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Essenburgh guided organizational change Gelderland-Zuid Fire Department
“Learning to look, think and act differently”
Organization on the shovel
“What temporary change management support do we need? To answer that question, we came to Essenburgh Training & Advice. After all, we had heard positive stories from Safety Region Flevoland. The approach Essenburgh took there appealed to us.” So says Dennis van Zanten, regional commander of Gelderland-Zuid Fire Department. The force has 36 fire stations, about 800 firefighter volunteers and about 200 professional employees. The regionalization of Gelderland-South Fire Department as of January 1, 2013 meant a significant change for the organization.
The question
“We have to face this change together. Our question to Essenburgh was: how do we bring our organization and people into the change? And how do we ensure that the executives are ready to manage the change and take their people with them?”
What the Gelderland-South Fire Department achieved
“I have learned to look at the process from a distance. You shouldn’t make adjustments out of panic. Better to accept that you have to go through the discomfort together.” Van Zanten is pleased with Essenburgh’s commitment. “First of all, we are not finished with the whole change. We still need the next few years for that. But Essenburgh got the dialogue going and taught us to look, think and act differently. If we had done this all by ourselves? Then it wouldn’t have worked out nearly as well as it does now. Strange eyes compel. And lead to new insights.”
Wondering how Essenburgh managed the organizational change? Download Customer Review Fire Department Gelderland-Zuid the whole story here. If you are curious about our leadership training programs, click here.
