Amsterdam City Council Development Corporation: 'Theatrical Info Market'

The Amsterdam City Council Development Corporation (OGA) was the result of a merger between the council's old Grondbedrijf (Development Corporation) and part of its Stedelijke Woningdienst (City Housing Service). Four months after the official merger, the OGA held a formal 'capping-out' event for all 400 employees. The goals of this event were:

· to give employees the opportunity to get acquainted with the OGA's new organisational structure, and

· to playfully encourage them to think about ways of bridging the differences between the two bodies' corporate cultures.

Troje was given the job of coming up with a concept with which to realise these goals, within a limited budget.

Design
The design they came up with was a 'Theatrical Info Market'. The market had three principal components:

1. An opening: three Trojans and the management team gave a short performance on a central stage, which introduced the principal themes of the merger.

2. The market itself, with:

a) creative departmental presentations clarifying the new organisational structure. At 22 market stalls, each department presented itself to its colleagues. These presentations were largely devised and presented by the departments themselves, with some assistance from Troje and a professional set designer. In an initial briefing the concept and expectations were explained; two weeks later the departments came up with their initial ideas, which were jointly discussed, improved and then carried out. The 'market' showed that a rich mine of creativity had always existed within the organisation. Some examples:

· 'Speed conversations' on six different sofas, each representing a different perspective.

· A contest in which competitors had to negotiate all sorts of ordinary daily obstacles in order to deliver a postal package by scooter – and were afterwards treated to a well-earned massage.

· A 'Eurovision Competence Management Game': by associating competences with particular jobs, attention was drawn to this new development within the OGA.

· Five theatrical characters, played by department staff, and five information boards: a metaphor for the most important department tasks

b) four short performances given by Trojans in small tents, each of which looked closely at an aspect of corporate culture:

· a management guru gave an impassioned speech to persuade OGA staff of the usefulness of 'management by coaching';

· two acrobats showed what was meant by 'the learning organisation';

· in a film programme using associative images, an actor challenged those present to reflect on ways of bridging cultural differences;

· two actors undertook an interactive research study with the public, in order to find out what might be meant by 'customer orientation'

3. the closing event, a speech by the managing director followed by a spectacular closing act: a collective presentation by the actors and acrobats, in which an aerial performance formed a metaphor for the bridging of differences between the two partners and the importance of cooperation. Audience members were all given a map of the city which included an organogram of the new organisation and a short 'mission statement' for each department, as a souvenir.

Results
An evaluation report showed that 92% of visitors thought the merger day event had been a 'good' one. 70% had actually been involved in one way or another with preparations, which meant that the event really had been held for and by employees themselves. It had been a good day for obtaining information about the OGA – and it had also been fun. For Troje, this was another confirmation of the conviction that learning and pleasure do mix.

The client
Nancy Wilmink, OGA project leader:
“When we had our first conversation with Troje, nothing had yet been planned. We were rather doubtful about the info market idea at first (how do you make it interesting enough to stop people from drinking and talking with the colleagues they already know all afternoon?), but the more Troje described it, the better it sounded. From the start, Troje helped us think up ways of enthusing our employees and involving them in plans and preparations for the day. They were also aware of our limitations and gave much thought to devising ways around them. Some of the departments needed more guidance than others, but Troje was on top of that too. And the idea of getting management to open the market in a theatrical manner went down a treat! All in all, working with Troje was a real pleasure - and partly thanks to them the event was a great success.”