An interview with the founder Rembt Sickinghe .

Certificate
You cooperate all day at and outside work. It is like gaining your swimming certificate or driving licence. The link with cooperation is that these are all things you learnt when you were young. Conceptually, it is not complicated, but it is often good if a professional teaches you and keeps an eye on you if you start to sink or if you are not looking around enough. Have you ever obtained a certificate for cooperation?

Vague term
In my experience, I have observed that organisations are aware of ‘working together’ as a core competence, but that employees and management often do not have a proper understanding of how they should respond to fleshing this out. We often hear people say ‘we´re already cooperating (well) aren’t we?’ but ask someone to consider a few questions about professional cooperation and people suddenly feel uncomfortable. Is this strange? No, not really, if you have not had to obtain a certificate. And to make it even more complicated: how can I do anything about this if I work with someone from another department or team or with a customer or supplier?

High personal standards
We expect high standards in our culture. We are not quickly satisfied with our performance. And when we receive compliments we are quick to respond with ‘It was nothing special.‟ There is nothing intrinsically wrong with high standards, but a damaging side effect is that we appear to not be so generous with sharing positive feedback. How often do you receive compliments and how often do you give positive feedback?

Developments
The number of forms of cooperation just seems to keep growing: people in full-time employment, self-employed, networks and temporary project teams. The workplace is becoming more flexible too: in offices and at home. Very soon four generations will be working together, being the Baby Boomers and generations X, Y and Z. Generations that very likely have a different view of what good cooperation is. Taken together, this could affect the cooperative dynamics. Which is why it is a good thing to consider if the cooperation is structurally running as smoothly as possible.

Heat scan
Based on the observations above, I invented the Heat scan. A simple and easy-to-use tool that enables people, irrespective of their position or department, to enter a dialogue with another person about their working relationship. Management empowers employees with a practical tool so that they can take control of their own relationships. And, in turn, the organisation gains insight into where things are good and where there are not, so that the management can offer structural focus and support.

Our mission is to empower as many people as possible to discover practically and simply what is going well and what could be better in the cooperation with another person. This ensures a more positive working atmosphere, in which sustainable and successful structural cooperation is established.

Background
The Heat scan was founded by Rembt Sickinghe in 2012. In the coaching of teams and individuals Rembt Sickinghe had observed a recurring challenge: 'It is in the working relationship between 2 colleagues where the greatest potential lies. But there was no sound instrument to provide clarity here'. Rembt Sickinghe transformed this output into a new online evaluation instrument: the Heat scan.

Heat scan part of Rembt tcm
Rembt tcm was founded by Rembt Sickinghe in 2008. After graduating from Utrecht University, he worked in various commercial and management positions at home and abroad. This stimulated his deep-seated interest in human behaviour all the more. He decided to repackage his work experience in combination with his training as a coach and MfN-registered mediator in a formula where cooperation took centre stage. He started his own enterprise in 2008: Rembt training coaching mediation (Rembt tcm). Want to know more about Rembt tcm? Please visit www.rembt.org.

Lex van den Elsen's experience - Toyota
The Heat scan is not intimidating, easy to do and fun.
The Heat scan is a splendid HR instrument for strengthening the mutual relationship, creating clarity, resolving possible future problems early on and creating better cooperation with more understanding. The Heat scan is not intimidating, easy to deploy, non-threatening and most especially fun to do. I thoroughly recommend the Heat scan.

Possibility of a valuable dialogue
The Heat scan allows a valuable dialogue to take place. Through discussing the questions and the way in which the Heat scan is compiled, you discuss the subjects that are normally avoided in a conversation.

Jeroen Dirkx's experience - Toyota
A good basic premise for an open-hearted conversation
The Heat scan starts you really thinking about the relationship you have with your colleague. It is a splendid instrument for breaking the ice for discussing matters that you would not otherwise discuss with each other, because it is not just about performance, but about behaviour and expectations. The Heat scan forms a good basic premise for an open-hearted conversation.

Dialogue from a safe situation
I gained a great deal of insight from it. On the one hand, from the moment you start to complete it, you consider your colleague more critically and consequently you also consider your own attitude towards your colleague more critically. You become more aware of your behaviour. On the other hand, the result of the Heat scan creates a terrific conversation document with which you can discuss matters from a safe situation.

Kelly Kievit's experience - BAM Techniek (European construction group)
A good indicator for the state of the working relationship
The Heat scan offers good support for entering a dialogue within a team or with your manager/colleague. You take the time to hold a conversation together about your working relationship. It is a tool you can use to measure the working relationship. The Heat scan ensures that you can discuss your working relationship openly, transparently and intrinsically. I would certainly recommend the Heat scan to other colleagues and project teams.

