15 Lessons from 15 Years of Reshaping

In 2010, I came back to Curaçao from Brussels. The plan was six months, enough time to figure out what came next. That was fifteen years ago.

What started as freelance projects became something I couldn't have planned. Working with different organizations, I kept noticing the same pattern. Strategies were sound and ideas were solid, but something wasn't working. Teams were misaligned. Trust was thin. People felt disconnected from the change happening around them.

The insight stayed with me.. Iliëne saw it too. She wrote me an email with her vision of what we could build together, a dream that quickly became our shared reality. Reshapers was born from that space. From the belief that transformation happens through people, through connection, through creating the conditions for alignment and trust.

Fifteen years later, I've learned a few things. Some came easy, most didn't. Here are fifteen lessons from fifteen years of reshaping. Some are about business. Most are about people.

1. Transformation happens through people, not strategies.

Plans don’t transform organizations. People do. When alignment, trust, and connection are missing, even the best strategies stay on paper. The human side of work is often called soft. In my experience, it’s the hardest part to get right.

Many clients call with the same request: a plan, a strategy, a solution. I remember a CEO reaching out, frustrated. “We agreed on a strategy, but things aren’t moving.” The plan wasn’t the problem. The people were missing. Not missing from the building, but missing from the process. They hadn’t been invited in. They didn’t feel ownership. They didn’t understand why the change mattered to them.

Once we shifted the focus from rolling out the strategy to bringing people on board, things started moving. Transformation doesn’t happen to people. It happens through them.

2. You don't need all the answers. You need the right questions.

I was 23 when I started and constantly questioned. "How can someone your age be a consultant?" I didn't have decades of experience, but I was asking questions that opened doors. Curiosity matters more than credentials.

One question shaped eight years of work: How might we support the growth of entrepreneurs and excellence on the island, while still celebrating those who stand out? That question led to a collaboration with Guardian Group Fatum on the Best in Business Awards. Eight editions. One question.

3. The right people don't simply join. They shape what you become.

Iliëne believed in the idea so much she wrote me an email with her vision of Reshapers. Ariadna helped me open doors and reframe how I saw our work. Ray and Kelvin joined as interns and became our first full team members. Later, Zaïdi and Jedrek came to support a Job Fair we organized and ended up staying for more than a decade. They've since moved on, but remain part of our network and story.

Through highs and lows and everything in between, we shaped each other. That's when we decided what we wanted to be: the most inspiring workplace.

Today, new Reshapers continue to join and bring fresh perspectives. Each person shifts the dynamic, challenges assumptions, and takes us places we haven't been before. Some people shape the culture while they're with you. Others keep shaping it long after. And the ones arriving now? They're writing the next chapter.

4. When things break down, they often break you open.

In 2012, I burned out. I missed the signs and kept saying yes. I believed that to be taken seriously as a young founder, I had to be constantly available and performing. It broke me. 

Iliëne was there through all of it. Her support gave me space to step back and look at what wasn't working. Not just in the business, but in me. I realized I couldn't do everything myself. And more importantly, I didn't have to.

I stopped trying to be in every room and started focusing on getting results through others. Hiring the best people I could find. Empowering them to grow, not only in their roles, but toward their own dreams. The setbacks taught me more than the wins ever did.

5. What starts as a project can become a calling.

Purpose often reveals itself through the doing, not the planning. I didn't set out to build a company focused on transformation. It emerged through the work, through each project that pulled me deeper into understanding how people and organizations change. Pay attention to what keeps pulling you forward.

6. Connection and creativity together create lasting impact.

In 2014, we became the exclusive Catalyst Global partner in the Dutch Caribbean.  It was a leap of faith., both financially and strategically. But it gave us something we couldn't build alone: world-class tools designed to bring people together through creative, shared experiences. And it connected us to a global network of practitioners who believe what we believe. More than a partnership, it became part of who we are.

One of our first Catalyst events was for Curoil. We introduced The Big Picture at San Pedro, an activity where teams collaborate to create a large-scale painting together. Wind and water destroyed some of our materials. It should have been a disaster, but it wasn't. People connected through the chaos. Creativity turned a setback into a shared story. The artwork they built together still hangs in their headquarters today.

Through that experience, I understood: connection without creativity fades. Creativity without connection stays surface. But when both meet, something sticks long after the session ends.

7. Brands are invitations to belong.

When Arke transitioned into TUI, we helped reshape the local brand narrative. We didn't talk about the airline. We told stories. Everyone has one. Traveling for work. Flying to meet family. Exploring the world to find yourself. Getting away to recharge. Brands aren't logos or ads. They're invitations to belong. Not to a company. To a story that is yours.

