Taking the leap

At the end of 2021, I left my previous job because, unfortunately, the company culture completely changed after its acquisition. So I was very selective about choosing a company whose values resonated with mine. I’d heard good things about Van Lanschot Kempen, and felt a connection with the way the company works with its clients and treats its employees. So I decided to take the leap.

And perhaps that’s become a theme of my work as an Agile Coach here. Agile is a well-known methodology in the IT world, but it’s about more than just improving processes. It all starts with people: their curiosity to discover client needs, their willingness to work together on solutions, their trust in each other, their courage to experiment and learn together. And that’s relevant in every part of the business – not just in IT. In 2022, the HR department asked me to help them with their way of working. I’d done some work with non-IT teams before but never with HR. Yet their eagerness to try, coupled with the company culture that encourages experimentation, made me think: why not? Let’s jump! I encouraged them to look at their processes through a new lens, to experiment and share their learnings with each other. I’m really proud of the insights they’ve gained and improvements they’ve made. More to come, I’m sure.

Liliia Malysh – Agile Coach