The Breakthrough Method: What If Bureaucracy Could Work for You?

In the Netherlands, citizens with the most problems hear almost every month: no, sorry, the law doesn’t allow this. These people keep asking for specific solutions to their many problems. Bureaucrats keep denying them exactly the things they need most. Over extensive research, it was learned time and again that there is just as much ground to deny them these provisions as there is to grant them. That is why the Breakthrough Method was designed ten years ago. It now runs in 100 Dutch municipalities. 

The method helps citizens and frontline workers legitimize exceptions to laws and regulations. It helps to find legal ground for making exceptions, but it also includes other values to take the argument outside the standard legal quarrel. People make way cheaper plans for themselves once they are allowed certain breakthroughs. The method also allows them to value the way the breakthrough helps them get more involved in their own lives, in their children’s lives, and in society.