One person can make a difference and every one should try. John F. Kennedy
I am a practical, result oriented & relationship focused project manager.
2015: published Dutch paperback Het zakelijke hart – ondernemen van binnenuit. Target audience: independent professionals who are breadwinners. Subject: provide both a personal development and a business model to support navigating the desire to realise an entrepreneurial dream alongside the need to make a living.
2016: published Dutch ebook on importance and relevance of Leadership in project management. Target audience: project sponsors & managers. Subject: about how leadership in project management in today’s world requires different skills and tools. Includes a number of uncommon tools to increase project performance. Will be translated and published in English later this year.
Click here for my LinkedIn profile.
Our ability to respond or ‘response ability’
Every day, we make choices based on situations we are faced with, our thoughts about them and our associated emotions. We live in a rapidly and constantly changing (business) world. I believe that our ability to respond – our response ability – is the differentiating factor to what kind of world we create, together. How capable are we in our response what happens around and outside of us, both at home and in our communities but also in business and in our projects.
Sustainability
Continuing in the line of our personal ‘response ability’, I strongly believe that we have to make more sustainable choices. Those of us ignoring the fact that we are not only depleting our natural resources but also creating havoc in vulnerable ecosystems are turning a blind eye to the truth.
Potential
I firmly believe that life is about living our potential. Wherever we are & whatever we do, successful cooperations & projects come down to our ability to ensure everyone contributes his or her unique potential and qualities.
Project leadership
We have to change the way we work if we want different results. This implies reviewing the approach we take and the tools we use in project management. How we work together and create sustainable results that matter.
I have been trained in both hard and soft skills such as:
Courageous
Feel the fear and do it anyway. In the early 90s I travelled for 2,5 years in the Far and Middle East in the pre-digitial days: we had no email and no smartphones. If I wanted to be in touch with my homebase, I needed to write a letter or call at about $10 per minute. I made many trips to local post offices to collect my letters in dusty shoeboxes behind “Poste Restante” desks. Catching a train in India meant showing up a the station hoping the information in my first edition Lonely Planet guidebook was still up to date. I loved it. I enjoyed and still do, finding my way in new cultures.
I have been an entrepreneur now for 15 years and it feels like travelling the globe. In 2015 I wanted to write a book and I took a sabbatical to do so. Pursuing my dream was a courageous move: I learn by doing. My book is now published and it feels great. I like to dive into the unknown and make it work, one way or another.
Natural
I love nature and all things natural. I have a great passion for making more sustainable choices. I try to incorporate this into my personal life as well as how I spent e.g. my time volunteering. For example, I reduced my plastic garbage within 12 months from 26 bags to 2 bags a year (bi-weekly collection). I volunteer as member of the board of an energy cooperative in my village. Also, I am a student of bushcraft, learning natural bushcraft skills. I believe every step and every action by every individual counts towards a local, national and eventually and hopefully global change.
Inspirational
I love to read, talk to people and learn about new ways of thinking, be it about personal or professional development. I am always looking for the connection between what I read and hear and how to incorporate this into my life and work. I am also greatly inspired by people making a difference, pursuing their dreams, and Daring Greatly as author of the book with this title, and professor Brené Brown, puts it. Maybe we can make a difference – by working together.
Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. Henry Ford.
“Efficient, warm, good humoured – Madeleine injected pace and purpose into a delicate change project for us over the summer of 2007. I have not seen a more skilled facilitator of group discussions, nor a more accurate recorder of the agreements, actions and outcomes. Highly recommended for change and project leadership!” Tony Byers, UK Sales Director, 2007
“Madeleine is enthousiastic, a strong and self confident woman, with a natural way of dealing with complex issues not just focussing on technology and processes but also dealing with the people factor. This makes her an effective process and change manager” Chris van Iersel, managed Madeleine, 1998-1999 (AUCS no longer exists).
