#Whatajourney. Looking back on an amazing time

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”

The start of a new decade is about to begin 2020 and I am looking forward to what the new 20’s have in store. Since my start at Talent Peaks in September 2016 I always got the opportunity and freedom to look forward and explore. Because of the Talent Peaks DNA, the wonderful experiences and people, I now learned that it’s time to follow my passion. This means my journey with Talent Peaks ends this year.

Before I share my thoughts on the future and continue my journey, I would like to look back on an amazing journey.

Meet: Drive & Passion

During the summer of 2016 I came in contact with Talent Peaks, a company in the early start up phase. At that time I was still working for Philips, but I was triggered by an introduction of a co worker. In the first phone call with Joram Timmerman I could hear pure passion and so I agreed for a meeting. While talking with Joram I could feel the energy and drive of someone with ambition for success. That feeling was so catching that I thought “I need to be part of this team, I need to jump on this train now!’ It was the start of an amazing journey.

Join: Do & Learn

Being part of a small team meant doing and learning, finding out on the job what works and what not. Consultancy was new to me but by starting directly on projects I noticed that I liked it a lot! The environment of not having an office, being part of multiple projects and see different organizations gave me a lot of energy and adrenalin. I constantly felt a rush to move forward in guiding customers, making impact and having a lot of fun! The feeling of working with my colleagues, caring and looking out for each other and always be available to help confirmed I made the right move.

Explore: (almost) Everything

As a team we grew and grew, with the onboarding of new colleagues we gained new insights, knowledge and experience. The best thing is, that we could jump on trends and developments for exploration and experimentation of new propositions like ‘Design Thinking’, ‘chatbots in recruitment’, ‘GDPR’ & ‘People Analytics’ (some were more successful than others). This approach of exploration fits the Talent Peaks DNA and was so nice to be part and contribute in growing our network and creating our own ecosystem of customers and partners.

“Experience is a truer guide than the words of other”
– Leonardo DaVinci

Scale: with Focus

Finding ways to organize ourselves in a more efficient way was done continuously. Building forward on the design proposition, the team and methodologies are the logical steps when the company is growing and scaling. I have learned a lot about strategy, business development and thinking about what is the best way forward for Talent Peaks, how to keep making impact for our customers and how can we exploit all the individual strengths and skills of our team.

Follow up: on Passion

All of the above phases of this journey are driven by ambition and passion. I am thankful for all the opportunities, time and freedom Talent Peaks provided me in exploring design thinking and discovering my true passion for in innovation and co creation. It has triggered me to focus on how to design my career on these topics. The Talent Peaks DNA is unique. You need to experience it, you want to be part of it. I am going on a new journey where I am going to trailblaze open innovation & co-creation. Curious what that means? You can always contact me.

#Whatajourney

Talent Peaks will always have a special place in my heart. Thanks again Joram, for always expecting the best, Stijn for being a mentor, Pieterjan for always looking at what is possible, Frank for listening (especially for what is not being said) and coaching. Thanks to all my colleagues whom I will miss very much!

Thanks for all the people, partners and customers for their hospitality, trust and open minds to follow me and go out of the box. I have enjoyed all the learnings, discussions, laughs, coffee’s, post it’s, brown papers. It has been a big pleasure! I will never forget you!

I would like to keep in touch with everyone who is interested in talking about innovation, improvement & co-creation.

Interested in what insights I shared lately? Check this list of my blogs:

Author

Manola van Diest

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