On a spring Saturday in many Norwegian housing cooperatives, residents gather outside with rakes, paint brushes and a flask of coffee. They clear the winter's gravel, fix the fence and tidy the playground. Nobody is paid. Most people come, partly because the work needs doing and partly because not coming would be noticed. By the afternoon there are waffles, the job is done, and the place looks better than any one household could have made it alone.
This is dugnad: voluntary, shared work for a common good. The word appears in sports clubs, schools and neighbourhoods across Norway, and similar traditions exist elsewhere in Scandinavia. It is so ordinary that people rarely think about why it works. For anyone leading change in an organisation, it has a lot to teach.
People care about what they help build
A playground you painted yourself is one you are less likely to let fall apart. The same holds at work. When people have shaped a change, they understand its reasons, they know its weak points, and they have a stake in seeing it succeed.
Compare two ways of introducing a new way of planning work in a department. In the first, a small project group designs the process, trains everyone and switches it on. In the second, the project group sets out the problem and the constraints, then asks each team to test a draft for a month and suggest changes. The second approach takes longer at the start. It also tends to produce a process that fits the real work, and a group of people who will defend it when it is questioned.
Involvement has to be real for this to happen. If the decision has already been made and the consultation is for show, people notice quickly. It is better to be honest about what is fixed and what can still be shaped.
Shared effort, visible to everyone
A dugnad works partly because everyone can see who is contributing. The board member is on her knees weeding alongside the newest tenant. There is no separate class of people who decide and another who carry out.
In change programmes, the equivalent is leaders who do some of the work themselves. If a new system is being introduced, managers should be among the first to use it, and should be seen struggling with it like everyone else. If meetings are being cut, leaders should cut their own first. People pay close attention to whether change applies equally, and they are right to.
This fits well with Nordic working culture, where hierarchies are relatively flat and people expect to be able to talk directly to their managers. It also sets a high bar. Leaders who ask for effort while exempting themselves lose credibility fast.
A clear task and a clear end
A good dugnad has a simple list: rake the gravel, paint the fence, empty the shed. People know what is expected and when they can go home. A dugnad without a plan quickly turns into people standing around holding tools.
Change efforts often fail on this point. The aim is described in broad terms, such as "a more collaborative culture", and people are left unsure what they are meant to do differently on Monday. Break the change into concrete tasks that people can pick up. Make it clear when a phase is finished. Mark the end, even if only with coffee and a few words of thanks.
Where the metaphor stops
Dugnad has its limits, and leaders should be honest about them. It relies partly on social pressure, which can feel uncomfortable, and it suits tasks that are simple and visible. Many organisational changes are neither. Some involve hard choices about jobs, budgets or roles, where enthusiasm cannot be expected and should not be demanded.
In those cases the lesson still applies in a more modest form. Explain the reasons openly. Involve people in the parts they can genuinely influence. Share the burden fairly, including at the top. Respect the fact that people may disagree with the decision and still do their part well.
Practical steps for leaders
If you want to bring some of the dugnad spirit into a change you are leading, start here:
- Describe the problem before you describe the solution, and invite people to challenge it.
- Decide in advance which parts of the change are open for input, and say so plainly.
- Give teams real work to do in shaping the change, such as testing, adjusting or designing a part of it.
- Take on visible parts of the work yourself.
- Break the change into concrete tasks with clear ends.
- Recognise contributions openly, and close each phase properly.
People support what they help build, provided they were genuinely allowed to build it.
Closing thought
Dugnad is a small tradition, but it rests on a sound idea: people will give real effort to shared work when they understand the purpose, can see others contributing, and know their part matters. Change in organisations rarely feels like a spring Saturday with waffles. The principles carry over well, and they cost very little to put into practice.