Purpose – Dialogue – Performance

Verksamhetsskap®

The Scandinavian Art of Organizing Work

The art of organising work so that people and organisations succeed together.

Verksamhetsskap® brings the organisation together around its purpose, makes dialogue part of the work and enables sustainable performance – people and teams succeeding in the work that needs to be done, in a way that lasts over time.

01
Purpose Purpose provides direction
02
Dialogue Dialogue creates understanding
03
Performance Performance creates value

Why Verksamhetsskap is needed

The workplace is losing potential

Organisations need to achieve goals, respond to change and create value for customers, citizens and society. This happens through people's performance – every day, throughout the organisation.

At the same time, purpose, performance, the work environment, leadership, engagement and development are often treated as separate issues. This makes it difficult to see how they are connected in everyday work.

The consequences are clear. Purpose loses force as it moves through the organisation, responsibility for development accumulates with the manager, and people's knowledge and judgement are not fully used.

Verksamhetsskap® brings these issues together through a shared premise: that people should be able to succeed together in their shared purpose.

What Verksamhetsskap is

An organisational capability for creating performance

Verksamhetsskap® describes both a direction for how work can be organised and a capability that the entire organisation can develop.

The capability lies in bringing people, teams and processes together around what needs to be achieved, creating shared understanding and developing the work close to those who carry it out.

Purpose

01

Purpose provides direction

The purpose clarifies what needs to be achieved, why it matters and how different parts of the organisation contribute to the whole. It creates meaning, priorities and a shared focus.

Dialogue

02

Dialogue creates understanding

Through dialogue, people can translate the purpose into their own context, share perspectives and develop the work together. Dialogue makes the purpose understandable, open to influence and possible to take ownership of.

Performance

03

Performance creates value

Performance emerges when people and teams succeed in their purpose. When they do so with the right quality and in a way that lasts over time, both the organisation's results and people's development and wellbeing are strengthened.

Together, Purpose, Dialogue and Performance express the core of Verksamhetsskap® – The Scandinavian Art of Organizing Work.

The central idea

Performance unites people and the organisation

The organisation's results are created through people's performance, individually and together. People develop when they are able to contribute, succeed in their purpose and be part of a meaningful context.

The organisation's needs and people's needs therefore have to be understood together. When people have the opportunity to do a good job, the individual, the team and the organisation all become stronger.

This is the core of sustainable performance: achieving results through work in which people can contribute, develop and succeed over time.

People
  • +60 % Perceived health
  • −25 % Sickness absence
  • +58 % Individual performance
performance
The organisation
  • +65 % Goal attainment
  • +70 % Customer satisfaction
  • +39 % Productivity

The figures show how strongly people's conditions for performance are associated with each measure.

Explore further

Understand the foundations of Verksamhetsskap®

Verksamhetsskap® is grounded in a perspective, expressed through principles and put into practice through a method. Together, they express the core of Verksamhetsskap®The Scandinavian Art of Organizing Work.

The perspective

Understand how people's needs, organisational needs, performance, development and health are connected.

Explore the perspective

The principles

See how a Verksamhetsskap organisation organises work around the purpose and creates responsibility, participation and development close to the work.

Explore the principles

The method

How is sustainable performance created? The method helps the organisation understand and develop the conditions the Individual and the Team need to succeed in the Purpose.

Explore the method