STARTKLAR MIT STARTSMART

At its core START SMART has a three-hour team workshop in which the following topics are worked out together in order to create a strong basis for successful team collaboration:

• mutual expectations of the team members in their daily collaboration
• purpose of the team
• individual roles in the team
• the way in which the team works together

START SMART is suitable for both newly established and existing teams.

Changing framework conditions and the associated challenges for university administrations

University administrations and academic service units are facing significant changes that are characterized by the digitalization of administrative processes, the use of artificial intelligence, internationalization and an increasing demand for higher customer orientation. In order to actively shape these change processes, it is important that employees develop transformation and digital skills. A different culture of collaboration in teams is required, with team members taking on more responsibility, with improved communication and coordination processes and greater scope for decision-making.

Agility as an answer: Introduction of START SMART

Agile methods can help to actively change this culture.

START SMART is an agile method for team development that is used both when setting up new teams or when further developing existing teams. Developed by researchers at the Norwegian School of Economics (Sverdrup & Schei, 2019), it is easy and quick to apply compared to other agile frameworks such as Scrum or design thinking, without the need to learn new terminology. The central component is a three-hours workshop in which the team members talk about common goals, tasks, strengths and rules for their collaboration. This promotes psychological safety and a strong sense of mutual understanding and community, which leads to better work results. It also increases transparency in work processes and tasks, creating synergies in collaboration and in the services offered to different customer groups.

In the “STARTKLAR mit START SMART” project, the team development method has been tested in pilot teams within the University of Mannheim between November 2024 and November 2025. The idea of an internal pool of potential multipliers who were trained in applying START SMART is intended to spread the agile method throughout the university and promote cross-departmental networking.

The project partners are the Norwegian School of Economics, the Department of Organizational Devlopment at the University of Bergen, Norway und the Programme WANDELdigital.