Meet Anna De Boer
Please introduce yourself (who are you and what do you do in your life)
My name is Anna de Boer. I’m 34 years old, live in Copenhagen, but spend the bright months in my kolonihave, where I keep trying, but also keep failing at farming a successful vegetable garden.
For a living I work as a development consultant in Egedal Kommune.
Which team and when did you graduate?
I started my Kaospilot education with team 17 and graduated in 2014 with team 18, with a year off in between.
What have you been doing since you graduated as a Kaospilot?
Since I graduated it has been a drive for me to find out how to influence the development of the public sector positively. And to do so finding out what kind of role a KaosPilot could play to support that.
I didn’t know much about my path after the final exam, but I knew that the community Denmark share by giving each other welfare through tax money, was meaningful to me and something I wanted to strengthen.
Realizing that I knew nothing about the public sector, and with no hunger for more education I started working at Frederiksberg Kommune in Citizen Service – no fancy title, no big project, but a great position to learn about the stakes and interests in a commune.
After observing how the societal digital transformation impacted the citizens and the organization, I found a need for bridging knowledge from the users of public digitalization to top level decision makers. This was needed because the public sector as an organization is so huge and complex, that information often got lost in many levels of management. When I in the front service meet a poor designed digital system or a citizen in a situation where digitalization was a barrier, I raised the case to the responsible decisionmakers. Also decisionmakers outside of my own organization. This usually gave a very constructive dialog because there was a concrete case in focus.
The role of bridging knowledge like this, I found to be well suited for a KaosPilot because we can design processes and concepts that innovate the frontline service, as well as take part in strategic discussions about how to redesign the big systems.
Today I still take shifts on the “floor” in Citizen Service, but I all so edit digital solutions to fit our local needs in Egedal, are invited to give inputs to new digital infrastructure solutions and sit alongside top leaders in a board at Dansk IT, where we influence wise and responsible public digitalization in Denmark.
Besides public digitalization volunteering as a leader in Roskilde Festival has also been a big part of my professional development the past 8 years. Being a part of Roskilde Festival showed me what the feeling of community can do to and for an organization.
What is important for you in your job?
Positive impact! What drives me is meeting citizens every week, that has limited access to welfare, because they lack digital competencies. I believe we can and have to do better.
It stuns me how they show each other empathy and are inclusive in a way older generations could learn a lot from
What is your biggest source for inspiration right now?
The youth. I have met so many young bright minds the past years, at Roskilde Festival, at some Højskoler and through work. It stuns me how they show each other empathy and are inclusive in a way older generations could learn a lot from. I like the way they think, and it makes me very optimistic about the future.
What would be an example of a learning or an experience from your time at Kaospilot that has been important to you?
The 3 listening levels which we were taught by Poul Natrup and David Stockholm as a part of our creative leadership classes is a very concrete learning that still helps me professionally and personally. To be aware of which level of listening I should use, and how to do so, helps me to gather the needed information to form my decisions.
What is a piece of advice that you would like to give future Kaospilot graduates?
Try to practice the plane metaphor about giving yourself oxygen before others. Take care of yourself and being happy, before taking care of work and studies. This is the only way of reaching your goals.