One year of Staying Tuned - overview

By Arwen Dewilde, LP

Stay Tuned refined the 4 URBACT Implementation Challenges into 7 Implementation Themes. Those 7 themes each have a set of associated capabilities, schematised in our Stay Tuned Implementation Menu, the backbone for the transnational meetings.

Each transnational meeting of Stay Tuned focusses on a couple of the Implementation Themes as key learning areas (the ‘set menu’), but local examples from other areas can always be shared. After all, every theme is connected to the others.

Moving from Strategy to Operational Action Plan

During the transnational meeting in Barcelona, Spain (September 2017) we focussed on the Implementation Theme ‘Building Strong Action Plans’. The meeting was focussed on gaining a thorough understanding as a group of the Implementation model we work with and on clearly and concretely defining the areas we want to make improvements on in our respective cities. Draft implementation plans were also reviewed and developed during the meeting.

The optional Deep Dive visit in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the Netherlands (December 2017) provided good examples of successful practice – the Dutch program ‘Attack on Early School Leaving’ was very successful and even cities such as Amsterdam facing big challenges could boast a substantial reduction of their figures. Success factors are a strong tradition in program management, keeping a wide range of stakeholders focused on the strategy and being held accountable for delivering results (a clear results framework and robust theory of change), and a performing monitoring system able to track students on the individual level. Stay Tuned also forged important links with the UIA project in Rotterdam: The BRIDGE.

Keeping a diverse range of people involved in the right way

During the meeting in Aveiro, Portugal (March 2018) the network focused on the importance of open working and stakeholder involvement and how the roles and tasks during implementation differ from the ones during planning and designing actions. Aveiro’s plan on ELET has a wide scope, and the partner cities were invited to critically review how new initiatives could be even better adopted, bringing in their own expertise. Using methods as the Problem Tree and a structured SWOT-analysis, the feedback to the Aveiro team was that of a ‘critical friend’. After the meeting, the Aveiro team and their ULG subsequently re-conducted the SWOT again (to get more detail) and revised their approach and actions as a result, resulting in gaining more buy-in for the actions, finding the mutual benefits and latent conflicts of interest being resolved.

The project partners also shared the results of their self-assessment on the implementation capabilities. Partners focussed in on their strengths and development areas in terms of 3 specific implementation themes, whilst also sharing their overall challenges and aims with the network. This helped considerably with partners having clarity on their focus and the potential areas of similarities (and hence exchange) with other PPs.

Leading people and organisations through a process of change, making sure they follow

In the Berlin, Germany meeting (June 2018), the project partners focused on the case of the Jugendberufsagentur (JBA), and the story of its implementation journey. The JBA is now effectively a one-stop-shop, combining the services and resources of various departments and organisations in one building and in one team. What used to be a collection of isolated measures is now a client-centred integrated service. Several key persons, such as the policital decision makers, the project leaders, team leaders and members will explain how they realised this complex change process.

The case study of the JBA also highlights the importance of communication and being clear about what good progress looks like – one of the key learning areas idenfied in Aveiro while sharing the results of the self-assessment exercise. Showing the progress to others and help partners understand it is key to keep them involved, especially if results are only to be expected on the longer term. Part of the meeting will be devoted to look into ways to quantify and communicate progress.