Water company Evides is responsible for the supply of drinking water, with everything that entails. Safety is during the construction and management of the pipeline network. How do you raise awareness among all parties?
It is busy underground. Evides alone already manages more than 14,000 kilometers of underground main pipelines. Together with provinces, municipalities, water boards and other partners such as network operators and contractors, Evides is responsible for the pipeline network and must coordinate all above and underground infrastructure with all these parties. The team of 14 Evides area managers wants to bring the subjects of safety and prevention of excavation damage to the attention of all those parties better.
The goal? Preventing danger or economic damage due to damage to underground cables or pipes. And if safety-risks are scheduled earlier in the work preparation, this saves a lot of hassle and money. Because inefficiencies in collaboration and damage are expensive.
How do we make all parties in the chain aware that safety starts with yourself
and you too bear responsibility for that last man?
Clear coordination
In the world of cables and pipelines, all parties need each other. Evides asked Flatland to help clarify all steps, parties and components in the work preparation and maintenance of the underground pipeline network, specifically when it comes to safety and prevention. How can Flatland help to make area managers, civil servants, other network operators and implementers aware of prevention and safety?
You can talk about a risk-based approach in chain collaborations, standardized process design or about joint responsibility and integral collaboration.
We say: make a drawing together!
Risk analysis visually on the map
In order to inform all parties, we developed activating communication with the Evides team. We mapped everything in several sessions. Together with all those involved, we clarified all activities, environments and risks. Visually you can make clear which activities and interests benefit from work preparation. The drawings take people along and connect all assets and complexity with daily work practice.
Finally, we made an interactive presentation.
Working visually throughout the entire process
Drawing is not only intended to make a nice visualization, but is also a great added value in the entire process. We also use the power of drawing to retrieve and discuss all issues. For example, because we make all thoughts and different perspectives visible during a first session, people understand each other faster and it is easier for them to build on each other’s thoughts. Working visually builds a shared story more quickly.
Clarity, story, deliver
In several co-creation sessions we developed an interactive presentation. Flatland always creates visualizations together with the customer, because they are the ones who deliver the story and must therefore have a clear and shared image. Because we immediately visualize all the puzzle pieces, a conversation unravels immediately. In this way we help to make the most important parts of the story concrete and imaginable very quickly.
We work in several sessions, including successively these:
Clarity > unraveling and clarifying the purpose, target group and components
Story > building and structuring a story
Validate > checking whether the visual is complete, correct and logical
Deliver > testing a presentation or delivery together
In the Deliver session, we ensure that the customer can carry out his presentation as well as possible. We designed the entire story together with the presentation, including which elements are better told in spoken text and which can be shown better visually. Everything to lead the viewer step by step into the story.
Visual reminder keeps topic on the agenda
After we mapped out all phases and activities, a clear picture emerged. Together we prepared an interactive presentation. That sounds chic, but it is actually a structured PowerPoint in which all risks are explained step by step. The drawings support and guide the story.
In this way, all area managers tell the same story to all stakeholders. In addition, it is nice that people can read it and put the visual up on a wall as a reminder. The interactive presentation is explicitly not intended as a one-sided way of communication, but rather contributes to the discussion and to improve cooperation.
Result: finding solutions together
Dick van Asselt, team lead area management at Evides, is enthusiastic about the process and the end result: “During the interactive sessions, all the different points of view emerged. The end product is beautiful and clear. It creates awareness of the influence you can personally exert on the safety of another.”
During the interactive sessions, all different points of view emerged!
Dick van Asselt team lead area management at Evides
Michelle Geerlings
How can we help you to make employees or other groups aware?
Email Michelle
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