In a world where the demand for care is increasing, a radical change in the care landscape is necessary. To successfully realize these complex transformations, it is essential that healthcare professionals talk to each other and look for new solutions. But how do you handle that? Rixt van der Veen guides changes in healthcare organizations and specializes in both organizational change and individual growth. In order to enrich her theoretical knowledge and gain experience in coaching executives, she followed the 'Executive Coaching' course at VU Amsterdam. For her master's thesis, she conducted research at the Jeroen Bosch hospital into how executive coaching of healthcare professionals can contribute to healthcare innovation.

For me, my plans for the future were always clear: I wanted to help people when they felt vulnerable. I wanted to study medicine, but unfortunately, I wasn't admitted. Fortunately, Health Sciences at Maastricht University offered a wonderful alternative. I really enjoyed this training and discovered that I can also make a difference on the organizational side.

That is how I started my first job as an organizational consultant at Deloitte. Here I was able to supervise various change processes, mainly in the healthcare and non-profit sector. After having worked for a while as a board secretary in a hospital in Amsterdam, I have now been working at the Jeroen Bosch Hospital for almost seven years on a major organizational change aimed at positive health. We have shaped this (cultural) change from the bottom up by facilitating and coaching healthcare professionals, managers and administrators in their ideas for healthcare innovation. This includes both organizing group meetings to stimulate creativity and individual coaching for colleagues who experience resistance when they want to organize health care differently.

Educational period In order to deepen my theoretical knowledge and gain experience in coaching managers, I decided to follow the 'Executive Coaching' course. I can honestly say that I have experienced the training as very valuable. This was due to the inspiring group of colleagues who each contributed their own cases, from which we could all learn. Practicing coaching and receiving direct feedback was very instructive. The examples we received, such as the demonstration of provocative coaching, are still clearly etched in my memory. In addition, the intervision meetings have brought me an enormous amount, because I always get new tools to approach my own cases in a different way. The training also showed me how my personal background influences my coaching. I have become aware of the values that I inherited from my family. I've learned how to relate to myself differently. One exercise that really stuck with me was when we had to go back to childhood memories. Also the exercise in which we had to bring to mind someone to whom we actually wanted to open our hearts, but didn't dare. We had to write the person's name on a sticker and then ask a group member to attach it, allowing us to freely express ourselves. That was intense!

Crisis management and healthcare innovation during Covid Since 2016, I have been working as 'network leader strategy' on the movement towards positive health, with the aim that the residents of Den Bosch and the surrounding area give the highest rating for their 'health well-being' in the whole of the Netherlands by 2025. Just wondering what the impact of Covid would be on my role and this strategy trajectory, I was asked to help design and realize the necessary crisis structure. My work has always focused on sensing what was needed for the next step, and now I had the opportunity to do the same in this crisis situation. A Crisis Management Team was put together, in which newly appointed 'care innovators' would play an important role. A few weeks later, the care innovators indicated that they needed consultation. They faced resistance and sought clarity about what was expected of them. They also wanted to know whether their plans fit in with the vision of the hospital. For me this was an excellent opportunity to combine my coaching training at VU Amsterdam with my strategy work. I was given the opportunity to guide the team of healthcare professionals in the presence of administrators. This enabled me to discover whether and how executive coaching can contribute to healthcare innovation.

Tension between two worlds Healthcare professionals and boards experience tension between the two worlds in which they operate: the makeable world (of planning and control and of protocols) and the world of innovation that cannot be controlled. By creating a learning setting in which they can contribute their issues, this tension becomes manageable. At the same time, the coaching meeting is a breeding ground for creative ideas.