Inspiring symposium on Meta-management in the Delta in the Museum for Communication, The Hague
The 5th anniversary, marking the first five years of the Delta programme, presented reason enough to hold an in-depth symposium on “Meta-management in the Delta” with participants who are active in this area. Experiences with the work method and approach of the Delta programme (involving district water boards, provincial governments, municipal governments, the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management and cabinet ministries) were outlined by the Delta Commissioner in his introductory speech and then compared with other themes in comprehensive sessions: energy transition, urban and regional developments, the digitalisation of government, and security and anti-terrorist measures.
Leading practitioners kicked off the sessions: Mark Dierikx (Director-General for Energy, Telecom and Competition at the Ministry of Economic Affairs), Ton Jonker (Director of the Amsterdam Economic Board), Marco Pastors (Programme Director of the National Programme Rotterdam-Zuid), Bas Eenhoorn (National Commissioner for Digital Government) and Dick Schoof (National Coordinator of Anti-Terrorist Measures and Security).
Martijn van der Steen of the Netherlands School for Public Administration presented a reflection on the Delta Programme’s approach from the perspective of public administration and called this approach “the new administrative norm”.
Following the comprehensive sessions, reflections were given by professors of public administration: Paul ’t Hart (University of Utrecht), Katrien Termeer (Wageningen UR), Mark van Twist (Netherlands School for Public Administration) and Geert Teisman (Erasmus University). This took place under the guidance of Felix Rottenberg, who posed challenging questions to this group.
The discussion was wide-ranging, covering the different images elicited by depoliticisation, the necessity of a bypass organisation if the current organisations cannot solve the problem, and the importance of taking small steps to get a larger whole off the ground. Yet the discussion also focused on management that can adapt to an uncertain future, on the disappearance of boundaries between organisations due to digitalisation, on the importance of having a good narrative and joint fact finding and working to engender trust, and on the importance of being able to rise above the interests of the parties involved and being a disinterested participant. Many elements from the Delta Programme’s approach appear to be very suitable for other themes and there also seems to be a need to share thoughts on this more often.
The Netherlands School for Public Administration will produce an extensive report on the symposium that will be made available in the near future.