Barbara van Schaik

Barbara van Schaik (1965) is an independent coach, interim manager and organizational change consultant. With her motto ‘think differently, act differently’ she helps people and their organizations to achieve desired and necessary change.

She has extensive and international experience in all aspects of change management leadership: organizational changes, restructuring, implementing and optimizing systems, process optimization, outsourcing/offshoring, and culture change.

Barbara is used to working across borders (including virtual ones) and cultures in (complex) matrix structures. She has worked in both large and small organizations, profit and non-profit, where the core business is the dissemination of knowledge, information and culture (publishing/media/library). She is fluent, written and verbal, in both English and Dutch.

Her focus is the human side of change. Or, as she calls it: the hard side of soft.

The blogs she regularly writes are the outlet for her ideas and thoughts on leadership and change (and associated topics). They reflect her style and way of working: empathetic, analytical and with a sense of humor.

Her motto also applies to her own life: scherpte diepte Photography is the other branch of the same tree. And it was photography that provided the inspiration for her company name: the Dutch translation for the photography term ‘depth of field’ is ‘scherpte diepte’. Barbara regularly uses visual language, creativity and photography as instruments in coaching, team support and workshops.

She is a member of NOBCO, the Dutch Council of Professional Coaches (part of EMCC – the European Mentoring and Coaching Council). In 2016 she completed the NOBCO certified training ‘Coach-the-Coach’.