“Madeleine is a force to be reckoned with…in a good way! I worked with her during our time in AT&T Unisource when we were developing and deploying business processes for this newly-formed joint venture company. Madeleine was responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of the Billing processes. This was a new role for her at that time but she rapidly understood the techniques and the approach required and harmonized this with ensuring that business objective were incorporated in to the process designs. Madeleine has a great aptitude for engaging her team members in the activities whilst at the same time not falling in to the trap of paralysis by analysis. She is very action-oriented and knows when to consult others or to take decisions to ensure momentum and progress. Madeleine is also a unique and interesting person. Her approach to business and to life is always fresh and inspiring. I highly recommend her to any client to help them look at situations from new perspectives.” Martin Kelly, Manager Process Management, 1996-1999 (AUCS no longer exists)
“Madeleine helped assist our team navigate a complex, sensitive project involving restructuring and redefining roles. Via combining a unique blend of strong project management and facilitation skills, in addition to sound business acumen – she provided strong value to our business and helped deliver strong results. Madeleine is a very pragmatic, personable facilitator of meaningful change.” Tom Campbell, Senior Vice President UK/Ireland, 2007
“Madeleine is one of the few people I know who really can deliver effectively in rapidly changing organizational environments. She contributes in all phases of change management, from concept creation through to detailed design, implementation and finally the embedding of change in an organization. Madeleine is very much aware of the people side of doing business. She quite easily obtains the trust required to become the lead in complex change trajectories. Madeleine is energetic, systematic and goal-oriented. She is a fabulous person to work with.” Arnold Bos, General Manager Hosted Contact Centre Services, 2005-2007 (at the time, Infonet was taken over by BT).
‘Madeleine is a superb project/process manager. Highly articulate and highly expert, she carefully listens to customers needs while firmly shaping the resulting deliverable by leveraging her own wealth of experience. We will go out of our way to look for opportunities to hire Madeleine again.” Chris Morley, PS Program Director, Genesys, 2009. (I did this project on behalf of Ciphony)
“Madeleine delivered great results for us: good quality on time and within budget. She knows how to motivate a team to deliver results in a friendly but firm manner. Through good communication, Madeleine keeps you informed thereby eliminating unwanted surprises. We have already employed her again on a new and challenging project. I gladly recommmend her as project manager of IT related projects.” Vic Prins, Managing Director DHV BV, March 2010.
“Working with Madeleine is challenging, rewarding and fun. Challenging because she’s a 100% professional, not only in the work she delivers…but also in the work she expects from the company she works for/with; no result without the required professional input from both sides describes her way of working. Best result from working with Madeleine is when engaging in a longer term relationship; she’s very instrumental in the set-up but, equally important, helps companies to execute as designed. Rewarding because she’s very result oriented and requires very little steering to fully understand the requirements and deliver above expectations. Fun as, through her experience and people orientation, she knows how to balance push and pull, always demonstrates great understanding of priorities and handles organizations, actvities and people with flair and the right sense of humor so that all involved achieve their goals…with a smile on their face”. René van Eijkelenburg, Chief Client Management Officer, 2001-2004 (now Sitel).
“An exceptionally communicative and excellent project/program manager with great stakeholder management skills.” Sytze Koopmans, CIO Transcom
“Madeleine is a very focused professional in the field of process and project management and she has the gift of bringing people together. What she stands for as a person is translated into business objectives – in terms of ownership and responsibility and “make it happen”. All with a very good sense of humor and wit; a people’s person. I have had the opportunity to work with Madeleine on a number of assignments at ClientLogic and DHV and can truly recommend her as she brings an extra spark in the organization.” Albert Bakker, Head of ICT Solution Management, 2009-2011.
“Professionally, Madeleine brings very positive energy and results to bear on all situations. I feel fortunate to have spent approximately 4 years working both directly and indirectly with Madeleine in the area of process definition and process improvement. I am impressed with her attention to detail, her ability to engage and enpower teams of individuals and the high quality results that have been the outcome of all dealings that I have had with her. On a personal note, Madeleine always brings a very positive, upbeat attitude to all that she does. I feel very fortunate to have shared a brief moment in my life and career with Madeleine and look forward to a continued friendship. Best of luck to her.” David Will, Billing Analyst, 1996-1999 (AUCS no longer exists).
“Running a service delivery migration project for to move from a managed Service Desk and onsite support to an in house operation in just 3 months and across different Countries required someone with superior planning and communication skills, tenacity, diplomacy and when needed, a firm hand – both with both senior and more junior levels. Madeleine was the only person we wanted to run this project. Even in the most stressful situations, Madeleine is able to keep her head, and bring a sense of calm and control to any situation and without her running this project it would not have been as successful as it was.” Steven Halfpenny, Europe & Asia IT Delivery Manager, 2009-2010.
“I worked with Madeleine in implementing Servicenow in Transcom last year and I was very impressed with her skills in Project and Process Management. Her attention to detail coupled with good people skills allowed her to win the hearts of the project team which essentially drove the project to a success. Any company would be lucky to have her on the team and I would sincerely recommend Madeleine on any project implementation.” Chiqui Ong, Global IT Director Shared Services at Transcom, January 2015
