‘If you’re only after a trick or simple skills training, Hein isn’t for you.’



‘The results are above expectations, according to Erik Blom. ‘ It’s had a much bigger impact than we had anticipated and it has made it much easier to communicate with each other. Hein allows us to get more out of each other; an important step forward.’



Dietz: ‘ People can be quite outspoken here, but they also tend to hide their true feelings at first. By the time they finally explode, you’ve waited too long, lost a lot of time and built up a lot of frustrations. This also means that the problems seem a lot more severe than they actually are.’

Blom: ‘You spend a large part of your life working, so it’s important, for you and for the people around you, that your work is done in an enjoyable environment. Giving and receiving feedback is an essential part of that, and it can even help you in your personal life. Hein is always useful, but it’s not a good idea for people who are just looking for a trick or skills training.’


By Jurjen de Jong



Erik Blom

Managing director since 2014. Started as Global HR director in 2002, and worked as an HR manager at Stork before then. Studied at the University of Amsterdam.


Arjan Dietz

Training manager since 2006 and hein project leader. Started at Meyn in 2003. Studied Industrial Engineering and Management and completed the Trainers Academy.



‘We were looking for more feedback and less cubicle culture, but hein gave us much more.’



‘We’ve got about 1000 people working worldwide, and we want to get ‘the max’ out of them. In order to achieve that, we all need to be able to give and receive feedback; only then can we move forward, says managing director Erik Blom. Hein was chosen to make a change for the better. Now the first phase of hein has been completed, training manager Arjan Dietz remarks that ‘it has already given us much more than we had anticipated.’



Blom: ‘We score highly in employee satisfaction ratings, getting an 8 out of 10 five years as well as three years ago. Of course, there were still things that needed to be changed, such as giving and receiving feedback and breaking through …. We wanted to address both issues at the same time, but we didn’t just want to teach our people new tricks. First, we wanted to find out why giving feedback is so difficult: is it the people, is it their environment? We were adamant about working with mixed groups, for the sake of cohesion, so we didn’t want a separate solution for management or the workforce alone.


How do you get started?

Dietz: Before we decided to implement hein in our organization, we invited Jules Heijneman for a one-off test workshop at a networking event for managers. The workshop, which explained why people are more likely to keep feedback to themselves, was met with great enthusiasm. Everyone loved the communication through cartoons, which were humorous, to-the-point and very relatable!’


Meyn has just had its 45th hein session. All their employees in the Netherlands have met hein now, so what are the results?

Blom: ‘The results are above expectations. It’s had a much deeper impact than we had anticipated: it is a way to truly get in touch with each other. The mixed work groups allow you to meet colleagues you never get to meet at work, and you realize you have more in common than you think. That’s a beautiful thing, because it makes it much easier to communicate with each other. By using hein we can get the best out of each other, and that’s an important step forwards.’


What were the reasons to stay clear of each other?

Blom ‘ Because Meyn is in charge of all processes, from R&D and product development to production, installation, service and everything else, we have a lot of different people with different job descriptions, and a very varied staff. This also creates distance between people involved in different processes and makes it more difficult to communicate with each other. Those differences can lead to pigeonholing, which puts up even more obstacles.


How does this relate to the outspoken culture at the company?

Dietz: ‘Many of our employees live close by and were born in the Zaanstreek. People can be outspoken in this area of the country, but they also tend to hide their true feelings at first. By the time they finally explode, you’ve waited too long, lost a lot of time and built up a lot of frustration. This also means that the problems seem a lot more severe than they actually are, because you pay more attention to how the point is made, than to what the point actually is. Now the whole organization knows that nothing will change if you say nothing, and that will only lead to more frustration.



‘You discover the potential in your organization that had previously gone untapped’



So, is it useful?

Blom: ‘I think everyone learned a thing or two during the hein session. We discovered that some people thought that “management upstairs didn’t have to deal with these problems”, but nothing could be further from the truth. We deal with exactly the same issues, both at work and at home. I think this has become very clear to everyone involved. Each workshop started off with a manager giving a personal example, and I chose to tell everyone about a time I was playing sports and struggled to tell my team mates what I was thinking. People looked at me as if to say: “why on earth didn’t he just speak up?” It turns out that we all have to face the same obstacles after all.’


