Co-creating Active Safety Values and Winning the IAF Facilitation Impact Award

Introduction to FUTOUR

FUTOUR is an agency specializing in empowering people and organisations to shape their future and be the drivers of the change they want to achieve. Its global pursuit is that of generating happy, fulfilled, resilient people and organisations through the power of facilitation. FUTOUR stems from over 30 years of collaboration in the design and implementation of Future Centers, living labs, creativity hubs through its practical experience in facilitating positive change and impact through participatory processes, methods and techniques. FUTOUR has been designed as a nomadic, mobile Future Center bringing facilitation and participatory techniques wherever they were needed. Its team worked in 5 continents and over 50 countries for organisations, companies and communities.

FUTOUR employs a range of participatory methods and tools to foster collaboration and co-creation among stakeholders. Their approach is flexible, offering solutions for dynamic and fixed-site projects, events, and client venues, all designed to harmonize spaces and facilitate creative processes.

About Paolo Martinez

Paolo Martinez is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) with extensive experience in facilitation, creative problem solving and innovation. As a partner at FUTOUR, he specializes in designing and implementing participatory processes that foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders. Paolo has been recognized for his work in co-creating active safety values, leading the italian company, Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI) to a Platinum IAF Facilitation Impact Award. His expertise spans various sectors, including health, safety and environment (HSE), foresight and strategic planning, where he applies innovative methodologies to drive sustainable change.

Here, Paolo shares his success story as lead facilitator in winning the  Platinum IAF Facilitation Impact Awards.

Workplace safety is a top priority for every company, and Autostrade per l’Italia (ASPI) has demonstrated how an innovative and collaborative approach can lead to tangible results. Through the “Co-creating Active Safety Values” project, ASPI transformed its safety culture, achieving a significant impact on incident reduction. This project facilitated by FUTOUR, which utilized tools like GroupMap, won the Platinum IAF Facilitation Impact Awards.

The Challenge: Promoting an Active Safety Culture

ASPI, the concessionaire of the main Italian motorway network, with 2.5 million vehicles traveling on its highways daily, launched a strategic transformation plan in 2020. At the heart of this plan was the need to renew the management model towards an integrated, sustainable, and technologically advanced approach. One of the key objectives was to promote a proactive and participatory safety culture, to involve employees and achieve the goal of zero incidents.

The challenge was to create a safety-oriented corporate environment, in which each employee felt personally involved and empowered. ASPI decided to do so in an innovative, experiential, and bottom-up way, actively involving its employees in the decision-making process.

The Methodology: An Innovative and Participatory Approach

To address this challenge, ASPI implemented the “Co-creating Active Safety Values” project, involving 50 young talents (under 35 years old) with high leadership potential, from different departments and branches of the group. The project was conducted in several phases, with the aim of developing concrete prototypes to improve workplace safety:

  • Initial Phase: An online opening workshop allowed participants to reflect on three key safety questions. Through an online “World Cafe” on virtual tables designed in MIRO, participants discussed and added ideas, autonomously changing room and table at each round.
  • Online Workshops: Teams were divided into two parallel groups of 25 people for facilitated online workshops lasting 4 hours each. Each group worked on specific challenges, using techniques such as the TOP ORID flow and the Consensus Workshop.
  • Use of GroupMap: In this phase, GroupMap was used as a digital decision support platform for brainstorming, grouping, and prioritizing ideas. This tool allowed teams to organize and focus their thoughts in a structured way.
  • Interviews and In-depth Analysis: Teams applied the principles of the Theory U Sensing Journey to interview stakeholders and thoroughly understand the safety-related problems.
  • “Safety Walk” Workshop: In a face-to-face workshop, participants continued to work on their prototypes, using LEGO Serious Play to generate new ideas. They also visited a motorway emergency site to discuss safety challenges and prepare video presentations.

The Role of GroupMap

GroupMap played a crucial role in this process, facilitating the collection and organization of ideas. It was fundamental in the following aspects:

  • Effective Brainstorming: It allowed teams to conduct online brainstorming sessions efficiently, enabling everyone to participate and generate a large number of ideas.

  • Organization of Ideas: It helped to group ideas logically and prioritize the most relevant and promising ones, making the decision-making process more structured.

  • Decision Support: It provided a digital platform for managing ideas, helping teams make informed decisions based on concrete data.

The Impact and Results

The project led to the creation of 8 concrete prototypes for safety, which concerned various areas such as construction sites, road safety, infrastructure design, procurement, leisure time, and home safety.

The results obtained were significant:

  • Reduction of Incidents: The incident frequency rate decreased by 45% between 2021 and 2023.

  • Increased Engagement: The number of “Safety Walks” increased by 302%, and the employees involved in the Group Safety Week increased from 1500 to 5300, with a 253% increase.

  • Growth of safety coaches and supporters: The number of safety coaches and supporters increased from 180 to 350 (+94%) between 2021 and 2024.

  • Adoption of Prototypes: One of the 8 prototypes was selected to be applied throughout the organization, and the other 7 prototypes were incorporated into specific areas of the company.

Lessons Learned

The success of the “Co-creating Active Safety Values” project demonstrates that a participatory and collaborative approach, combined with the use of tools like GroupMap, can lead to a true transformation of the company’s safety culture. The enthusiasm and engagement of the LED team led to results that exceeded expectations.

