For many of these challenges, there are excellent, specialised and accurate solutions: legal expertise, staff policy, marketing advice, financial support, etc.

It becomes more difficult when the organisation is faced with a challenge that goes deeper, that has its roots in different levels and is related with other problems. Then it becomes difficult to see the distinction between cause and effect clearly. There is a loss of energy and tensions rise. The organisation gets out of balance.

In situations like this, the first thing to do is step back: slow down to speed up. But the daily reality and our ingrained desire for fast results tempt us to think up fast, tangible solutions. However, we very often find that this only treats the symptoms, which in the best case provides temporary solace, but usually actually causes new symptoms.

An organisation coach can make the difference by creating insight into this complexity and the relationships between things and ingrained patterns. From that insight, the coach works with the client to design directed interventions at the individual, group or organisation level.

Every coach has their own signature in line with their vision of how organisations function, their professional background and their personal development. My personal vision is explicitly integrative and systems-based. I look at an organisation as if it was a living system with a consciousness, a sort of immune system, and the urge for evolution. All the components are connected with each other and it is the quality of the mutual relationship that determines how well the components function.

In recent years, I have guided boards of directors and management teams through a wide variety of issues, from mergers to conflict resolution and vision development to personal coaching. Where necessary, I work together with other experts in different professional fields. I stay mentally sharp with my close involvement in shiftN, a think tank and consultancy firm that works to create clarity on societal pressure points (www.shiftn.com).

Leadership, strategy and organisation are common recurring themes in my projects, but the greatest challenge usually lies in the path to the change itself: the way to a healthier, more balanced system. And that is where my passion lies: In the art of facilitation and my love for people.