SIx ways a police unit works with their organization culture in practice

Sydsjælland and Lolland-Falsters Police wanted to work with their organisational culture and make meeting with citizens even better.

Under the heading 'Organizational Culture 2.0', we helped them in a comprehensive process with feedback and psychological reassurance as the focal point for all managers and employees from November 2021 to August 2023.

But how do you create a common language for feedback and psychological reassurance in an organization as diverse as the police, which includes, among other things, emergency responders, who run three-team guards, and caseworkers, who work primarily at a computer?

The answer is not simple, but it starts with the top. If there is no support from senior management, organizational change will not become a thing in the long run. And here we were dealing with a brave management that dared to devote the time and resources to have the new concepts and habits implemented in the organization. This included steering group meetings with senior management, leadership trainings with the other management levels and a total of 17 employee seminars to get the new knowledge into the organisation.

As Natasja Bundgaard Thomsen from the project unit of the Police of South Zealand and Lolland-Falster, says:

“The police are a public authority that is politically controlled. It sets a clear regulatory framework and conditions for the work. At the same time, we in the Police of South Zealand and Lolland-Falster have a great focus on working with the culture in the workplace, so that we can help other people who are or have been exposed to crime in the best and most appropriate way. With the project, we also want the Police of South Zealand and Lolland-Falster to be a good workplace for employees and managers.”

And the results from their efforts?

The number of complaints they have managed to keep at a low level despite a general increase in the entire Danish police force, and the organisational culture has evolved.

Here at Feedwork, we believe that culture change is the sum of all the small steps we take in everyday life. Here are six examples of the steps they have taken in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police:

1) Increased awareness of communication in the meeting with citizens

One of the most important things in the work of the police is the meeting with the citizens.

In the employee seminars, they have become more aware of the special conditions that apply to this communication situation:

“We have worked with preconceptions and postures, among other things. That is, both with the communication itself and the hidden communication that one carries with them in the meeting with the citizens.”

The exciting challenge of the project here was to make the toolbox common to everyone in the organization, while at the same time anchoring the tools locally.

For example, in the emergency response, they might be able to focus on one thing that did not make sense to the 911 emergency operators, because there they had a different context. Here, each unit worked on what specific tools made sense to them — ensuring that they are actually used in everyday life after the seminar.

2) How to give difficult feedback to your colleagues?

“Another important thing we've been working on is: If we overhear a colleague say something that's inappropriate, how do you give that feedback to the colleague? We also had procedures for that before, but we've become more systematic about it now that it's also become more legitimate to interfere. '

3) Check in with each other for meetings

A concrete measure that many departments have systematically integrated is checking in with each other for meetings.

It involves the leader of the meeting doing a short round to hear how people are doing.

“Everyone can have a bad day once in a while. Now we can share: Where are we today? What's filling up at your place? If a colleague is not quite on top, for example, it gives another colleague the opportunity to suggest that you make citizen contact that day instead.”

The point of these check-ins, then, becomes that the manager can better manage the room in question. And that colleagues can internally make better decisions with each other.

4) Leaders are more receptive to feedback

Our experience is that it can be difficult for even good managers to get honest feedback from employees — no matter what organization you work in.

Here are two examples from Natasha of how leaders in the policy circle are now managing to get more and better feedback from employees:

“In the MOUSE concept, we have now incorporated questions related to feedback and psychological safety, for example, there is a question that reads “How do you experience the psychological security in the department?” It is the very low practical measures that allow us to work with the concepts in practice. And we really want it, so that's why we're adapting it so that it makes sense for the organization that we have.”

Another way to gather feedback, which is now being used by policy leaders, is the interactive programme Mentimeter. It can easily be used to obtain feedback anonymously while holding a meeting. “The managers could really see the scam in even those managers who do not have the greatest IT knowledge” as Natasja says.

5) Common language in the organization

When we at Feedwork gave managers and employees the tools for feedback and increased psychological reassurance, it was important to us that they apply what made the best sense for them to use here and now.

This has meant that the whole organisation has a common language to talk about the areas of action. And this is specifically mentioned for new employees: “When you sit with future colleagues who have applied for a job with us, we say that we work with this — and ask if they can see themselves in it. And when new employees have started, the concepts are also introduced at the circuit's intro day”.

In this way, the language becomes common for both new and experienced employees in the political sphere. And it provides an opportunity to share the experience with the different tools across.

For example, they do this in management like this:

6) An internal leadership network set in motion

Leaders are role models and have a great responsibility to ensure that there is psychological reassurance and feedback is a natural part of the practice, and after this project we have become even more aware that managers need to spar more with each other across departments. It helps to keep the attention on psychological reassurance and feedback equal. Managers are given space to talk about when things are difficult and share experiences about what they each do to work with it in the departments.