Innovation Exchange Karlstad (INEKA)

Important results from the project

The overall goal of the project has been to increase decision transparency for the decisions made within the community building process by studying how different forms of governance affect the decision-making process. To answer the goal, several activities have been carried out within the framework of the project, this includes meetings, interviews, workshops with both politicians and civil servants. I have also coached individual employees both in their own leadership and also in how they could practically set up and implement various project they have been assigned

Expected long term effects

The overall goal of the project has been to increase decision transparency for the decisions made within the community building process. The result can be divided into two parts, on the one hand an extended collaboration between Kau and Karlstads Kommun in terms of research and also education. In addition, the work has resulted in a new way of working in the current administration, where civil servants and committee politicians can now meet to discuss the conditions of each party in order to create a better understanding of each other´s challenges.

Approach and implementation

The primary interview study of the politicians in the TFF committee was conducted in a semi-structured form with a questionnaire as a basis. A thematic analysis generated five overarching themes, 1) What we need, when we need it" (information packaging and priorities), 2) "When we get an unexpected visit" (-politically sensitive decisions), 3) "The dance of trust" (-the importance of a scientific approach), 4) "Who don´t you know who don´t I know?" (-knowledge of matters that come back over time) and 5) "Who are you who am I?"(-regards roles and who should take the initiative and when).