Library

What others say about Buurtzorg

A selection of the best research, books, articles, talks and podcasts about Buurtzorg and neighborhood care, by researchers, journalists and practitioners around the world. Every item links to the original source.

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Jos de Blok talking with clients and colleagues
AllResearchBooksArticles & essaysTalks & videoPodcastsBy Jos de Blok
Cover of Rethinking the University by Sharda Nandram and Puneet Bindlish
Book
2026
Springer

Rethinking the University: Harmonizing the Academic Space with Integrating Simplification

Sharda Nandram, Puneet Bindlish

Applies Integrating Simplification, the framework Nandram developed from her study of Buurtzorg, to universities: how to renew their coherence, academic freedom and accountability to society.

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Podcast
2026
Shift: Conversations on Changing Canadian Health Care
Jos de Blok

Reimagining home care: the Buurtzorg way

Jos de Blok, with host Kyla

Jos de Blok on what happens when you stop managing nurses and start trusting them: self-managing teams, the nurse–client relationship, and whether innovation really helps patients.

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Cover of The 90% Code by Sonali Sharma
Book
2026
FriesenPress

The 90% Code: Rewriting Power for the AI Era

Sonali Sharma

Argues that concentrated authority can't govern distributed complexity, and sets out how power can be shared in the AI era. Endorsed by Jos de Blok.

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Talk & Video
2026
Euronews

Buurtzorg: the Dutch proximity health care revolution

A short TV report following Buurtzorg nurses helping older people stay independent at home.

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Cover of De buurtzorgrevolutie by Jos de Blok and Bart Kiers
Book
2025
Bohn Stafleu van Loghum
In Dutch
Jos de Blok

The Buurtzorg revolution: the story of Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok, Bart Kiers

Jos de Blok's own story of Buurtzorg, from a kitchen-table experiment to more than 1,100 self-managing teams, and the resistance along the way. Original title: De buurtzorgrevolutie.

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Research
2025
Journal of Organization Design

Buurtzorg: scaling up an organization with hundreds of self-managing teams but no middle managers

Frank Martela, Sharda Nandram

Explains how Buurtzorg grew to around 15,000 people without middle management, supported by purpose-built IT and regional coaches.

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Cover of Vormen van zelfsturing by Astrid Vermeer and Ben Wenting
Book
2024
Boom
In Dutch

Forms of self-management

Astrid Vermeer, Ben Wenting

Shows how organisations can find the form of self-management that fits their context, including partial self-direction within a hierarchy. Original title: Vormen van zelfsturing.

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Research
2024
Nordic Journal of Nursing Research

Implementing interdisciplinary Buurtzorg-derived teams in Danish municipalities

Benjamin Olivares Bøgeskov, Gry Segoli

A qualitative study of Danish teams: more flexible care and higher job satisfaction, with unclear roles and resistance to change as the main challenges.

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Article
2023
Substack

The possibility of autonomous Buurtzorg care teams across the UK (Part 1)

Matthew Mezey

A thoughtful essay on why Buurtzorg-style teams inspire UK care professionals, and the commissioning and cultural barriers that hold them back.

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Article
2023
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

This company lets employees take charge, even with life and death decisions

Annelena Lobb

An accessible look at how Buurtzorg's nurses make decisions without managers, and the structures that keep them accountable.

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Talk & Video
2022
Regenerators Academy
Jos de Blok

Self-organisation at scale: Q&A with Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok answers questions about how Buurtzorg self-organises at scale, recorded with Laura Storm's Regenerators Academy.

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Research
2022
Harvard Business School

Buurtzorg (Harvard Business School case)

Ethan Bernstein, Tatiana Sandino, Joost Minnaar, Annelena Lobb

A teaching case on how Buurtzorg shares knowledge across hundreds of self-managing teams without adding hierarchy as it grows.

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Research
2022
International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances

Implementing Buurtzorg-derived models in the home care setting: a scoping review

Anna Hegedüs, Anita Schürch, Iren Bischofberger

Reviews 25 publications on Buurtzorg-inspired care outside the Netherlands: more person-centred care and satisfied clients, with culture and policy as the main hurdles.

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Cover of How Should a Government Be? by Jaideep Prabhu
Book
2021
Profile Books

How Should a Government Be? The New Levers of State Power

Jaideep Prabhu

How governments around the world are reorganising to serve citizens better, with Buurtzorg's nurses working almost entirely without management as one of its examples.

