Building change capability from within

Discover how the City of Amsterdam used Twinxter's Change Management Bootcamp to strengthen internal change capabilities, sharpen strategic focus and introduce Obeya into leadership practice.

Gemeente Amsterdam About the client

About the client

The City of Amsterdam is one of the Netherlands’ largest municipal organisations, providing public services to residents, businesses and communities.

Its Digitalisation, Innovation and Information cluster plays an important role in developing and maintaining the digital products and services that support the city and its organisation.

The situation

The City of Amsterdam was preparing for the next phase of its digital transformation. An important ambition was to strengthen value-driven ways of working, connect strategic objectives across organisational clusters and establish a regular rhythm for monitoring progress and adjusting priorities.

Making this happen required leaders and employees who could embrace and sustain new ways of working, behaviours and mindsets.

The eight-person Transformation Team within the CIO office played an important role in guiding this change. To prepare for the challenges ahead, the team wanted to strengthen its own change management capabilities, enabling its members to support the wider organisation more effectively and independently.

Gemeente Amsterdam Change Management
Gemeente Amsterdam Lego Serious Play

Why client selected Twinxter

The City of Amsterdam was looking for a partner with extensive experience in complex organisations, a pragmatic approach and a strong focus on practical application.

Twinxter’s Change Management Bootcamp offered the opportunity to combine change management expertise with hands-on learning, using the team’s actual organisational challenges as the starting point.

Ready to build change capability within your own team?

Just like the City of Amsterdam, your organisation can develop the skills and confidence to lead change from within.

Our hands-on Change Management Bootcamp helps your people turn learning into action, strengthen alignment and build the capabilities to guide change independently.

Our approach

Together, we embarked on a tailor-made Change Management Bootcamp. The programme was designed around a simple principle: See it. Do it. Own it.

Instead of separating learning from everyday work, participants explored different change management methodologies and interventions and applied their learning directly to their ongoing initiatives. The time between sessions gave the team opportunities to experiment, reflect on experiences and bring new challenges and insights back into the bootcamp. This approach enabled the team to develop its capabilities while continuing to make progress on real organisational priorities.

One important practical application was the introduction of Obeya. The team designed and introduced this visual leadership approach for the CIO leadership team. This would help them to create a shared view of strategy, priorities and progress, while supporting a regular leadership rhythm for making decisions and addressing challenges together. You can read here more about how an Obeya can work for you.

The Results

A sharper strategic focus at the City of Amsterdam

  • Stronger internal change capabilities

    The Transformation Team developed the Change Management skill and practical experience to guide organisational change.

  • Clearer objectives and progress monitoring

    Sharper objectives helped create a stronger focus and basis for monitoring progress and making adjustments.

  • Successful introduction of Obeya into daily leadership practice

    The CIO leadership team adopted Obeya as part of its way of working. At the time of documenting this case, the Obeya had been operational for three quarters.

Strategic focus

Before
17 Strategic themes
After
7 Strategic pillars

Objectives

Before
56 Objectives
After
≤ 20 Objectives

Fewer priorities. Sharper focus. Better alignment.

The City of Amsterdam’s experience demonstrates the value of developing change capabilities through real work. By combining structured learning with direct application, the Transformation Team strengthened its ability to guide change and introduced practical improvements into the organisation.

For more details on our approach, implemented changes and results, please feel free to contact us directly.

Adriano Bruno

Toeska Renier

Transformation Manager, City of Amsterdam

Twinxter and our transformation team, designed our Agile change, our change journey, and build a strong, purpose-led leadership team. Followed by deciding what the best operating model would be and how we can align on strategic priorities. Alize and Twinxter were essential to the success of our transformation. Their expertise, open and seamless collaborative style always struck a great balance between adjusting to our needs and pushing us to remain on the right path. I can gladly recommend working with Alize and Twinxter’s team, and would call on her expertise any time such a transformation is required.