‘A winning organization relies on the involvement of its employees, and this is definitely the case at AM. However, people were mostly involved with their own projects, and, as Vollebregt explains, ‘what we really needed was to be more involved with each other and the organization as a whole.’ We operated according to regional divisions led from a number of places across the country. One of the advantages is that you’re close to your customers, but there are also clear disadvantages. Regional divisions didn’t know each other, there was no knowledge sharing and opportunities were missed. We wanted to change this: you have to be able to apply what you’ve learnt in Zwolle just as well as in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. That’s important for our customers, but for ourselves too.’

You have highly educated employees at AM; don’t they understand?
Vollebrecht: ‘Absolutely, but they are only human. They have a lot on their plates and focus closely on their own projects – there’s few opportunities to get to know each other. Of course, there are cases where you do know each other, but where you don’t want to risk butting heads by telling them what to do. That can be a reason not speak up at all, even though you have something relevant to share. We want giving feedback and sharing knowledge to be normal again. In the MT we were already taking steps to address this issue, and we were adamant to get all employees involved.’

With their busy workloads, your employees might not have been looking forward to the hein sessions. Was there a lot of resistance?
Vollebregt: ‘Some people weren’t very happy, and they let us know. It’s your task as a manager to make it very clear that “This is what we’re going to do!” The management team had already experienced one hein session, so we knew what it entailed. After that single session, everyone was convinced that it would be successful.’

But in order for hein sessions to work, you need to change the mind of your employees. How did you do that?
Vollebregt: ‘People change their minds when they realize that they can really say whatever they want. Of course, it also helps that the hein sessions are a lot of fun.’​​

‘After that single session, everyone was convinced that it would be successful.’

It’s one thing to “be allowed to speak your mind”, whether that is actually possible and appreciated is another thing altogether. AM has been through a phase of streamlining for a few years, so people are cautious about being critical.

Vollebrecht: ‘In the initial phase, some people did ask: “So if I say something, will I be the next one out the door?” Of course, the answer was always “no”, because hein would not work at all if we operated that way. We did realize, however, that a “no” from the board also had to translate in practice, so we decided our approach would be: “Let’s hear it, we’ll get to work.” At the moment, hein sessions are held in meeting rooms with small groups, which makes it a lot easier to speak your mind. We found that the very first sessions already had great results.’

How so?

Vollebrecht: ‘introducing the “hein” figure made it a lot easier. You can let hein voice the difficult point you want to make, focusing on hein, rather than on yourself. It explicitly addresses topics that are recognized by everyone, but are rarely voiced. Once you’ve started doing it, speaking up only becomes easier, and when the people at the receiving end of criticism hear the name “hein”, they know they have to pay attention.
After a while, we expanded hein to the intranet, so that every comment or concern was made visible to the whole company. Of course, that’s not quite the same as a small group in a meeting room.

You can do many things on the intranet; how did you set it up?
Vollebrecht: ‘The organization behind hein had an idea for this: guest columns. We gave our employees the opportunity to speak their minds in one-off columns, which they could write themselves, or have written by the ghostwriter in the hein team. This person would write a column in the style of the employee in question, whilst ensuring that the column met all hein criteria. Before publishing the columns, the management team did read them through first, because you never know what people would say, or how they would say it.’

It could have gone too far?
Vollebrecht: ‘That did happen one time during that series of columns. You could say that when people realized the space they had been given, they made good use of that space. The columns usually addressed difficult issues, and because they were well-read, they benefited everyone. We had a meeting with that one employee to ask him: “is that really the situation? Wouldn’t you put it a bit differently?” Whatever the result, these conversations are always a valuable way to find out both sides of the story. Hein requires an open attitude, because it stirs up a lot that we, as company management, also have to address.

It doesn’t make life easier for managers.

Vollebregt, surprised: ‘No, it doesn’t, but that wasn’t the objective in the first place. If you want a culture of open communication, you have to be open to criticism yourself. Hein can get things moving.’

AM has clear targets. Did you also have targets for hein?
Vollebregt: ‘That’s right, we always know exactly how many houses we want to sell next year, but this doesn’t quite apply to engagement or culture. You can’t always use the metrics you use for one area for another, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t monitor hein carefully. Our HR manager was in charge of hein and she reported back to us frequently. She always concluded that the process was moving along just as we expected, which corresponded to the practical situations we saw around us. AM is a flat organization: we’re sure that everyone knows who hein is. Some people are more enthusiastic “heiners” that others, but that’s OK. We have seen that hein has got things moving, so our goals have been achieved.

Can you ascribe that success to hein? Just when the hein sessions started, you also merged all departments into a new AM house in Utrecht. Hardly any walls, a great place to meet each other, work together and share knowledge.
Vollebregt: ‘It was a great stroke of luck to find out about hein at the same time. The new building created ideal conditions to become more open. That’s important, but you can’t change company culture just by moving to a new building. Even when they’re working right next to each other, some people still can’t start conversations of real substance.’

How did AM come across hein?
Vollebregt: ‘Pure chance. The BAM Board of Directors invited me to a safety workshop that ended up being a hein session, something I was completely unfamiliar with at the time. I saw that speaking your mind is at the core of the concept. This allows you to create or enhance a culture of open communication together, which, I thought, would be relevant in areas other than safety as well.’