Building a Strong Culture of Feedback and Teamwork
De Krullevaar is a public Jenaplan primary school (OJBS) located in Sevenum, North Limburg. In this type of school, the principles of ‘freedom’, ‘encounter’, and ‘equality’ are central, supported by four pillars: play, work, conversation, and celebration. Compared to other educational models, parents are heavily involved in their children’s development. Sandra Bertrand is the principal of De Krullevaar. Together with 18 teachers, she is responsible for 230 students.
How MyDrives Works
Sandra: “I had previously come into contact with MyDrives out of personal interest. When I became principal of De Krullevaar 4.5 years ago during the COVID-19 period, I immediately asked the school board if I could use MyDrives with the teaching team. Permission was granted. Max Stultiens, managing partner of the MyDrives MyHabits MyMatch methodology, guided us through how MyDrives works, including an explanation of the seven-color theory on which MyDrives is based. At that time, we also conducted individual MyDrives analyses, which were then combined into a team profile.”
Many ‘Green’ Teachers
Max: “With Sandra as a true MyDrives ambassador, we recently completed a long-term project to give the feedback and team culture at De Krullevaar an extra boost.”
Sandra: “Many of our teachers have a predominantly green driver, meaning social and harmonious, as one might expect in education. Their conflict-averse nature sometimes made it difficult for them to give each other more direct feedback. Especially considering the pitfalls of green personalities: they tend to gossip or complain if communication is not ideal. Once we made this pitfall clear to everyone, we could take steps to avoid it.”
MyHabits Coaching
Max: “All teachers then participated in the MyHabits coaching program, which is designed specifically to break habitual behaviors. To achieve this, one-on-one conversations were held with the teachers. They also received SMS messages with various tasks to support the behavioral development they aimed for. For someone with a predominantly green driver, an example task might be: say ‘no’ today to a colleague who asks you for something without explaining yourself.”
Sandra: “As principal, I sometimes need to show decisive ‘red’ behavior. This takes energy, as red is not dominant in my personal color profile. The small, concrete tasks helped me learn new behaviors.”
Better Communication, Collaboration, and Performance
Sandra: “Once you know through which colored lens someone else sees the world, you can use it positively. For example, planning for the new school year: blue – the color of highly structured people – is also an energy drain for me. That’s why I let a ‘blue’ colleague, who is naturally more skilled, handle it. Overall, participating in MyDrives and MyHabits has deepened communication within our team, improving collaboration and performance. I also promote the methodology to other schools. They are enthusiastic and adopt it immediately, which clearly shows that the methodology works.”
AI Applications and Systemic Coaching
Sandra: “Max and his colleagues are now working on adding AI applications to the methodology. That’s extremely interesting, and I want to explore it further. I also want to see if systemic coaching could be of value to De Krullevaar.”
Max: “Systemic coaching extends the MyDrives approach, which is about better understanding yourself and others. In systemic coaching, you don’t focus on individual persons, but on the relationships between people and the group to understand the dynamics within it. This strengthens the organization as a whole.”
High-Performance Organization
Sandra: “Building on this, Max and his colleagues really know what it takes to create a high-performance organization. That is what we aim to develop at De Krullevaar in the future. We will continue to collaborate, for sure.”