SYNERGIA
A network for cooperation and exchange of experience between high-level officials from Central and Eastern Europe
News
SYNERGIA –continues to inspire!
From September 2024, the Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office in Olsztyn is implementing, as part of the Integrated Professional Development Program for Managers a new project inspired by SYNERGIA – “Leaders without ties”.
Addressee and purpose of the project
The project is addressed to middle-rank management staff and its primary objective is to establish and maintain contacts, promote relationship building and exchange of experiences among staff members.
Programme
The project envisages a series of moderated meetings aimed at developing employees’ soft skills, such as: communication, HR management, decision-making, motivation, etc. The meetings take a form of workshops on the following topics:
- Leader’s motivation, or how to motivate yourself.
- Change management in the team.
- Building leader’s authority.
The meetings are planned to be led by a moderator – a participant of the first edition of SYNERGIA project, in groups of up to 15 participants. The duration of each meeting is approximately 1.5 hours.
Integrated Professional Development Program for Managers – winning implementation project in the first edition of SYNERGIA project
The implementation project of the Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office in Olsztyn, entitled “Integrated Professional Development Program for Managers – a program for building a management workshop” received the highest marks from the internal Competition Commission in the first edition of SYNERGIA project. Consequently, tasks envisaged in the project received support in the form of trainings available to employees in the implementation of good practices and financial resources for the first stage of implementation of new managerial solutions.
As part of the project, from 2021, trainings for senior and middle-rank management staff was carried out. The trainings included topics such as HR management, non-financial motivation and preventing burnout, management in conflict situations, workshops on mental resilience and psychological safety, and personality styles according to the Insights Discovery model.
After 3 years of operation of the programme, managers at Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office:
- can better understand the needs and motivations of team members, which improves communication and relationships within the team;
- know effective conflict resolution techniques;
- know what tasks can and are worth delegating, which allows them to focus on key aspects of management;
- can cope better with stress and workload;
- know their strengths and weaknesses.
We would like to congratulate the Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office in Olsztyn for continuing the good practices developed under SYNERGIA project and maintaining the durability of the implementations.
More information about the implementation at Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office can be found at the link: https://synergia.ksap.gov.pl/en/implementation/
SYNERGIA publication on IPA’s Website
SYNERGIA publication “The Synergy Effect. Mini-handbook Maxi-practice. Best practices in managing public-administration institutions” by Dagmir Długosz has been posted on IPA’s Website.
You may find it and download from the link below:
https://www.ipa.government.bg/bg/publications#cbp=/bg/node/2382
SYNERGIA at KSAP - learn about best practices in public administration!
This was the title of the meeting with Dagmir Długosz, author of the publication “The Synergy Effect. Mini-handbook Maxi-practice. Best practices in managing public-administration institutions”
During the meeting organized at KSAP on May 10, 2024, as part of the European Funds Open Days 2024, the author and invited guests: prof. Jolanta Itrich-Drabarek from the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw and prof. Radosław Koszewski, founder of Queen Hedvig Academy, debated on what is necessary to effectively and permanently implement best management practices in public administration institutions.
Several important topics were discussed:
- To what extent can political changes influence change management in public administration?
- What should be the leader’s role in implementing best practices?
- What are the differences between implementing changes in public sector and in private sector?
- Does public administration implement management innovations at the same pace as business?
- To what extent can the Mini-handbook Maxi practice, developed by the participants of SYNERGIA project and based on the analysis of real challenges and management situations, be helpful in implementing best practices in public administration institutions as a universal practice?
The panelists agreed that what guarantees a durable implementation of best practices is a mature organizational culture, which has its roots in a well-functioning civil service. Much depends on the openness and competence of the institution’s leader, but despite his significant influence on the shape of the change, he is not its only stakeholder and guarantor.
The issue of values was also discussed, as they are one of the main features that distinguishes public sector employees. A sense of responsibility for others and acting for the common well, as well as the resulting in-depth reflection on the actions taken and the extension of the decision-making process are only few examples that have been mentioned.
The panelists emphasized that the differences between public and private sectors make it impossible to entirely put business practices into the public administration sector, which translates into the effectiveness of using these solutions in the everyday functioning of institutions. They also pointed out that the publication, thanks to a thorough analysis of best practices in the context of their usefulness for the public sector, creates the opportunity to effectively use knowledge management in public administration.
The handbook is an inspiration for implementing changes and offers a broad bibliography developing topics presented in the publication. We warmly invite you to read it!
Where the publication it available?
The Mini-handbook is publicly available and can be downloaded from the KSAP website:
https://ksap.gov.pl/ksap/sites/default/files/publikacje/synergia_en.pdf
The Synergy effect - change. How to properly manage change in public institutions?
Five Polish public administration institutions presented their implementation projects carried out as part of SYNERGIA during the Public Management Forum session held on 11 December 2023 at KSAP, in Warsaw.
Presentations
During the session, implementation projects of the following institutions were presented:
- Warmia and Mazury Voivodeship Office in Olsztyn – implementation in 1st edition
- Voivodeship Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Warsaw – implementation in 2nd edition
- National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management – implementation in 3rd edition
- Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection (IJHARS) – implementation in 4th edition
- Masovian Voivodeship Office – implementation in 4th edition
Participants’ presentations are available here (in Polish):
Implementations
Representatives of the implementation teams presented assumptions, results and challenges they have encountered during implementation of good practices. All implementation projects referred to good management practices developed within SYNERGIA education and cooperation program. While the leitmotif of implementations was to improve the efficiency of institutional management, the selection of topics and tasks corresponded to specifics of each office and its actual needs. Still, even tough each institution presented fundamentally different ideas and approaches to improving particular areas of institutional management, the implementations were united by the idea of improving internal communication and by openness to the needs of employees of the office where SYNERGIA good practices were implemented.
The purpose and descriptions of completed implementations are available here:
https://synergia.ksap.gov.pl/en/implementation/
Discussion panel
In addition to presentation of implemented good practices, the session included a discussion panel, during which the invited guests discussed how to properly manage the implementation of changes in public institutions. The panel was moderated by Przemysław Rzodkiewicz, Chief Inspector of Commercial Quality of Agricultural and Food Products, Alumnus of SYNERGIA 2nd edition.
The invited panelists included Justyna Duszyńska-Cichy, Area Leader and Director of the Department of European Projects of the Łukasiewicz Center, Alumus of SYNERGIA 4th edition, and KSAP graduates: Anita Ryng, Public Sector Relations Manager of IKEA Retail Polska, and Dionizy Smoleń from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Publication – The Synergy effect
The session ended with the presentation a publication prepared by Dagmir Dlugosz entitled: “The Synergy Effect. Mini-Book of Maxipractice. Good practices of institution management in public administration.” The publication is the result of the work of participants from four editions of SYNERGIA education and cooperation program from Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia and Hungary. Until the end of December this year, the publication will be available in the Open Access formula for all those interested in the result of the SYNERGIA good practices.
We invite you to follow the news on the SYNERGIA project website!
More about the session
Details of the peer learning session, organized in the format of the Public Management Forum are available here (in Polish):
The webcast of the event is available on KSAP’s YouTube channel:
