my work: examples
with my work, i develop the mindset, culture, and capabilities of innovative organisations
supercharge innovation at VUELING AIRLINES in barcelona
for this 2-year full-time assignment, i moved to barcelona. i was asked to design, build and launch innovative new solutions to take vueling airlines to a new level of success and stimulate intrapreneurship to grow the culture of innovation across vueling airlines. i was able to build an amazing team of rebels and together we worked with our heads in the clouds while we kept our feet on the ground. read more about this adventure!
accelerate change at WERKOM, an organisation that helps people with a distance to the labour market to find a suitable job – internally or externally
this is a long-term collaboration (> 1 year) where my role is to engage and empower all employees in defining and achieving the strategic goals. we use interactive sessions and result-driven workshops, and we train some employees to become facilitators. we also facilitate shorter sessions with the people who work in the sheltered workshops which is one of the most rewarding things to do.
rebel workshop at LEGO
LEGO approached me to facilitate a fun and energising rebel workshop for their digital team. the goal of the workshop was to unleash rebel talent within the team, as well as to get to know each other on a different level. during the workshop, rebel themes such as ‘where do you get your inspiration?’, ‘how well do you slow down?’, and ‘are you simplifying or complexifying?’ were explored in small groups.
accelerate change and unleash the rebel spirit at CHANEL
for 3 years, i supported Chanel’s CIO Europe to improve the return on innovation by unleashing the rebel spirit in the team and creating a ‘can do’ mindset. for example, to improve the client experience in the boutique with service design tools, give inspirational talks on internal events, host weekly innovation booster sessions, experiment with start-ups in the boutiques, and co-facilitate an RPA-workshop.
keynote 'innovation is having your head in the clouds while keeping your feet on the ground' at GEW in Minsk
the focus of this keynote was to share the necessary mindset, skills and capabilities to create an innovative organisation. themes like dealing with ambiguity, the importance of a diversity of thinking in a team, experimentation within a corporation, applying design thinking methods, and collaborating with start-ups were shared and explained with many examples from my corporate background and my clients.
design and facilitate a full day event for SUNEXPRESS' commercial team
for the morning, i designed a program to open up the minds of the participants with an interactive keynote about why a rebellious mindset is crucial for innovation. in the afternoon, the program was all about identifying bold, new ideas for SunExpress. the team of 120 people was divided into smaller groups of groups so they could work together and bring their ideas to life.
professionalise CO2L-farming, an NGO in regenerative agriculture
for over 2 years, i supported CO2L-farming with its mission to transfer know-how and connect the players in the field of regenerative agriculture and beyond. my role was ‘jacky-of-all-trades’: to help scale the organization, get funding, create a growth story, improve visibility, design training & masterclasses, and work on whatever came to the table where i could add value.
custom workshop at Beyond Gravity, a swiss tech company that delivers products for missions to space
during this 2-day workshop, we worked in small teams of three. each team picked a problem and with a variety of tools ideated on the topic. the best ideas were combined into a business concept. each team created a high-level action plan that was pitched to the board of directors. the concepts were well received, and after the workshop, the participants were given time to work on the action plans and implement the solutions.
supercharge innovation at MOURIK, a dutch civil engineering company
the main goal of this 3-year assignment was to bring an outside-in perspective combined with a lot of hands-on innovation experience. my role was to facilitate innovation and change in various ways. this also included scouting for interesting, impactful (sustainable only) innovations to build or invest in, and taking the necessary steps to bring these to life.
keynote 'oh no! we have a rebel in our team!' for MIELE X
in just 20 minutes the audience learned all about rebellious behaviour. they explored their level of rebelliousness with two interactive themes that they discussed with the person sitting next to them. these themes were: ‘where do you get your ideas and inspiration?’, ‘are you asking the right questions? and how provocative are they?’. by the end, they all concluded “oh no! we don’t have a rebel in our team!!!”
design and facilitate a full day event for CIBUTEX, a cooperative for circularity for business textiles
for this event, i designed and hosted both the morning and afternoon program. the morning was only for the founding partners and members. the goal of the morning was to create full awareness and ownership of the biggest challenges the cooperative faces. the afternoon was open for a broader audience to get more people excited about circularity for business textiles and organisations excited to join CIBUTEX.
custom innovation and service design training at SUNEXPRESS
regularly, i provide training to different groups at sunexpress. participants work together in small groups on actual, relevant subjects. by the end of the training, they have walked through all the steps to identify the key problem, come up with ideas, put the best ones together in a concept, and bring that concept to life. my training is always tailored to the group’s needs.
panel participation at THINK FUTURE event in hamburg
i am often asked to participate in a panel to share my perspective and hands-on experience on innovation, change and leadership. i love to keep things practical and share real-life examples to show how things can be done. i also host panels, where i go for fresh and surprising insights by asking not-so-obvious questions.
my foundation: empowering employees at KLM
i started my career in the corporate world and worked for around 16 years in a variety of roles at klm royal dutch airlines. most of the time i had some side initiatives running next to my normal job to satisfy my urge to make things better. almost always, i worked on solving long-lasting problems and for that, i had to build multidisciplinary teams to cross many silos within the organisation. the key to success in each initiative was empowering employees. these are three initiatives that i am super proud of:
KLM LAUNDRY LEAN TEAM. i was responsible for the logistics and laundry of KLM’s board supplies at schiphol airport (± 5 million pillows and blankets yearly, and thousands of uniforms and overalls). although more than 10 different KLM departments from various divisions were involved, i successfully took ownership of the process and simplified it tremendously. read the story here!
KLM REBEL TURNAROUND TEAM. KLM operations and commercial could not agree on how to shorten the aircraft turnaround times without increasing costs. the topic was in a deadlock situation for years and landed on my desk after the great results i achieved by leaning the laundry process (see story above). with a team of rebels, we reached a result that no one imagined possible. read the story here!
KLM SWAT TEAM. when pieter elbers was appointed as ceo of klm, i wrote him a short email: ‘hey pieter, free me up and i am gonna do some cool stuff for you.’ and so he did! it allowed me to create the so-called swat-team. within 18 months, we saved over 15 million euros by collaborating with employees to solve problems and simplify things. employee engagement and bottom-up innovation increased significantly. read the story here!
We were super happy with your contribution! A very refreshing perspective on rebels. 💪🏽 Thanks so much for being there!
Two colleagues have followed up on improving their process. This is based on your approach and inspiration. I find this is super cool - thanks again!
Thanks for the GREAT session!
Thanks for your fresh perspective - this really opened my eyes.
THANK YOU very much for the different perspective you gave me, and for helping me find the answers I was trying to find.
I now have learned that it is possible to have ideas even if you don't have ideas 🙂
Great moderation and structure - a different approach to thinking and getting to solutions!
It feels so good and warm to work together. Thanks for all the help!
Thank you for visiting our site! Your story inspired me so much that I've just asked some employees to think along and we came up with a solution to prevent manual heavy lifting together!
Thanks for stopping by, Simone, you certainly gave us something to think about 😊 Hopefully see you again soon!
What a great and wonderful flow of energy that you released from the audience - many thanks !!
I loved your energy and passion for innovation - i wish everyone could have this training!
also interested in working with me?