Cultural Shift at the University: Small Projects, Great Impact

6 January 2025, by Anna Priebe

Staff working together using an interactive whiteboard

Photo: University of Hamburg/Esfandiari

Many University staff members are currently trying out new ways of working together, digitally and on-site.

How can we work together better and more positively and effectively communicate? From new formats to momentary adjustments—there are a host of ideas for greater scientific exchange and working together successfully. This series present inspiring initiatives.

Working as equals—the informal Du

Stephan Michel, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences

In recent months, we have carried out a lot of small and large measures here in the faculty administration in order to redesign how we work together. It was a slow process that was sped along by various causes.

For instance, the informal Du has become prevalent. At the working level, we have pretty much always addressed each with Du; however, following the Executive University Board’s step to offer the use of Du is various contexts, it has become generally accepted across all hierarchy levels. Sometimes Du was offered in larger group meetings, but I now always do so in personal exchanges. Of course, the transition is sometimes difficult—we even have an imaginary coffer in the office of the dean for using Sie. Nevertheless, people adapt quickly, and exchanges have not become less professional in any way; in fact, there is more equality present. This is noticeable in larger meetings, where many colleagues are much more involved in a more natural way.

I was active in the Culture and Vision project early on, which introduces new approaches to the University. I find that if you yourself look where you can start, it does something to you. It also helped us, for example, to review our work with the safe-enough-to-try (SETT) approach. This means that we now publish important information even if an aspect is still being clarified or a digital brochure is not yet 100 percent perfect. It’s cool to change a lot even with such small measures.

With coffee and cake—an attractive way to exchange knowledge for the whole department

Susanne Zemene, Department 3: Studies and Teaching

Our department employs more than 100 colleagues in 11 teams with very different areas of responsibility. Many are also involved in cross-departmental projects. Interteam and interdepartmental exchange is sometimes difficult given the size of the department. I thus wanted to find a format that would create more transparency and enable an uncomplicated flow of information back to the teams and the department head.

The inspiration for this came from 2 Swedish colleagues I met on a language course in Ireland. In Sweden, there is the so-called fika, which is a break where people meet for coffee and cake to exchange ideas. And this is something that we also do now: twice a month for about 30 minutes in person. During the fika, a colleague will take 10 minutes to introduce a current interdepartmental project, and then we’ll discuss it afterwards. Last time round, a colleague talked about the sustainability audit working group. During the fika, we also decide who will present the topic and who will bring cake for the next one— for hot drinks, everyone is responsible for themselves.

At the same time, we maintain a WeKan board that lists all interteam and interdepartmental projects and documents who is involved in what. This creates transparency for everyone and facilitates contact between people if they are interested. It’s important to me to offer another appealing format on-site, which makes the time spent in the office valuable to people. This is purely about informal exchange—the fika is open to all. We don’t take minutes, and no one returns to their desk with a work task. Originally, I thought there’d be 6 or 7 of us, but so far, we’ve always had around 25 present from all the teams. This coming together is also great for new employees, and the input from everyone has led to animated discussion and great ideas.

Synchronously to more self-efficacy—regular meetings with a WeKan board

Kerstin Schweizer-Laurentin, Faculty of Education

Faculty administration is all about resource management, and we work synchronously here. We are involved in complex, overarching processes in both faculty and university administration. To organize the individual processes efficiently, I have established a regular meeting with my 2 team heads. We meet not only to discuss our work with each other but also to develop concrete solutions to challenges with the help of a WeKan board.

Prior to the weekly meetings, everyone enters the current tasks and applications received, which we then go through. Our aim is to ensure that information that is relevant to everyone is no longer held by one person but is available to everyone centrally and synchronously. It’s effectively a new communication framework for processes in our team. We ask ourselves, What is needed to complete a task and how can we accomplish it? We then assign the necessary steps directly to an individual. By specifically naming and implementing our potential for action, we convey an awareness of self-efficacy. By making the big picture visible, we can coordinate effectively and motivate each other as a team.

At the moment, the WeKan board primarily lists tasks as comprehensively as possible. Our next step is to further optimize the board and describe all our processes in their dynamics. For this purpose, I have contacted the team at the Head Office for Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences. Our colleagues there have been using this method for a long time and have maximized its benefits— we want to learn from them. The aim is to adapt the knowledge we have to our specific requirements in the faculty. This will intensify the exchange at the working level and beyond the faculty, allowing us to communicate with each other and benefit from others’ experiences.

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Cultural Shift at the University: Small projects, great impact—Part I