The final dimension turns inward, towards the organisations that organise participation. Here, the focus is on whether participation changes how institutions work over time: through new routines, stronger skills, better collaboration, and the integration of participation into regular decision-making practices.
Institutional impact: key insights
- Institutional impact means participation changes how organisations work, not just individual projects.
- It can build new skills, strengthen cross-department collaboration and improve internal processes and routines.
- The real challenge is to move learning beyond small project teams and embed it across the organisation.
- Sustainable impact requires leadership support, integration into policy structures, and continuous learning and evaluation.
Key insight: Participation becomes powerful when organisations change.
Through citizen assemblies and participatory budgeting, civil servants in Groningen developed new skills in participation design, facilitation, and communication. The mid-project report shows that this learning was mainly concentrated within small, dedicated teams working on participation and democratic renewal. When implementation departments were less involved early on, translating participation outcomes into routine policy work proved challenging.