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Occasionally, our contacts ask us about the cooperative ties between ARV Group and Ontwikkelingspartners. What reason is there for the two to work together? And what are the fields of expertise that go with each organization? “Wherever our knowledge and experience can reinforce each other, we join forces,” say Bartelt Blankenberg (ARV Group) and Arianne van Tongeren (Ontwikkelingspartners). A dialogue about cooperation in the service of the customer.
Bartelt: “Optimizing operations and supply chain in manufacturing. For our customers, we’re the full-scale business sparring partner in that field. They call us in to assist in making concrete plans aimed at structural improvements in processes and results. And in implementing those improvements, including all of the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ elements that go along with that. That’s our expertise. It calls for a working knowledge of the issues at hand, experience in the processing industry and thorough experience with continuous improvement. We have been doing this for more than twenty years now, and we’ve developed a keen eye for what’s happening on the shop floor. Based on the realization that it’s the people who get change and improvement going and ultimately determine the success of it. That’s why, a few years back, we set up a structural cooperative tie with Ontwikkelingspartners. That organization provides specific expertise in getting management, team leaders and production-staff members into their roles and helping them to develop. Together, we can see to both the functional development and the behavioral development needed to improve operational processes and achieve new ways of working.”
Arianne: “We’re experts in organizational and behavioral development. In cooperation with ARV Group, we enter the picture once it becomes clear in which direction process and results improvements need to go. It’s the people themselves, at all levels, who have to make that work. It all starts with equipping the organization and developing the right leadership. The organization depends on sincere, committed individuals in the right place. Leaders who can set out the new lines to be followed in a powerful and motivating fashion, and who can motivatee teams in the best possible way and allow them to perform. A staff member can only effectively assume his or her responsibility once it’s clear why his role and contribution are important to the organization as a whole. In team settings, and also in personal programs, we make sure that people possess the right skills to carry out their role in the best way possible. And that they understand where their strengths lie, and when they’re using those strengths or not. Our own role is something we determine based on what best fits the organization’s needs at that moment, in order to go on developing. That role can vary from organizational consultant, trainer, team developer right on through to 1-on-1 coach.”
Bartelt: “Because our fields of expertise complement each other so closely, and because our style of working is basically the same: a pragmatic approach that fits well with the customer’s daily practice. In other words, we don’t start off by diving into piles of statistics or talking only to the management. The first thing we do is go to the shop floor to see what is actually going on with the operational processes. What the mood’s like within the teams, what kinds of experiences and insights do the people have? What’s going well, and what could go better? I deeply enjoy seeing how the Ontwikkelingspartners consultants then go on to make people aware of their talents, drives, habits and pitfalls. That’s the basis for professional and personal growth, for each unique individual within the organization.”
Arianne: “We don’t see ourselves as outside consultants. We don’t just walk in and say: we know how to do this. It’s a joint voyage of discovery along with the customer, the organization and the people themselves. Together, we see to it that everyone moves into his or her proper role in the end, and that they come to feel ownership for the roles, behavior and results that have been set in motion. Confidence in the fact that it’s possible, a focus on opportunities for improvement and responsibility - for their own share in that - then become lasting factors for success. The cooperation between all those people then sees to it that the right energy and flow arises, which allows the entire organization to get moving and stay moving. It may seem like ARV Group and Ontwikkelingspartners change processes and people. But what we really do is allow the strength of the organization and the essence of each individual to express itself in the best way possible.”
“It may seem like we change processes and people. But what we really do is allow the strength of the organization and the essence of each individual to express itself in the best way possible.”