The Buurtzorg podcast: Recent Episodes
Sam Spiering and Thijs de Blok
In this podcast series, we will explain step-by-step the principles behind the famous Dutch home care organization Buurtzorg. In 13 short episodes, your host Sam Spiering and Buurtzorg International CEO Thijs de Blok will give you new insights, background stories and fun facts on what makes Buurtzorg special and how other organizations have tried and some succeeded to implement the self-management and flat hierarchical structure without any managers.Would you like to know more? Please visit us at www.buurtzorg.com or contact us at podcast@buurtzorg.com
The Business model of Buurtzorg is based on quite simple economic principles.
How do we decide what expenses are needed and valuable, and what is nonsense? The scalability of Buurtzorg is directly related to these simple ways of organising your financials.
In this last Thijs and Sam reflect on the various principles they have discussed in the previous 11 episodes. Did you enjoy this podcast and would you like to know more?
Please reach out to us at podcast@buurtzorg.com
For quite some time many organisations have been looking with great interest at Buurtzorg, as well in the Netherlands as abroad. What ingredients are necessary for a transformation to optimal self-management in the various settings?
What is the role of leadership in an organisation without any hierarchical structures? How does Jos manage to inspire the teams, and how do we approach the difficult topics?
When Buurtzorg was founded in 2006 the role of IT in care was a lot smaller than it is today, but we could foresee what was coming. As there was nothing available that suited the needs of working in a structure without managers we decided to build our own. In the episode, we talk about what the various tools are in the Buurtzorgweb and how it grew with the organisation throughout the years.
You won't find any large Buurtzorg headquarters in the business districts of Amsterdam or Rotterdam, just a back office with 50 people somewhere in the east of the Netherlands.
In this back office is taken care of the administrative tasks that are not related to client care, like paying the salaries and billing the health insurance companies
What is the collaborative structure within the organisation, and what are the roles, tasks, and responsibilities? In Buurtzorg you choose your own new colleagues by also decentralising the recruitment in this episode you hear how it's done and how this leads to fewer problems.
What are the benefits of not having a hierarchical structure, and are there any challenges? In this episode, we will talk about how Buurtzorg is keeping it small and simple.
What is the difference between Buurtzorg and traditional home healthcare organisations? What does client-centered approach look like in practice and how do we make the most of our time with the help of the informal networks around the client?
In this first episode Jos joins us for some of his experiences, we discuss the outcry for change by care professionals in the Netherlands. How could a new organisation without any management grow this quickly?
In this introduction Sam and Thijs tell you why they make a podcast and what the coming episodes will be about.
My name is Sam. In the past few years, I became inspired by Buurtzorg, a Dutch healthcare organization, that grew out to be the market leader for homecare in the Netherlands.
It became an international success, based on just a few basic principles. Buurtzorg is built on a common sense approach, with simple principles such as trust, autonomy, creativity, simplicity, and collaboration. Those principles translate into highly effective and sufficient care, into satisfied patients and a high employee-wellbeing.
This left me wondering: What is the secret behind Buurtzorg? How did they become such a success?
I traveled to the south of France to speak with Thijs de Blok, the director of Buurtzorg International.
In 12 episodes we talk about how and why it began, to what has made it a success and the impact it has nowadays.
This is; “The principles of Buurtzorg.” Welcome to the podcast.
For many Buurtzorg nurses, their team is like their own small business. This feeling leads to an enlarged feeling of ownership and this shows in all sorts of ways. What makes ownership at Buurtzorg so essential, and how to not destroy it?