A great day in the working life of three Young Improven consultants

Another great day in the working life of three Young Improven consultants Michelle van Kuijzen, Bibi Looijestijn and Colin Vreeken work at consultancy firm IMPROVEN as Young Improven consultants. They look back on the past period and describe a day from their working life at various clients!

Michelle van Kuijzen

I have been working as a Young Improven Consultant at Improven since March this year. I started immediately with an assignment at the central government as Project Management Officer. I was supporting the division manager and helped organise the department in the transition to Agile working. My role was quite broad, allowing me to let my enthusiasm and eagerness to learn about Agile run wild. Soon I was shadowing a senior Scrum Master, signing up for Agile training courses and getting my Scrum certificates. Through good timing of various things, I got the opportunity to become a full-time Scrum Master of a Network Security team. My role as PMO was dropped and suddenly I was responsible for running the team's processes and adapting Scrum within the team. I facilitate Scrum events and look together with the team at how they can perform even better. I am also the team's rule cousin with regard to internal communication, impediments and the optimisation of overarching activities with other teams. My day looks different every day, the only daily recurring thing is our stand-up at 09:30. I have many different contacts and tasks that I perform on a daily basis. My goal is to facilitate the team so that they can perform at their best. Every day I look at what is needed for this and what I can do. It is fun during the fortnightly retrospective to see what steps we have already made as a team. The joint results become more and more visible! Despite the fact that I was on an assignment from day 1, we had to work from home due to corona and this assignment is full-time, I feel positively connected to IMPROVEN. There are internal assignments where I connect, everyone is willing to help (digitally) or just chat. IMPROVEN not only helps organisations realise change, but also knows how to respond to this work-at-home corona-SOS change itself. We have digital get-togethers, call meetings with fun themes and also our Young IMPROVEN training courses continue (online) most of the time. We stay positive and safe!

Bibi Looijestijn

In early 2020, I started as a junior strategic advisor in the management advice team of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). COA deals with the reception and guidance of asylum seekers on behalf of the Ministry of JenV. Recently, the 'Multi-Year Strategy COA 2020-2025′ was launched, which I worked hard on. A very interesting project, in which I organised and attended several strategic sessions as project secretary. I was also closely involved in discussions on core values, communication with internal and external stakeholders and provided input on the document. "The information sessions to all managers within COA were incredibly fun to give. Taking them through the creation, trends, mission, vision, core values, goals and implementation ensured that the Long-term Strategy really came to life in and was embraced by the organisation." After the realisation of the Multiannual Strategy, I became part of the support team. As part of this team, I support management teams in translating goals from the Multiannual Strategy into activities in the management contract. For each contract, I assess whether all goals are described, the activities for 2021 are sufficiently SMART and the risks and management measures are clearly defined. In addition, I get to deal with the topic of sustainability within COA. "Sustainability is very important, especially in the times we live in now, and I am happy to be able to contribute to this." In recent months, I have been busy preparing and providing input for the 2019 carbon footprint. Quite a job, as COA has many locations and departments. Also, this was the first time COA had compiled a CO2 footprint. Currently, I am also already working on the 2020 CO2 footprint. I am also leading the circularity and consumption project. For this project, together with four pilot locations, I am analysing what COA can do in terms of waste separation and energy consumption. With this research, I hope to pick up fun initiatives that will later be rolled out within COA. The nice thing about my assignment at COA is that I participate in a team with a lot of experience and with colleagues from whom I can learn a lot. In addition, COA operates in a dynamic playing field with many partnerships. An instructive and above all fascinating assignment!

Colin Vreeken

I have been working at IMPROVEN for another year and a half. So far, I have not regretted this choice. After nice assignments at Greenpeace and TenneT, I started at PLUS Retail last March. A special time to start at a new client at a time when toilet paper is the scarcest commodity. I wondered how I could manage my assignment and feel connected to the customer. In times of corona, you don't walk into the office just to get acquainted. How do I get to know my colleagues? How do I create my own work and position? How do I remotely keep the client happy? At PLUS, I came in on group control where I was the designated person to take Tagetik to the next level. Tagetik is a CPM tool used at PLUS for financial consolidation. A lot of new words for me, as I had not previously worked in a finance department nor managed a CPM tool. During my assignment, I attended several Tagetik training courses. At a rapid pace, I developed myself and colleagues soon came to me for complex issues. This started with customising or building reports. Since then, my role has evolved into Business Lead for a project to migrate Tagetik to the cloud. A wonderful assignment where I get the space to learn and grow. In addition to my 36-hours at PLUS, I am developing a proposition at Improven. There is plenty of work within IMPROVEN and you can always join a working group working on something you are interested in. My interest is in automation. It is therefore no coincidence that I enjoy working on topics such as Flexible Process Automation (FPA) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Besides all the professional activities, there is always room for the social aspect at IMPROVEN. These days, this manifests itself in creative online activities, a walk in the park and meeting up in small settings. Previously, these were weekends away, get-togethers and sports events. Hopefully this will be possible again soon!

Author: Britt Lardée, Young Improven Consultant