Birgit van Groenestijn's experience - BAM Techniek (European construction group)
Transparent way to improve cooperation
The Heat scan is a splendid instrument for improving the cooperation between colleagues and between employee and manager in just a few short steps. It improves the communication and, if problems occur in the future, the report can be reviewed to accelerate a solution. It is simple and easy to use and visualises clearly the points requiring discussion in the cooperation.

Victor Titzing's experience - NS (Public transport)
Mapping out both sides of the working relationship
The Heat scan is simple to apply and a clear instrument for mutually mapping out and dealing with your working relationship with an individual colleague (and/or manager) in a conversation, for the improvement of your working relationship and/or as input for your personal development. I would like to repeat the Heat scan in a comparable setting, but then linked to the structural performance cycles.

Decisive steps for strengthening the cooperation
The Heat scan forms a good basic premise for individual conversations with colleagues in which you quickly gain insight into the (mutual) points for attention in the working relationship. Through this, you can target the discussion of subjects and take steps to improve the cooperation.

Anja v. Eck's experience - NS (Public transport)
Raising the level of cooperation
What is so great about the Heat scan is that it activates professionals to give colleagues direct feedback with the intention of raising the level of the intrinsic work and mutual working relationship for both parties. I would certainly be interested in repeating this in the future, although I would then also plan a follow-up session.

Tool for providing structural feedback
The benefit is that feedback is given to each other at a horizontal level. The Heat scan provides a structure for this. For example, you reserve time: for professionals this should be a matter of course, but it is often not done. A benefit is that because you often participate in this with multiple colleagues, you receive multiple observations. There is a real possibility that through the Heat scan you will get to know a colleague a lot better.

Edith Molemans's experience - Boontje Advocaten (Lawyers)
Discover what to expect when cooperation is reconfigured
The Heat scan creates a moment at which you can stop and reflect together: something that we should do with colleagues and customers from time to time. I undertook the Heat scan with a partner from the office, Paul Boontje, with whom I have worked as a lawyer since 2002. At the beginning of 2014, I was appointed in a new position as office director and the Heat scan was a good way to discuss together what we could expect from each other in the new cooperative situation.

Facilitates the discussion of matters of which we were unaware
During the Heat scan, we discussed a number of topics which were at the back of my mind, but which I was not consciously aware of, although they are essential for good cooperation. In other words: through the Heat scan, you discuss topics that often remain hidden ‘under the surface’ and that run reasonably, but could be better.

Paul Boontje's experience - Boontje Advocaten (Lawyers)
Cooperation optimisation
The Heat scan ensures that you make time for each other and especially for the cooperation. Through the Heat scan, I discovered with my colleague Edith Molemans (lawyer and recently promoted to office director), how we viewed each other and the new cooperative situation. The Heat scan was a splendid way to enter a constructive dialogue together, with a degree of depth. I would like to do the Heat scan in other configurations too, because every cooperation deserves to be optimised.

Tool for self-reflection
The Heat scan provides insight into your position with regard to others and clarifies how others perceive you and what you are blissfully unaware of yourself. This creates more insight, depth and understanding in relation to the other person and any bottlenecks are highlighted. It ensures that you pay each other attention, and most especially your cooperation.

Rob Woering a manager's experience - Toyota
Objective representation of the cooperation
I would certainly recommend the Heat scan. It indicates objectively how colleagues experience each other. If you are open to providing such a type of feedback, it is a useful instrument. It can bring the perceptions those involved have of each other to the surface and they can use them to reinforce the cooperation.

Birgit van Groenestijn a manager's experience - BAM Techniek (European construction group)
Visibility of the points for discussion in the cooperation
The Heat scan is an instrument that provides a starting shot for conducting an intrinsic conversation. It provides a good basic premise and breaks the subjects open for discussion. It is simple and easy to use and it clearly visualises the points requiring discussion in the cooperation.

Short steps to better cooperation
We consider the Heat scan a splendid instrument for establishing improved cooperation in just a few short steps. It improves the communication and, if problems occur in the future, the report can be reviewed to accelerate a solution.

Gerard Groten, a manager's experience - NS (Public transport)
A reliable tool for opening a dialogue with each other
The objective was to open discussion within the department. Thanks to the Heat scan, colleagues across the department entered a dialogue with each other; they gave each other positive feedback and were critical. This led to surprising insights and openness and better cooperation. Heat scan is a safe instrument that opens the dialogue in a safe manner.