The Stockholm City Transport Office is responsible for the city's traffic and outdoor environment. With more than 400 employees and a expense budget of more than SEK 2 billion, efficient working methods are fundamental to the proper use of city funds. To establish long-term sustainable working methods, the Transport Office engaged CANEA in various development projects and for training in, for example, methodology for business development.
The Transport Office − Trafikkontoret in Swedish − has worked with process orientation for several years and has received support from CANEA in various projects during that time. In 2020, the office's management decided to take a holistic approach to link ongoing initiatives and start new projects to establish an organization-wide way of describing, developing and managing the business. CANEA was engaged to support the effort and provide an agile and responsive approach. The Transport Office receives ongoing support in its process orientation and business development from CANEA and will continue to do so.
"CANEA has the ability to listen to and identify our needs, and has a wide range of business development skills to meet those needs."
Anna Green, Development Manager, Stockholm City Transport Office
The assignment consisted of running, and participating in, a number of change projects, whilst providing training for the Transport Office's employees in process orientation, as well as project and change management. The training courses helped to establish the new working methods.
Implementation and methodology
The work involved projects throughout the Transport Office, for example, in the departments of Development, Permits, Traffic Planning, Infrastructure, Urban Environment, Finance and Communication. The projects, which were started at different times, have reached different stages of completion. The time required for implementation varies, depending on the circumstances and the need for change.
In order to create a holistic perspective, great emphasis was placed on the coordination of the organization's processes. The Transport Office and CANEA have worked closely together to create a framework for process development and management. The aim was to ensure that all departments and units work in the same way and that process management functions throughout the organization. The framework has been linked to the operating model Vintergatan.
The assignment at the Transport Office was run as an agile project. This meant user involvement with high flexibility, small and well-defined partial deliveries, and fast implementation cycles. And the ambitions were high in terms of improvement work and innovation.
The work was carried out using interviews, document reviews, observations, workshops, process mapping and games. Each project ended with a structured debriefing, feedback activities and recommendations for further work.
The fact that CANEA offers qualified consultancy services in business development and at the same time provides training was seen as a success factor. The consultants acted as advisors, project managers and trainers, which contributed effectively to the Transport Office's skills development.
The result
Some examples of processes where working methods have been mapped and changed are:
- Regulating Parking (Permits), Ordering Materials (Lighting Unit), Managing Emergencies (Traffic Systems) and Strategic Planning (Facilities Unit).
- Important processes have been identified in the Facilities and Traffic Systems units. To ensure efficient management, a new process organization was created in 2020 and an annual planning wheel was introduced.
- Within the Urban Environment Department, seven processes have been identified for future working methods. The largest process, Managing Operation and Maintenance, is shared by several departments. Cross-departmental cooperation is presently being implemented to create common working methods.
- In parallel, cross-organizational projects of a strategic nature have been implemented to give strength and direction to the joint work on particularly important issues.
To measure process maturity among employees and managers, a combination of CANEA's own method and the PEMM method was used. Continuous monitoring will enable identification of development areas and create effective improvement work.
The sense of cohesion within the entire Transport Office is important. Today, the Transport Office has a web-based training course for all employees. Common working methods are expected to provide a more efficient organization and increased overall quality. This provides an even better delivery to Stockholmers, tourists and the business community. The long-term goal is for the entire Traffic Office to work systematically with continuous improvements, which in turn provides effective management and first-class deliveries.
