Future Is Here – An Evening in the Spir­it of Human­i­ty

On Novem­ber 5, 2025, the Kur­saal in Hei­den became a space where past, present, and future came togeth­er. Where the dance fres­coes of painter Mario Comen­soli usu­al­ly speak of move­ment, this evening was about new ways of being togeth­er – about courage, human­i­ty, and the trust that col­lab­o­ra­tion is the foun­da­tion for trans­for­ma­tion.

The Hen­ry Dunant Muse­um, which in recent years has been new­ly posi­tioned and redesigned, invit­ed its board and staff to take part in a “Dia­logue of the Present.” At the heart of the evening was a sim­ple but pro­found ques­tion: How can a cul­tur­al insti­tu­tion be orga­nized in a way that not only speaks about human­i­tar­i­an val­ues but tru­ly lives them?

From Repo­si­tion­ing to Reor­ga­ni­za­tion

Since spring 2025, we at PerSens have been accom­pa­ny­ing the Hen­ry Dunant Muse­um on its jour­ney toward a new orga­ni­za­tion­al mod­el.
What began with the mod­ern­iza­tion of the exhi­bi­tion soon led to a deep­er ques­tion: How can an orga­ni­za­tion be shaped that embod­ies human­i­ty from with­in?

Togeth­er with the museum’s board and employ­ees, we devel­oped struc­tures through a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry process that dis­trib­ute respon­si­bil­i­ty, share knowl­edge, and con­nect vol­un­tary com­mit­ment with pro­fes­sion­al roles. The result is an orga­ni­za­tion that uses exist­ing com­pe­ten­cies, fos­ters devel­op­ment and oppor­tu­ni­ty, and radi­ates a gen­uine sense of enthu­si­asm and joy.

This new coop­er­a­tive muse­um orga­ni­za­tion is built on trust, trans­paren­cy, and shared cre­ation – and it was pre­sent­ed to a wider pub­lic for the first time dur­ing the “Dia­logue of the Present.”
The future is here – it is us.

An Evening of Many Voic­es

The event was mod­er­at­ed by Urs Bolter, who guid­ed the audi­ence through the evening: from the open­ing con­ver­sa­tion with muse­um pres­i­dent Dr. Andreas Ennu­lat, to the inspir­ing talk by Dr. Bern­hard von Mutius, to the dia­logues with staff mem­bers and board rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Bern­hard von Mutius spoke about the pow­er of social coop­er­a­tion and about how “con­fronta­tion can be an invi­ta­tion to dia­logue.” In his talk, he empha­sized inde­pen­dence, engage­ment beyond bor­ders, and the rejec­tion of fanati­cism – all while remind­ing us that engage­ment some­times comes with its own “cross to bear.”
His con­tri­bu­tion was more than a lec­ture – it was an invi­ta­tion to rethink.

In the fol­low­ing dia­logue, Tan­ja Scher­rer (muse­um staff) and Karin Weber (board mem­ber) gave heart­felt insights into the muse­um team’s ded­i­ca­tion to bring­ing Hen­ry Dunant’s lega­cy into the present – as a lived atti­tude, not just a his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry.

Then, Nicole Nobs (board mem­ber) and Ruth Bolter (PerSens) made the orga­ni­za­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion tan­gi­ble: how deci­sions are now made with­in work­ing teams, how hier­ar­chies are giv­ing way to trust, and how par­tic­i­pa­tion turns into shared respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Human­i­ty as an Orga­ni­za­tion­al Prin­ci­ple

“Deci­sions are made where the music plays,” said Ruth Bolter dur­ing the con­ver­sa­tion – refer­ring to the teams who are close to the action and have the com­pe­tence to act.
Trans­paren­cy, con­tex­tu­al aware­ness, and col­lec­tive learn­ing are the core prin­ci­ples of this new muse­um orga­ni­za­tion.

New struc­tures, such as the Muse­um Coun­cil, open up focused ways to par­tic­i­pate beyond the board lev­el. This cre­ates a form of col­lab­o­ra­tion that trans­lates the spir­it of Hen­ry Dunant into a con­tem­po­rary real­i­ty – an orga­ni­za­tion that reflects Dunant’s val­ues, is well-ground­ed, com­pe­tence-dri­ven, and joint­ly orches­trat­ed.

The Future Is Here – and It Is Human

The evening at the Kur­saal Hei­den was more than an event – it was the liv­ing expres­sion of a com­mu­ni­ty in motion.
Today, the Hen­ry Dunant Muse­um stands as an exam­ple for Col­lab­o­rais­ing Organ­isatins® that we at PerSens are proud to help shape: think­ing about respon­si­bil­i­ty in a decen­tral­ized way, rein­vent­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, and build­ing struc­tures that enable growth and devel­op­ment.

As Hen­ry Dunant once said:

“Ideas have a strange ten­den­cy to become real­i­ty.”

On Novem­ber 5, one of those ideas became real­i­ty – through peo­ple who had the courage to embrace change togeth­er.

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