Greater self-awareness will enable Kellpla to be even more competitive


Kellpla is a full service partner in plastic injection moulding. The Venlo-based company celebrated its 70th anniversary on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 April last year.

Serious fun

Director and owner Kim Frencken-Kelleners wanted to improve self awareness in the organization together with her 50 employees and with the help of MyDrives on the Friday. Some of their questions included: What different employee types are there in Kellpla? What are their strengths and weaknesses? And how can this help them to work together even better? These are serious questions. However, it’s the anniversary weekend, so there was definitely some room for a little bit of fun. A proper serious fun day, so to speak.

Marc Stijfs of MyDrives handled the kick-off at hotel Kapellerput in Heeze, explaining the MyDrives colour theory to Kellpla’s employees.

A bespoke approach from the get-go

MyDrives developed a bespoke approach in advance with the aim of getting the entire Kellpla organization to take the desired step forward. The MyDrives drive analysis and its seven colour theory act as the foundation. Together, their primary role is to ensure that Kellpla’s employees get to know each other and their team mates even better.

The day itself

Marc Stijfs of MyDrives handled the kick-off at hotel Kapellerput in Heeze, explaining the MyDrives colour theory to Kellpla’s employees. In this process, they went over the iceberg model, the meaning of colours and its practical applications. Marc showed accompanying videos, providing moments of levity. Participants hands had their hands in the air for Liverpool FC and the sound of their famous club song: You’ll never walk alone. Fun all around. This was followed by an interactive Mentimeter exercise to clarify which behaviours associated with a drive were helpful and which were more limiting.

Profile discussions

Once Marc was certain that everyone understood the colour theory, the participants were divided into groups. A certified MyDrives consultant explained their personal MyDrives profiles. This was as a follow-up to the MyDrives questionnaire that participants had completed beforehand. These profile discussions were really interactive, and participants found their colour profiles really relatable. They were also given several real-life examples of their and other people’s drives and the accompanying behaviours.

The group with the highest tower won.

Building towers

Participants were divided into subgroups after lunch. They were challenged to build towers using bundles of paper. The group with the highest tower won. What they didn’t know was that Kellpla employees with the same colour profile had been put together. The aim of doing this was to give them insight into the fact that, while like-minded types understand and relate to each other well, if they’re in groups, their behaviour can be a bit one-sided. In the social green team, for instance, there was lots of chatter and laughter. The blue team was more serious in nature and took a structured approach. The red team got to work energetically and immediately, and the yellow team, after careful analysis, built two towers to find out which building style was most efficient. This was a smart choice: the yellow team won.

After explaining the nunchucks, participants experienced what working with different colour types was like first-hand.

Coloured nunchucks

After evaluating the tower exercise, participants received coloured nunchucks from MyDrives consultant Roland Griek. Nunchucks are Japanese martial arts weapons that consist of two sticks connected by a short chain or rope. Roland knows all about them; he’s vice-world champion with these weapons. After explaining the basics of nunchucks, he let participants experience what working with different colour types was like first-hand. Example: people red nunchucks had to find a partner with green nunchucks. This helped them discover what behaviours other people showed in practice and learned to understand each other better so they could cooperate even better. Non-verbal communication, focus and respect were just a few of the issues addressed.

Which role suits you?

Marc and Roland concluded the day using the thinking-feeling-doing triangle. This shows which roles suit which particular colour types best. And which other colour types you could learn the most from. Yellow colour types, for example, often find blue colour types too rigid in their behaviour and too finicky when it comes to implementing details. On the other side, blue colour types may get annoyed with yellow colour types’ somewhat muddled perception, which can regularly cause chaos. By getting to know each other better, the route to working better together is made clearer. After explaining the nunchucks, participants experienced what working with different colour types was like first-hand.

What did director-owner Kim Frencken-Kelleners think of the day?

‘Like the other Kellpla employees, I look back on a day that was as instructive as it was enjoyable, and struck a good balance between theory and practice. We learned more about ourselves and each other, so we could take the level of cooperation in all our departments to an even higher level. And that was the intention. Even the employees who were a little nervous beforehand enjoyed themselves and look back on the day as a success. Your bespoke approach fit us like a glove, and it gave us the tools to build a good foundation for cooperation for the next 70 years. This means we can be even more competitive in our industry.’

‘Your bespoke approach fit us like a glove, and it gave us the tools to build a good foundation for cooperation for the next 70 years. This means we can be even more competitive in our industry.’