Councillor from the municipality of Putte (Belgium) Jeroen De Cuyper not only encourages his civil servants to participate in the Green Team project, but he also joins all the workshops in his organisations himself. Despite the time investment, he finds it important to make the commitment. “I want to show full support for this project and how it can improve our organisation.”
Written by Tirza Pulleman
One might think that when a politician joins workshops meant for his civil servants, they might be less inclined to be honest or open. But the opposite is true in the case of Putte. “I have a close relationship with our administrative colleagues”, Jeroen De Cuyper says. “We are a small municipality, so we work together often. By participating, I wanted to show them my trust, enthusiasm and engagement in the project, and their contributions to it.”
From islands to collaboration
But Jeroen was not entirely convinced himself at the start of the project. “I was sceptical at first. A big European project, how can that help a small municipality like ours? But I had been looking for a way for our organisation to work on our public spaces from an overarching vision. The first question at the start of any project or idea should be: how can we make the public space more attractive, pleasant, liveable, and experienceable?” Currently, this remains difficult. “We do not have a lot of manpower, while we do have a lot of challenges.” This causes colleagues to work on an ad hoc and unstructured way, each from their own ‘island’.
The Green Team project will help Putte solve this. With the guidance from the partners, they are creating a method and process to work together structurally and cross-departmentally. “It is my wish that this way of working becomes part of our organisation’s DNA. Therefore, it is important that all our colleagues are on board from the beginning, that everyone sees the opportunities that this project from the start.”
This also was not evident in the beginning. Several colleagues, with busy schedules and long to do-lists, were quietly questioning the usefulness of the green team workshops. “That is part of the reason I attend the sessions”, Jeroen explains. “To show them that I, and with me the other aldermen, truly believe in the project.”
Jeroen De Cuyper, councillor for the municipality of Putte
Politicians are crucial for success
But there are more advantages to a politician joining workshops and Interreg project. Jeroen advocates: “Too often, ambitious projects end somewhere in a cupboard. Mostly, because there was too little support from the political level. I really believe politicians should be included from the start of a project. This is a crucial condition for success.” This is not only true for Putte, but for all (European) countries. “I also attended the last Green Team partner meeting, in Papenburg. It was remarkably interesting to learn we are all dealing with similar trials. Finding a way to work together with different departments and politicians, is the only way we can face those challenges.”
In Putte, doing this already pays off. “It is still a little early, but I can already see the start of a reflex to include other departments and colleagues in projects and tasks. Certainly, from the people participating in the green team workshops, even the ones who were sceptical at first. But also, from outside the sessions. We are all realising that to broaden our perspective, we can achieve better results together. That gives me hope.”
Jeroen concludes: “Of course, I must invest some time. But it is more than worth it. Because we genuinely want to implement this new method in our organisation. To ensure we still doing it this way after the Green Team project ends. Or I am no longer councillor. I hope that in a few decades people will say: ‘Look, since we’ve started this new way of working, we have so many better projects in Putte.’ So, we all, and especially our citizens, can reap the benefits.”