Dorien Wassenaar: Turning Challenges into Catalysts for Collaboration and High Performance
Dorien Wassenaar’s life is a powerful story of resilience, adaptability, and a commitment to driving meaningful change. Both personally and professionally, her experiences have shaped her into a passionate advocate for collaboration, safety, and high-performing teams.
A Personal Journey of Strength and Transformation
Dorien’s personal journey is one of overcoming extraordinary challenges. As a survivor of severe domestic violence, she faced unimaginable trials, including fleeing her home more than seven times in search of safety. While the police provided critical protection, a lack of collaboration among institutions often left her and her family vulnerable. These experiences deeply ingrained in her the importance of safety, trust, and effective communication—not just within families but in all forms of teamwork.
Despite these hardships, Dorien has built a life filled with purpose and joy. She is the proud owner of a spirited Pomeranian and a sleek BMW i8, which she humorously refers to as part of her “midlife crisis.” These personal touches reflect her ability to balance resilience with a zest for living fully.
A Professional Mission to Redefine Team Collaboration
Dorien’s professional journey has been just as transformative. With a career spanning role as a team manager, change manager, and project manager, she has mastered methodologies like CMMi, Prince II, Scrum, Agile, SAFe, Lean Six Sigma, and MSP. Yet, she identified a critical gap in these frameworks: none provided a clear, actionable approach to building truly high-performing teams.
Motivated by her personal experiences and professional insights, Dorien set out to fill this gap. She developed a model that helps teams assess their current performance, identify areas for improvement, and create actionable strategies for growth. Over the past five years, she has rigorously tested and refined this model in her own teams and through training other managers. The result is a proven framework that empowers teams to achieve excellence in collaboration and results.
A Broader Vision for Change
Beyond her work with teams, Dorien is active in Dutch politics and scientific research, focusing on personal development and family dynamics. Her mission to create safe, empowering environments stems from her personal history and her belief that safety is the foundation for growth—whether in families, teams, or organizations.
From Pain to Purpose
Dorien’s journey is one of transformation—turning adversity into opportunity and challenges into purpose. Her work goes beyond improving team performance; it’s about creating environments where people feel safe, valued, and empowered to reach their full potential.