This project has shown how innovation, facilitation, and technology can work together to achieve ambitious goals, such as zero incidents. ASPI’s experience with GroupMap highlights how digital tools can support effective collaboration and lead to tangible results, improving safety and efficiency in the company. The project also emphasized the value of balancing bottom-up and top-down practices in organizational change.

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How Strategies for Children Uses GroupMap for Policy Advocacy

Strategies for Children (SFC) is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that children from birth to age five have access to high-quality early education programs. For 24 years, SFC has been a leading advocate in the early childhood sector, focusing on four major initiatives: The 9:30 Call, The Advocacy Network for Early Childhood, The Early Childhood Agenda, and the Eye on Early Childhood blog.

The Early Childhood Agenda, launched in 2022, brought together over 1,000 stakeholders to identify key priorities for advancing early childhood education. The initiative has since led to significant advocacy wins, new workgroups, and strengthened partnerships in the sector. To facilitate collaboration and consensus-building, SFC turned to GroupMap as a key tool in their engagement strategy.

About Titus and Marisa

Titus DosRemedios, is the Deputy Director at Strategies for Children (SFC), a Massachusetts-based nonprofit dedicated to advocating for high-quality early education and care. In his role, Titus oversees general operations, staffing, grant writing, budget development, and manages the Advocacy Network for Early Childhood. Since joining SFC in 2008 as a Research and Policy Associate, he has led numerous initiatives, including consulting with local communities on preschool planning and expansion efforts, co-facilitating the New Bedford Birth–3rd Partnership from 2016 to 2020, and facilitating the Massachusetts Partnership for Infants and Toddlers from 2019 to 2022, a statewide public-private collaboration with 60 member organizations. He also served as the inaugural co-chair of the Massachusetts Early Childhood Funder Collaborative’s Community Advisory Committee from 2021 to 2022.

Marisa Fear

Marisa Fear serves as the Director of Policy at Strategies for Children (SFC), where she contributes to advocacy, research, policy, and communication efforts aimed at enhancing early childhood education and care in Massachusetts. Her responsibilities include managing SFC’s COVID-19 support initiatives, producing daily advocacy calls for the early education and care field, documenting ongoing challenges, monitoring data trends, state and national budget proposals, and policy changes from the Department of Early Education and Care. Marisa facilitates the Speakers’ Bureau—a statewide cohort of early educators—and collaborates with the field to build advocacy capacity in local communities. She also works closely with SFC interns and manages collaborations with external partners. Marisa is a member of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s working group on Early Childhood and Out-of-School Time.

Challenges Faced by Strategies for Children

Before using GroupMap, SFC faced challenges in coordinating input from a diverse group of stakeholders across Massachusetts’ early childhood sector. 

“We needed a way to facilitate meaningful discussions in both virtual and in-person settings while efficiently collecting feedback from educators, families, and policymakers,” said Titus DosRemedios.

Without a structured system, gathering and organizing ideas from large meetings and workgroups was time-consuming and challenging to translate into actionable strategies.

How GroupMap Helped

To address these challenges, SFC implemented GroupMap as a tool for facilitating discussions, brainstorming, and achieving consensus across multiple engagement levels.

Large Group Convenings

“We committed to hosting large-group convenings on Zoom, roughly once per quarter, after releasing The Early Childhood Agenda in January 2023,” shared Marisa Fear. “Our first such meeting in June 2023 attracted nearly 100 attendees.” 

Using GroupMap, participants provided feedback on how they had been using the Agenda in their work and shared ideas on evolving its structure.

Workgroup Meetings

SFC launched six workgroups to develop solutions for key priorities. 

“Each workgroup relied on GroupMap to break down complex issues, identify key stakeholders, and refine actionable recommendations,” explained Marisa. “For instance, workgroup #4 used GroupMap to list top recommendations, define clear objectives, and anticipate potential barriers.”

Stewardship Team Coordination

SFC created a Stewardship Team to recognize the need for a coordinating leadership body.

“GroupMap helped us track progress, collect feedback, and foster collaboration among facilitators and partners,” said Titus. “At our first Stewardship Team meeting, we used GroupMap to gather input on how this structure could be most effective.”

Outcomes and Benefits

The adoption of GroupMap significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of SFC’s engagement efforts. “Stakeholders reported a greater sense of involvement as they could see their contributions reflected in real-time,” said Marisa. “The tool’s interactive nature made it easier to build consensus and develop policy recommendations collaboratively.”

SFC’s efforts have led to tangible outcomes:

  • Engaged over 1,000 stakeholders in shaping early childhood policies.
  • Held quarterly convenings with 100+ participants, including an in-person event at Polar Park baseball stadium.
  • Launched six workgroups to tackle high-priority issues.
  • Drafted actionable recommendations for publication in 2024.
“Using GroupMap has been a game-changer,” Titus emphasized. “It allowed us to structure discussions effectively and ensure that every voice was heard.”

What Participants Had to Say

“GroupMap provided a structured way to gather and prioritize ideas,” said one participant. “It made complex discussions more productive and inclusive.”

Another stakeholder noted, “I appreciated how easy it was to contribute my thoughts and see how they fit into the bigger picture. It really helped us move from brainstorming to actionable strategies.”

The Future of The Early Childhood Agenda

As SFC finalizes the next phase of The Early Childhood Agenda, GroupMap remains an essential tool for fostering innovation, supporting decision-making, and driving meaningful progress. 

“We are excited about the next phase of our work and will continue to use GroupMap for consensus-building,” said Marisa.

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