Is it possible that people thought that managers never had these problems because they are good talkers?

Blom: “Of course, some people work with their hands, and some people talk more. Then again, the people we deal with on a daily basis are good talkers too, so that gives you a whole new range of reasons to keep your feedback to yourself. The point is: we’ve got about 1000 people working worldwide, and we want to get ‘the max’ out of them. In order to achieve that, we all need to be able to give and receive feedback; only then can we move forward.


Hein only works if the staff picks it up, how do you make that happen?

Dietz: ‘Of course hein is accompanied by internal communications from the get-go, but the sessions themselves create real enthusiasm for hein. Initially, you’ll see people leaning back in their chairs with their arms crossed thinking: “How am I going to get through this one?”. By the end, though, everyone is looking at the cartoons and laughing about the things they have just shared.’

Blom: ‘You spend a large part of your life working, so it’s important, for you and for the people around you, that your work is done in an enjoyable environment. Giving and receiving feedback is an essential part of that, and it can even help you in your personal life. Hein is always useful, it’s universal.’
Dietz: ‘We chose to train eight people from all over the organization as “hein ambassadors”, so that they could lead about five hein sessions themselves. This really forced the chosen ambassadors to step out of their comfort zone: some of them were scared to bits. They were trained by Jules Heijneman, and after the training sessions they started to enjoy what they had been asked to do; it’s a great skill to have. It shows you the potential in your organization that had previously gone untapped. I’m positive that it won’t be difficult to find another eight ambassadors for the next phase, even if there are people who still think they wouldn’t be up to it.’


When there’s more feedback, management gets a lot busier. Did you experience that as well?

Blom: ‘Not as much as we’d want to, but it’s up to us as well. We’ve experienced first-hand that people find it difficult to go “upstairs” with any problems they have, so we have to make it clear that we are prepared to collect feedback from the workplace ourselves. We’ve taken some concrete steps to effect this, take our “lunch-hour with the board”, for example. Anyone can apply, and we invite eight people to have lunch with us every month, so that everyone gets the chance to say what’s on their mind. We’ve just had our first lunch and it was a great success, bringing up real issues that we can get started on. We’re also going to go the other way and have the board visit the workplace, follow a salesperson for a day, join a shift in the factory, or help installing a new machine. That’s bound to lead to new dialogue, and by making photos and videos we can share it with the whole organization.’


It’s clear that people are enthusiastic about hein here. Is it right for every company, or are there certain restrictions?

Blom: ‘Hein isn’t right for organizations just looking for a trick or simple skills training. Don’t go for hein if you’re in the middle of reorganizing or slimming down; you need a base level of stability. For the other 90%, it’s a great idea. You give your car a regular check-up, and you maintain your offices and machines – why shouldn’t the same apply to your personnel?



‘You see a real hike in quality. You start making fewer mistakes, because you correct yourself and the people around you.’



Will you clients notice that hein has arrived?
Blom: ‘You see a real hike in quality. You start making fewer mistakes, because you correct yourself and the people around you. Eventually, clients are bound to notice that, directly and indirectly. Points have already come up in the hein sessions that can have a direct effect on our client relations, so we immediately asked all our people “in the field” to bring up any issues they encountered.’


You’ve made a lot of progress. Does that mean it’s done now?

Blom: ‘This isn’t just a quick process to run through and get back to what you were doing beforehand. Hein sessions become a part of your job that is just as important as all the other things you do here. We’re exploring the possibility to introduce hein into our offices abroad as well’
Dietz: ‘In the Netherlands we’re trying to take the next step, asking how we can maximize the benefit of the cartoons made during the sessions. We grouped them into seven themes, some of which we already knew, and some of which were completely new discoveries. That led to new focus areas, which now play a central role in our hein sessions.​



"International approach"



‘We employ people from more than 30 cultures worldwide, 15 in the Netherlands. We think about how to translate and apply hein in these other cultures. Our American HR manager took part in hein-sessions in the Netherlands and he’s helping us figure out how to do this. Our organization has a very hierarchical structure in the US, just like in Poland, China and many other countries. I’m convinced that hein can be used in other cultures as well, though, and the way our American colleague is participating proves that. The sessions he was involved with naturally produced English hein cartoons, which we showed to people from other cultures. They also recognized the situations and were very interested in the concept.’



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