Values-based work: The journey of Plan International e.V.

The challenge

How do we want to work? A fundamental question. As a newly formed and dynamic team, there’s the advantage of being able to try out many things without being tied to existing structures.

• How do you create spaces to spark ideas and then put them into action?
• How do you set up a forward-looking system that provides guidance for decision-making and creation processes without restricting exploration?
• And above all: how can this be reconciled with your own values and social responsibility?

These are the questions facing the people development team at Plan International Germany in Hamburg. Through experimentation and reflection, they’re finding their way towards a people-centred (and effective) way of working.

The journey with 9 Spaces

To gain insight into Plan International’s work with 9 Spaces, we spoke with Niklas Gaidetzka. He’s a specialist in personnel and organisational development in the People and Culture department at Plan International Germany. “We’re a small and ambitious team that wants to get a lot done and has great ideas about how we can change and improve the organisation from the inside,” Niklas explains. “There’s still so much we can build and shape together.” But where do you start?

First, they took stock of their requirements. This included:

• All internal processes should align with the values we also represent externally.
• We want space to share inspiration and new ideas with the team, discuss them, and derive next steps.
• Responsibility should be defined more clearly and concretely than job descriptions allow.
• Projects should be more clearly defined and appropriately scoped.
  Using the 9 Spaces workshop builder, a combination of the following tools emerged. Together, they create the processes needed to achieve these goals.

Using the 9 Spaces workshop builder, a combination of the following tools emerged. Together, they create the processes needed to achieve these goals.

After extensive experimentation, reflection, and adaptation to Plan International Deutschland e.V., these collaboration methods became firmly embedded in Niklas’ team routines. Working independently, the group taught themselves how to work effectively with tensions, roles, and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) — without any external input. Everyone knows how and where they can contribute best.

• I have a new idea and would like feedback on it. Let’s put it on our tensions board!
• A project sounds exciting and I’d like to get involved. Let me check which tasks sit with the lead role.
• The quarterly goal still feels a bit vague? Let’s define key results that give us all clarity.
• Are we still living up to our own standards of people-centredness? Let’s check!