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Cover of Power to the Public by Tara Dawson McGuinness and Hana Schank
Book
2021
Princeton University Press

Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology

Tara Dawson McGuinness, Hana Schank

The authors use Buurtzorg to illustrate an operational model that completely cuts out middle management. It empowers the frontline nurses—those closest to the patients—to make critical decisions independently, resulting in massive spikes in patient satisfaction and better health outcomes. Barack Obama recommended the book in April 2021 as "worth a read for anyone who cares about making change happen."

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Podcast
2021
Leadermorphosis, episode 66

Margaret Heffernan on how to act our way out of the status quo trap

Margaret Heffernan, with host Lisa Gill

Heffernan on experimenting our way to change, including how Jos de Blok built Buurtzorg by combining nursing and economics and talking with nurses and government.

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Podcast
2021
Being Human, episode 155
Jos de Blok

Pioneering self-management

Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok reflects on self-organisation, moving beyond MBA thinking and building a more human society.

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Podcast
2021
Leadermorphosis, episode 69
Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok on Buurtzorg and the virtues of humanising, not protocolising

Jos de Blok, with host Lisa Gill

An in-depth conversation about self-managing teams, Buurtzorg's response to the pandemic and changing organisations from within.

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Article
2020
Lederstof
In Danish

Regenerative leadership: are you ready for a new mindset?

Laura Storm

Sustainability leader Laura Storm makes the case for a new leadership mindset, with Buurtzorg's self-organising nurse teams as a leading example. Original title: Regenerativ ledelse: er du klar til et nyt mindset?

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Cover of Uncharted by Margaret Heffernan
Book
2020
Simon & Schuster

Uncharted: How to Map the Future Together

Margaret Heffernan

Why we should stop trying to predict the future and learn to prepare and experiment instead, with Jos de Blok's Buurtzorg as a key example of small experiments leading to big change.

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Cover of Humanocracy by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini
Book
2020
Harvard Business Review Press

Humanocracy

Gary Hamel, Michele Zanini

A case against bureaucracy that opens with Buurtzorg's motto, 'humanity above bureaucracy', as a model for post-bureaucratic organisations.

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Cover of Humankind by Rutger Bregman
Book
2019
Bloomsbury (English edition, 2021)

Humankind: A Hopeful History

Rutger Bregman

Bregman's bestselling case that most people are decent. Its chapter on intrinsic motivation features Buurtzorg. As he wrote of Jos de Blok: "De Blok has chucked old management models for a bottom-up approach."

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Talk & Video
2019
TEDSummit

The human skills we need in an unpredictable world

Margaret Heffernan

Heffernan argues that imagination, experimentation and human connection matter more than efficiency in an uncertain world, with Dutch neighborhood nursing as one of her examples.

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Article
2019
The King's Fund

Going Dutch in West Suffolk: learning from the Buurtzorg model of care

Jo Maybin

Five practical lessons from adapting Buurtzorg in England, written by the lead author of the King's Fund review.

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Cover of Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan
Book
2019
Portfolio / Penguin Random House

Brave New Work

Aaron Dignan

A practical guide to reinventing how organisations work, featuring Buurtzorg as an example of autonomy and trust at scale.

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Research
2019
The King's Fund

A review of the West Suffolk Buurtzorg test-and-learn in 2017–18

Jo Maybin, Matthew Honeyman, Ethan Williams

An independent review of the first year of a Buurtzorg-style neighborhood nursing team working inside the English health and care system.

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Research
2019
BMC Health Services Research

Transforming community nursing services in the UK: lessons from an evaluation of a Buurtzorg-based model in East London

Mirza Lalani, Jane Fernandes, Richard Fradgley, Caroline Ogunsola, Martin Marshall

A participatory evaluation in Tower Hamlets: patients valued the continuity of care, while NHS structures made full self-management hard to achieve.

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Cover of Coachen van zelfsturende teams by Astrid Vermeer and Ben Wenting
Book
2018
Boom
In Dutch

Coaching self-managing teams: how do you do it?

Astrid Vermeer, Ben Wenting

A handbook for coaches supporting self-managing teams, a role central to how Buurtzorg works without managers. Original title: Coachen van zelfsturende teams. Hoe doe je dat?

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Cover of Zelfsturende teams in de praktijk by Astrid Vermeer and Ben Wenting
Book
2018
Boom
In Dutch

Self-managing teams in practice

Astrid Vermeer, Ben Wenting

How to work well day to day in a self-managing team: communication, meetings, decision-making and quality, drawn from the authors' experience at Buurtzorg. Original title: Zelfsturende teams in de praktijk.

