Project Description

The Optimist, located in The Hague, is the publishing house of opinion magazine the Optimist and the online community of the same name. The content is about people who are leading the way and new ideas that change the world. The organisation consists of 10 employees, divided over an editorial staff, a customer care department and a marketing and sales department. Make Energy Work has only involved the owner and editor-in-chief in the energetic change process, respectively: Roland Pluut and Brian de Mello.

Problem

Early 2020, publishing house The Optimist contacted ECOintention. What was missing was a healthy ‘flow’ within the company. The number of subscribers didn’t grow fast enough. The recruitment of both commercial and substantive relations was strained. And new projects didn’t get off the ground quickly enough.

Solution

The energetic start scan indicated that The Optimist scored far below the required target values on many energetic values.

In consultation with Roland Pluut and Brian de Mello, the following objectives were drawn up:

  • to strive for better cooperation
  • to strive for a proactive working posture
  • to strive for more subscribers and commercial relations

Make Energy Work had started the energetic change progress in January 2020. The continuation phase was successfully completed in February 2021. Currently, Brian de Mello himself provides guidance to the renewed, healthy energy within the company. The latest measurements proved to be outstanding.

Result

In the stabilisation phase, cooperation was significantly improved. Brian’s colleagues noted that the atmosphere had become much better (more relaxed) than a year before. Brian de Mello put it like this: ‘We have experienced Nils as a highly skilled partner. Nils and Monique are engaged and motivated professionals who have guided us well. At first, we didn’t know what to expect, but after some time we noticed that everything went more fluently and smoothly than before. The results are above our expectations.’

The results at a glance:

  • the self-activation of colleagues has increased, despite the fact that most of them work at home due to the corona crisis;
  • work meetings have improved considerably, despite the increased number of homeworkers;
  • the number of commercial and substantive relations have increased enormously;
  • the number of paying subscribers for Medical Record has increased considerably;
  • the website has been updated in a short time;
  • an anniversary edition has been released at an accelerated pace;
  • the administration has finally been put in order;
  • creativity seems to have increased: ideas for new articles, collaborations, work processes and business models happen spontaneously.