Young professionals engage in dialogue about drinking water

Leaning back while others do the talking

The emphasis in the morning programme was on how to engage in dialogue, and more specifically: how to listen. Because how well do we really listen to each other? Under the expert guidance of Nathan de Groot and with a dash of humour, the professionals asked each other about working in the drinking water sector. It soon became clear that this was not going to be a day where you could sit back. Everyone sees the top-ten of annoying listening habits in someone else and, if they get things right, in themselves. Replacing the annoying habit of “yes, but” with “yes, and…” changes the tone and perspective of the conversation. The word ‘listening’ contains a hint: Li-shhh-ening. Shhhh… listening is best done when you lean back a bit, keep quiet and really try to understand what the other person is saying.  

Dialogue between experienced and young professionals

After lunch, Paulin Ishimwe of Uitgesproken gasten literally set the tone with a beautiful rendition of Clean Water by Joss Stone. Nicolien van Aalderen presented the GRROW (Generational and Radical Rethinking of the Water Sector) programme. That programme was established to involve young professionals in a structured way in discussions about leading paradigms in the drinking water sector, connect them with other professionals in the sector, and introduce them to research and strategy development. The dialogue between experienced colleagues and young drinking water professionals resulted in three visions of the future with titles such as Dischargers are Losers, Water Made to Measure and the Collective Chain.

This year, GRROW is launching a new project, the GRROW lab, where the dialogue between experienced ‘old hands’ and the young generation will be applied again. Are you interested? Register soon for one of the (online) meetings on 23 or 27 May 2024.

Is water a product?

During the panel discussion in the afternoon, it was time for a breath of fresh air, with a detailed examination of the underlying structures of the sector. Social Designer Fides Lapidaire, Process Director and Energy Transition Coach Lize Beekman and Innovation Manager Jan Gooijer gave their individual appraisals of the challenges facing the drinking water sector. Is water a product, what does an obligation to supply water mean, and what does water actually gain from water extraction? wondered Fides. Jan, who works at Vitens, believes that the water sector is technocratic, sees itself as a problem and is easily pushed to the sidelines. And Lize, who has worked in the water sector for years, suggested that the water sector is focused on itself. She suggested linking it to other agendas in an area such as the energy transition.

Redesigning the water chain, the concept of water as a product, should water have a voice, isn’t the transition primarily a change in society that needs to take place? These and many other questions were covered, prompting a lively discussion.  

Really?!

Then it was time again for the young professionals to get to work themselves. Anyone who starts work somewhere will know the feeling: you come across things that raise your eyebrows. The first Really?! came from Katja Barendse, who introduced the theme. When she started working in the water sector, she was enormously surprised that the water utilities and the water authorities were so separate. Groups discussed a series of Really?! moments and wrote them down. Like do we Really?! use sand from Australia to treat water in the Dutch dunes. And why do people know so little about drinking water?

Be amazed

Fides then showed how to transform Really?! into amazement. She dares to not understand, looks where you think you won’t find anything, and reveals new questions, getting a subject on the move. She ran through a number of examples. Such as water quality. We can’t see with the naked eye how clean or dirty water is. Bodies of Water (BoW) is a project in which she designed swimwear that shows pollution in coloured columns. This opens up an abstract issue, with a lot of bureaucratic language, making it possible for everyone to talk about it. Practising with this approach introduced a new perspective on entrenched issues. Why do people know so little about drinking water? was transformed into amazement: how amazing it is that people have such a blind trust in the system.

(W)rap-up

The afternoon ended with a musical contribution from Paulin Ishimwe and Tim van den Eijk of Uitgesproken gasten. A surprising act that summed up the day. About drinking water, about health, sustainability, about doing enough, about being circular … but even more about getting together and facing challenges positively. About building bridges between generations, using experience, continuing to innovate, embracing the transition and radically changing some things. That’s what the young professionals are striving for! From the customer to the source. And vice-versa. Full circle.

 

See more pictures of the network day below