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Cover of Zelfsturing, hoe het wél werkt by Astrid Vermeer and Ben Wenting
Book
2018
Boom
In Dutch

Self-management: how it does work

Astrid Vermeer, Ben Wenting

A practical guide to moving from hierarchy to self-management, by two advisers who have worked with Buurtzorg since its start. Original title: Zelfsturing, hoe het wél werkt.

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Article
2018
Centre for Public Impact

Buurtzorg: revolutionising home care in the Netherlands

A clear case study of Buurtzorg's origins, approach and results, written for people working in public policy.

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Article
2017
World Economic Forum

'Buurtzorg': the Dutch word that could revolutionise healthcare

Callum Brodie

A short introduction to the model and to the countries experimenting with similar neighborhood care.

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Article
2016
The Correspondent

Long live intrinsic motivation. Or why it's time to ditch the carrots and the sticks

Rutger Bregman

Bregman visits Jos de Blok and argues that organisations which trust people's own motivation, as Buurtzorg does, get better work than those run on targets and bonuses.

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Talk & Video
2016
The King's Fund
Jos de Blok

Buurtzorg: could it work in England?

Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok explains the model to an English health audience and discusses what it would take to adopt it there.

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Article
2016
Medium

A systematic overview of the public record in English on Buurtzorg Nederland (Part A)

Harri Kaloudis

A carefully sourced round-up of the evidence on Buurtzorg's outcomes, costs, satisfaction and growth.

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Article
2015
The Guardian, Public Leaders Network

UK voters are being sold a lie. There is no need to cut public services

Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson of Cambridge Judge Business School argues that the choice between higher taxes and service cuts is a false one. He points to Buurtzorg, which supports 7,000 nurses with a back office of 30 and almost no middle management, and estimates in rough numbers that organising UK public services the same way could shift billions from bureaucracy to the frontline, gradually and without mass redundancies.

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Article
2015
Enlivening Edge

How to build bureaucracy-free health services in the UK: learning from Buurtzorg

Anna Betz

A report on Jos de Blok's talk at the Royal College of Nursing: how Buurtzorg ran 9,000 nurses with 35 back-office staff, and what it would take to adapt the model within the NHS.

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Talk & Video
2015
TEDxGeneva
Jos de Blok

Healthcare: humanity above bureaucracy

Jos de Blok

Jos de Blok's TEDx talk on how simplifying organisations builds trust and makes care work meaningful again.

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Cover of Organizational Innovation by Integrating Simplification by Sharda Nandram
Book
2015
Springer

Organizational Innovation by Integrating Simplification: Learning from Buurtzorg Nederland

Sharda Nandram

An academic book that studies Buurtzorg in depth and draws out the idea of simplification as a source of innovation.

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Research
2015
The Commonwealth Fund

Home care by self-governing nursing teams: the Netherlands' Buurtzorg model

Bradford Gray, Dana Sarnak, Jako Burgers

A widely cited case study describing how self-managing teams deliver high client and staff satisfaction at competitive cost.

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Research
2015
Global Advances in Health and Medicine
Jos de Blok

Buurtzorg Nederland: a global model of social innovation, change and whole-systems healing

Mary Jo Kreitzer, Karen Monsen, Sharda Nandram, Jos de Blok

Frames Buurtzorg as a model of social innovation and looks at what it could mean for health systems beyond the Netherlands.

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Talk & Video
2014
Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Jos de Blok

Humanity above bureaucracy: Jos de Blok at the RSA

Jos de Blok

The RSA's recording from London in November 2014, when Jos de Blok received the Albert Medal for “a transformational new model of community health care”.

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Article
2014
The BMJ

Flipping healthcare

Maureen Bisognano, Dan Schummers

An essay arguing that care should be built around what matters to patients and communities, not institutions, with Buurtzorg's small neighborhood nursing teams as an example.

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Cover of Reinventing Organizations by Frédéric Laloux
Book
2014
Nelson Parker

Reinventing Organizations

Frédéric Laloux

The influential book on self-managing organisations, in which Buurtzorg is one of the central case studies.

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Research
2013
American Journal of Nursing
Jos de Blok

Buurtzorg Nederland

Karen Monsen, Jos de Blok

An early account in a leading nursing journal, co-written by the founder, of how Buurtzorg's nurse-led teams work and why the model produces good outcomes.

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Cover of Buurtzorg: menselijkheid boven bureaucratie by Jos de Blok and Aart Pool
Book
2010
Boom
In Dutch
Jos de Blok

Buurtzorg: humanity above bureaucracy

Jos de Blok, Aart Pool

The founder's own account of why Buurtzorg puts the relationship between client and nurse above bureaucracy. Original title: Buurtzorg: menselijkheid boven bureaucratie.

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