Empowering human potential
Reimagining the systems we work in
Empowering human potential
Reimagining the systems we work in
Hi there,
I’m Annemieke – mum of Bram, human-potential nerd, HSP and manifesting generator (6/2).
What I do
As an HRD specialist and (personal) leadership coach, I help people and teams create conditions where they can thrive, especially in times of change. For more than 20 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of HR, learning & development and organisational design.
My work often happens inside organisations, yet my focus is on the people who bring things to life.
My journey
After studying Human Resource Development and working in traditional HR roles, I was introduced to Sociocracy – not as theory, but as daily practice. It showed me that decision making at work can be both structured and deeply human.
Curiosity led me to self-management and new ways of organising: how people create meaningful, healthy work-lives where their creative intelligence can thrive.
In 2011 I began working independently, partnering with organisations exploring Sociocracy, Holacracy or their own forms of collaboration. My focus: helping people navigate these new paradigms and shaping People & Culture practices that truly fit.
Over the years I’ve co-organized Startup Weekend Groningen and UX Impact, spoken at events on the future of HR, and now serve as a coach, consultant and founder of Big Hearted, as well as on the Advisory Board of the PASMO Project.
Life has been a teacher, too – like it should, through motherhood, health challenges, and the gradual shift from mind-led striving to body wisdom and presence.
The teachings of Philip Shepherd, Peter Levine, Samantha Slade and Arne Rubinstein are woven through my work. From them I’ve learned how embodied presence grounds everything, including leadership, how safety enables creativity, how shared power supports collective intelligence and how transitions are best guided in nature, with intention and community.
I continue to learn from the many wise women I meet. They are teachers, peers and friends who embody courage, softness and a deep knowing.
At the heart of it all is a simple trust: in the intelligence that lives in every person and every system.
I practice these principles
Forget Hacking. Let’s go deep.
Depth and presence guide my work. Much of the way we work feels odd to me, and often ineffective. I believe in transformation as a stepping stone for authentic, healthy work practices.
That means creating experiences that shift perspective and move you differently afterwards. In simple ways that prove transformative.
I work with themes that can feel vulnerable or complex: leadership, power dynamics, mental health, wellbeing, fairness, equality and systemic change.
My approach
I help create clarity around goals, teams and missions and buil the conditions for effective, creative collaboration.
Yes, we’ll design processes and structures. We’ll also create space for reflection, connection and, in all we do, allow for transformation and healing.
I believe..
Connect
I’m based near Amsterdam and work with clients both online and offline, preferably in natural settings in the Netherlands.
Have a look at my offerings or reach out to explore something new.
What Others Say
about me & our collaboration.
Annemieke conceptualised and facilitated an amazing storytelling session for a group of young entrepreneurs in the Kairos UK community. The session was focused on sharing and listening to stories from each other’s journey and reflecting on how we could use those powerful stories to enrich our own paths. It was an immensely powerful session that I will not forget in a hurry. I would not hesitate to recommend Annemieke to organisations that are serious about the wellbeing of their people.
Collaborating with Annemieke really is awesome. She has helped me several times, during periods when my thoughts seemed completely chaotic. Annemieke provides clarity, structure and knows how to get you back on track. Since we hold similar core values, and she gives everything she has, we can always talk openly and honestly about everything. I wholeheartedly recommend Annemieke as a 1-to-1 coach.
Dear Annemieke. Thank you for coaching me in my recovery from burn-out. You taught me to better understand and appreciate my true colours. You taught me the words to better describe my feelings. You enlightened my path.
Annemieke works with a lot of compassion and a lot of clarity. She knows how to properly hold up a mirror that will make you discover your new insights. Working with what’s alive for you at that moment, she invites you to explore and go deeper – creating clarity together.
I have been working with Annemieke for more than five years. We don’t talk to each other every day, but when we do work together, it always feels intimate from the get go. Maybe that’s because Annemieke listens so well and is just that personally connected to her work. Either way, she brings great quality – which creates a collaboration that always goes a little deeper than usual.
Annemieke is my first line of support when it comes to HR issues in the context of self-organization. There are plenty of people out there who have ideas about this, and very few who have actually worked and lived in organizations like this their whole working lives – for whom it is actually totally normal. That makes Annemieke one of the few coaches I regularly recommend to my own customers.
Annemieke is open, honest and has a great feel for the human side of organizations, as well as the developmental needs of people and teams. She helped us take the next step beyond Holacracy and organizing the responsibility for HR (a term that she secretly dislikes) in a different way within our team. She has made her own role superfluous, though to me she still feels included: happy to know she is just one phone-call away when we need support. In her role as a coach, she challenges my thinking and puts me to work, in a good way. I look back on our sessions with great pleasure.
Partners & clients