8. Trust is built in how you show up, not in what you deliver.

Clients often tell us that working with Reshapers feels different. More personal. More intentional. That's because we don't show up with a script. We show up with questions, curiosity, and care. Presence matters more than perfection.

Many of our clients are still clients today. Aqualectra is one of them. What started with change management support for a SAP implementation grew into something much deeper. Interim HR. Culture development. Communications support. Employee experience design. One project became many. One relationship became a partnership.

That comes from showing up, over years. Clients don't stay because of a single deliverable. They stay because of how you show up, again and again. At some point, they stop feeling like clients. They become part of your story, and you become part of theirs.

9. Ownership beats contribution.

There's a difference between doing work and owning it. Contribution fills a role. Ownership shapes the outcome.

The Jeugd Actieprogramma taught us this. A national platform bringing together government, organizations, and young people to tackle youth challenges on the island. Team members didn't wait for instructions. They owned their work fully. Ideas moved faster. Energy was high. It became one of the most inspiring initiatives we've been part of.

10. Momentum needs roots to last.

The same project taught us something harder. The Jeugd Actieprogramma was built on co-creation. Cross-sector collaboration. Shared purpose. Momentum. But we also learned a harder lesson: when new ways of working aren't embedded in the system, they don't survive. At some point, funding was cut. The initiative stopped.

Ownership and co-creation create energy. But without structural support to sustain them, even the most inspiring work can fade. The lesson stuck.

11. Stay a beginner.

I thought AI was just another tool. Something to learn, file away, move on. I was wrong.

When I started exploring it seriously, I realized how many of my patterns no longer served me. Productivity meant more hours. Deeper work meant harder effort. I had built a career on those assumptions. They weren't wrong at the time. But they had become walls.

There's a concept in Zen called shoshin. Beginner's mind. The idea is simple: the more you know about something, the more closed you become to learning it differently. In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's, there are few.

I've seen this in clients. Leaders who resist new approaches because they've been around long enough to know. The phrase itself is a warning sign. I feel that trap too.

Stepping into AI felt like entering a whole new world. Not because the technology was unfamiliar, but because I had to unlearn before I could learn. That's harder than starting from scratch.

In Scouting, we talk about the scout who stays curious. Who surveys the terrain instead of defending a position. Who asks what's actually true, not what they want to be true. Fifteen years in, that posture doesn't come naturally. You have to choose it.

You can't help others grow if you stop growing yourself. And growth, at some point, stops being about adding. It becomes about letting go.

12. Slowing down can speed you up.

When the pandemic hit, everything paused. No events. No sessions. The usual pace stopped. At first, it felt like our progress stalled.

But instead of waiting it out, we turned inward. We restructured the team. We had conversations we'd been postponing. We invested in client relationships without the pressure of deliverables. We launched tools we'd been planning for years but never had time to build.

When the world opened up again, we were ready. Not because we had pushed through, but because we had paused with intention. The slowdown became our runway. Sometimes standing still is what prepares you to move faster.

13. As you scale, stay human.

Bigger doesn't have to mean colder. Systems and processes are necessary. Structure helps you grow. But the challenge is keeping the warmth while building the infrastructure.

We're still working on this one. It's not a lesson we've mastered. It's a tension we navigate every day. How do you professionalize without becoming corporate? How do you scale without losing the personal touch that makes you, you? We don't have all the answers yet. But we keep asking the question.

14. Goals give direction. People give momentum.

After the pandemic, demand came back stronger than before. We’d seen busy years that led nowhere, so this time we approached it differently. We got clear on where we were going and aligned around shared goals. We rebranded to Reshapers, a name that finally captured what we’d been doing all along.

Last year, I stepped into a new role as chairperson of the World Scout Committee. Flights all around, board meetings, and a calendar that belongs to a global movement I care about. Less of me at Reshapers as a result.

That’s when my team showed what they’re made of. They took ownership without waiting for me. Client relationships stayed strong. Projects delivered. New work came in. I used to think I needed to be in every room. Turns out, I was wrong. Goals gave us direction. But the people around me had the drive to keep growing, even when I wasn’t there to push.

15. Technology evolves. What people need stays the same.

The world keeps changing. Faster. Louder. More complex. Technology is accelerating. AI is reshaping how we work. The pace isn't slowing down.

But what remains true is this: people still want to feel seen, connected, and part of something meaningful. No technology replaces that. The organizations that thrive will be the ones that stay human as they adapt to what's next. That's not a nice-to-have. It's the work we've been doing all along.

Fifteen years ago, I came back to Curaçao for six months. I stayed because the work kept pulling me forward. Because the people around me kept teaching me. Because transformation, it turns out, is never finished.

Neither are we.

See you in the next chapter.