups.

The findings from the sessions and the meetings were analysed and a comprehensive report was made. The results were presented to the Minister and top policy makers.

In the end, the Dutch parliament adopted some of the recommendations resulting from the study.

Case: improving employee satisfaction

How a big university hospital used Synthetron to improve employee satisfaction.

Situation


Every three years one of the biggest University Hospitals in the Netherlands held traditional employee satisfaction surveys. However, they noticed that these surveys were encountering some problems.

Therefore the (then) Director of HR went looking for a new and innovative way to engage the employees and improve employee satisfaction.

Approach


Synthetron offered a way to engage teams directly, on their level, and offer them an open way to voice their opinions on what is going well, what isn’t, and what solutions they see. They were offered a safe space to talk anonymously. All of this could be done from a location of their choosing, they only needed a laptop or a tablet.

In three years time around 150 teams got the possibility to let their opinions be known. They wrote over 23.000 messages and came up with solutions tailor made for their own team. All sections of the hospital participated, from the medical- to the kitchen staff.

Synthetron developed the script for these dialogues and moderated the sessions together with an adviser from the HR department. The participants also filled in 9 closed questions. These questions enabled the hospital to compare the results to previous ones.

Synthetron worked closely together with dedicated staff from the hospital. Always keeping in contact and tweaking the script and approach when needed.

Results


The team management, sector head, and HR representative of the team all got a copy of the report within a week after a team dialogue. This report included some statistics for benchmarks and all the most supported statements by participants (so called synthetrons).

Every sector of the hospital got it’s own consolidated report. This included thorough analysis of the results of the sector and benchmarks towards earlier years.

The Synthetron consultants also provided the hospital with an end report which included all the things that were going really well, and all the things that could be improved. Lastly, the hospital was provided with suggestions by Synthetron consultants on how to continue.

Click “download file” for more detailed information.

Case: engaging members on hot topic

How an automobile association engaged its members on a controversial road tax reform to advise the government using Synthetron online dialogues.

“Synthetron helped us in a very professional way to reach more than 6000 members in online conversations on the key issues of the ‘car tax proposal’. Our members were happy as they found it easy and engaging to participate. And for us, getting a collaborative filtered outcome on such a large scale made the process very efficient and transparent. We got deep insight into what our members think, feel and why, on the different policy issues. The excellent report enabled us to bring balanced and motivated advice to the government with co-created stakeholder support.”

Guido Van Woerkom, President & CEO ANWB

Situation

The ANWB – the Dutch national automobile association – needed a clear and complete image of what its members‘ opinions were on a controversial proposed law, in order to advise the government.

A quantitative questionnaire showed that more qualitative research and engagement of members was necessary.

Approach


All ANWB members were invited to participate to one of 7 real-time Synthetron sessions, spread over 3 days.

In total, 6000 people participated. They discussed all 7 parts of the proposed law. Carefully designed scripts served as the basis for the discussion.

Discovery


Within two weeks, Synthetron inventoried, classified and analysed the ideas, opinions, insights and feelings of those 6000 participants on one of the most delicate political topics at that time.

The final advice reflected an overall image as well as an insight into the 7 different aspects of the law. The results were presented by the head of the Association in a public press conference.

Media, parliament, and stakeholders systematically referred to the report in the following months. The automobile association gained much credit publicly and from its members for having involved members on a large scale in such an innovative way.

The results were combined with the results of the quantitative questionnaire, and were presented to the national government, which helped them in reaching a decision on road pricing.

Click “download file” to get more in depth information on this case.