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1. July 2014

Better Outcomes

Transformational change in the city of Mannheim

The City of Mannheim (about 329,000 inhabitants) in South-West Germany is one of the most ambitious local authorities in Europe when it comes to transforming public services. The transformation programme Change Squared  www.change2.de (which alludes both to the scale of the transformation programme but also to the famous baroque grid-like layout of the inner city, the “City of Squares”) is widely admired in German local government for its comprehensive portfolio, based on all public services being provided in-house. What makes Mannheim’s transformation strategy so interesting for the UK and other countries is its strong commitment to implementation based on a carefully designed top-down and bottom-up strategy. Mannheim doesn’t just have great ideas – it is great at implementing them.

So what is the Mannheim transformation programme about and what are the results after the first phase of delivery (2008 to 2013)?

 

1. Rationale of Mannheim’s transformation

When the directly elected mayor Dr. Peter Kurz took office in 2007, Mannheim council was characterised by a number of shortcomings, which are common to most other local authorities in Germany:

  1. A strong focus on inputs (budget and staff) but little awareness of outcomes to be achieved.
  2. Fragmented public services, with departments operating as ‘silos’.
  3. A strong service orientation but neglect of governance issues, such as citizen participation.

For Dr. Kurz it was obvious that a new direction of travel for Mannheim entailed changing behaviours and perceptions inside and outside the local council. Mannheim had lost most of its industrial base in the previous 25 years (having been the city where Daimler invented the world-famous Mercedes brand) and was in the process of shaping its new identity as ‘the inclusive city’. This new identity focused on the diversity of local people (representing more than 170 nations) as a central asset. Furthermore, Dr. Kurz introduced the idea of the political citizen, who has both rights and responsibilities, and who is not just a passive “consumer” of public services.

 

2. Design of the transformation strategy

In order to make this new vision real, an overarching strategy was needed. It has focused on seven strategic goals:

  1. Strengthening urbanity
  2. Promoting talent
  3. Winning business
  4. Living in tolerance
  5. Raising educational equality
  6. Strengthening creativity
  7. Supporting involvement

For each of these strategic goals, strategic performance indicators were defined to measure outcomes. Besides conventional indicators like the number of recorded criminal offences or the unemployment rate, data from the Urban Audit perception surveys are used to measure the satisfaction with such things as the cultural facilities and cleanliness of the city. Since 2009 the number of registered associations, used as an indicator of Mannheim‘s inhabitants involvement in its civic society, rose from 2,384 to 2,576 in 2013.

All stakeholders participating in the delivery of the strategy took up the new city motto “Together We Have More Impact” (Gemeinsam mehr bewirken).

 

3. The Masterplan with 36 projects

A new unit to reshape the organizational architecture (Fachgruppe Verwaltungsarchitektur 2013) was set up, reporting directly to Dr. Kurz. It co-ordinated 36 projects to deliver the seven new strategic goals. These projects ranged from macro-concepts such as preparing an application for Mannheim to become the European Capital of Culture in 2020, all the way through to strengthening localism through neighbourhood management. A key project focused on increasing the level of volunteering and participation in decision-making processes in the conversion of a former military base.

Another project involved the participation of the managers of all local services in ‘strategy workshops’ to define outcomes and performance measure to assess progress towards agreed targets. An important project was the development of new guidelines for “leadership, communication and collaboration” in Mannheim Council, co-designed with senior managers. In 2010 a Competence Centre was set up to help the local council to recruit new staff and train existing staff. A steering committee representing council members, heads of services and the staff council (a distinctive feature of German organisations) monitored the transformation process.

 

4. Communication and staff participation as key success factors

The change management process introduced new forms of communication across services. A roadshow, based around the concept of a “mobile bar” (called “veränderBAR” in German, which is clever word play, which we might translate as The ChangeAble Bar) invited managers and staff to engage in dialogue. Dr. Kurz invited a randomly selected group of staff to have a conversation with him on a regular basis. A new staff journal reported regularly on the new projects. Furthermore, several staff and customer surveys were conducted to assess levels of satisfaction. As one district manager said:

“Previously, I used to send masses of e-mails and thought that was sufficient. Now I take time for discussions with individual staff members more often.”

The recently published report on phase 1 of the transformation process also points to the importance of:

  • Strong leadership of the corporate management team, with the directly elected mayor as the central driver of the transformation process
  • Clearly defined objectives and strategies
  • New organisational structures
  • Culture change
  • Public participation and local democracy

Professor Gerhard Banner, a senior local government expert in Germany and former Director of Governance International, states: “Never was comprehensive reform in a local authority implemented as quickly as in Mannheim. The objective, stated in public in 2008 by the Dr. Kurz, to make Mannheim one of the most modern cities in Germany, can already be said to be achieved”.

 

The authors:

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kegelmann, Pro-Rector of the University of Public Administration in Kehl (www.hs-kehl.de). He is an international expert in public governance and change management in local government. Before he joined the university, he was a senior advisor in an international consulting company, finance director of cbm (an international non-governmental organization) and a change manager in the City of Friedrichshafen. 

 

 

Oliver Makowsky is a member of the staff unit “Strategic Governance” and responsible for strategic performance management.

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