From organizational transformation to transforming yourself into a consultant
Sometimes the organizational change went slowly in my opinion and that frustrated me. I could see what had already changed but I wanted more and faster, because there is always room for improvement. Simone, a colleague at Highberg with whom I worked said to me: 'every step is one step Carolien'. And she was right.
Change is not a direct path from A to B. Sometimes you have to plant seeds and be patient before you can harvest them successfully. This was also the case at my previous employer Menzis, a health insurer, where I worked as a project manager. My passion for change management and agile thinking led me to join the Change Team: a leading coalition that drove and shaped the transformation to an agile organization. The Change Team consisted of colleagues from the organization and consultants from Highberg. The goal was transforming the entire organization into an agile organization. It was about process and governance, as well as behaviour and leadership. I believe that for a successful transformation you have to act on all these elements. For me personally, it also provided much variety and therefore job satisfaction. We went through a beautiful journey and the organization changed, and because of that journey I also changed myself.
My job as a Change Team member ended, but my passion for transforming had been ignited. I wanted to transform from project manager / internal consultant to consultant at Highberg. Why? Because of the passion for transformations and the great collaboration with Highberg I had experienced. The ' observe – participate – execute’, principle that Highberg applies appealed to me. At the start, they gave us clear direction through their expertise in the field of transformations. They stood next to us, and we worked together in reaching the goals: they didn't tell us how we should do it, but we decided together on the best way to make it happen. Along the way, the collaboration increased and in the end we were able to act independently, while having colleagues from Highberg available to share and exchange thoughts with. The questions evolved from “how would you do it?” to “what do you think of this approach? Am I missing something?”
The way of working of Highberg was appealing to me, and therefore I switched from client side at Menzis to consultant at Highberg. The fact that I was able to turn 'they' into 'we' on June 1, 2023 has been a great change. I look forward to getting started and making an impact by enabling people, teams and organizations to excel.
Want to know more about transformations or lessons learned from a client perspective? Want to exchange thoughts or are you in doubt about your issue
Contact me and we will talk further.
Carolien Tigelaar
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