Cases
What I do for clients
Interim coordinator
I was interim coordinator at the Center for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo). CUCo is part of the alliance between Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Utrecht University and Utrecht University Medical Center (EWUU). I served as secretary to the Board, was team leader, ensured the progress of the “business-as-usual” and acted as point of contact for EWUU. The organisation was going through a difficult transition phase. I navigated through this complex collaboration and sensitive relationships by bringing calm, structure and overview. I combined my management skills with my “soft” skills, my facilitator toolbox and my systemic perspective.
Conference workshops
I designed and led several workshops and sessions on collaboration and facilitation, including for the conferences of ARMAnl and for a scientific conference on transdisciplinary collaboration (TRED conference 2023). My workshops and sessions are characterised by a combination of theory and a high level of interaction. Participants are given the opportunity to explore their own cases and to extract best practices from their own daily work. I mainly use Liberating Structures as workshop techniques. I make connections with theory about group dynamics and the success factors of collaboration. Participants leave the workshops with new insights and concrete action points.
Research and community manager
I had a dual role for the Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science. As research manager, I implemented the so-called Research Semester Programmes, an important part of their new strategy to strengthen the Dutch community. I designed the call procedure, switched between strategic, tactical and operational levels, and implemented a pilot. As community manager, I facilitated the learning community around the Research Semester Programmes. This took shape through the organisation and facilitation of kick-off meetings and learning sessions. I taught researchers to reason from goals rather than methods when designing (series of) meetings and showed them what meeting methods they could use to make their meetings interactive.
Facilitation of interdisciplinary integration
Leiden University has a grant for interdisciplinary research teams (the KIEM grant). I facilitated one of the granted teams in integrating their disciplinary perspectives. I used multimodal communication (Shapes Language) for this: by laying down the disciplinary perspectives with shapes we discussed the research variables, the relationships between them and focus of the joint research.
Programme manager
As programme manager of the Topsector ICT, I was responsible for the implementation of the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) Digitalisation. I developed, designed and implemented calls for proposals for research and innovation. To this end, I worked with a complex field of stakeholders: researchers, governments and companies. This included close collaboration with other top sectors and KIAs. The resulting programmes were a complex puzzle of shared ambitions and goals. At the same time, I ensured to build sustainable collaborative relationships with all these stakeholders.
Process facilitator knowledge agenda
For the Dutch consortium Kennis over Zien I facilitated a group of care and educational professionals in developing the Cerebral Visual Disorders knowledge agenda. A knowledge agenda reflects knowledge needs of the target group and professionals, and enables strategic choices in research and knowledge development. I designed the process together with the group, ensured transparency, kept an overview, collected knowledge needs during consultation workshops and facilitated the meetings. At the same time, I ensured positive and constructive group interactions and decision making, yielding trust and shared ownership. My attention to both the quality of the process and the relations between the people involved ensured a solid foundation for their future collaboration in the implementation phase.
Taster workshop Liberating Structures
Wageningen Dialogues asked me and two colleagues to introduce the university community to Liberating Structures. This inspiring toolbox, consisting of 33+ conversation structures are ideally suited for dialogue with society, interdisciplinary research collaboration and inclusive education. Participants experienced the energetic, connecting and inclusive Liberating Structures and explored the opportunities for use in their daily work and dialogues.
Interim policy officer research
For Royal Dutch Visio, I worked as an interim policy officer in the Research & Care Improvement team. I coordinated Visio’s contribution to an interdisciplinary consortium with several (applied) universities and companies for an NWO application. I ensured internal administrative coordination, wrote work packages and aligned contributions from different disciplines. In addition, I built data management policy across the boundaries of Visio’s organisational units, contributed to team development, facilitated strategic explorations in the context of future-proof care and was a general advisor on research policy. I completed the assignment at Visio by designing, organising and facilitating a dialogue session between the Visio board and (external) scientists.
Facilitating business awaydays
For Kennis over Zien, a Dutch consortium of expertise organisations for the blind and visually impaired, I supervised several meeting sessions with professionals from the various organisations. These sessions served as a starting point for joint multi-year plans. During these sessions, collaboration across organisational borders was strengthened, the groups formulated their mission and goals together, participants took ongoing activities a step further and identified new shared projects. My sessions are productive, inspiring, psychologically safe and accessible. I was able to give their collaboration and the formation of multi-year plans a big push in the right direction.
Liberating Structures: a safe and brave learning space
Liberating Structures are designed for inclusive conversations and meetings. Every voice is heard. This is applicable in a variety of academic settings. For Wageningen University‘s Education Design Festival, I designed and facilitated a workshop, together with Wageningen teachers, on how Liberating Structures can contribute to a safe learning environment in which students actively participate. Together, workshop participants explored success factors for creating a safe and brave space in their classrooms, experienced the power of Liberating Structures and went deeper into the theoretical background of this inclusive toolbox.