Arlene Cloete (42) grows up north of Cape Town, South Africa. She grew up in a family of teachers; both parents taught high school. She herself was mostly developing her creativity.
I had more of a creative love, painting, sewing, crafts. I felt most comfortable in that space.
She also knew early on that she did not want to be a teacher. Her father had information technology developments in his sights. He inferred that from the three or more newspapers he read daily to keep up with current events. He encouraged Arlene to take a technical track in high school. There she will learn programming, among other things. It is an intensive program that she decides to quit after six months.
It was so far out of my comfort zone. I love technology, but I found that programming was too abstract. It separated me from my creativity, so to speak.
However, she does love people and wants to be able to support them. This is how she ended up studying Human Resource Management. Group dynamics and organizational science suit her. She works for a long time in retail as a senior HR advisor; it is a world she knows. Until her knowledge is called upon again and again when questions arise in the company that are related to Business & IT.
Arlene tells how the ever-accelerating digitalization never ceased to fascinate her. She saw the world around her changing and decided she didn’t want to be left behind. She started looking for a way to combine her love of technology and innovation with her knowledge of organizations.
I wanted to be able to stay in touch with people, but combine this with my interest in innovation and technology.
So she begins an education in business and systems analysis at a technical university. She eventually earns a master’s degree and wins a management development trust scholarship there. She goes to work as an IT business analyst.
Arlene speaks fluent German, growing up in a German church community. She, like many fellow South Africans, feels a connection to Europe. One of her sisters now lives and works in London as a biomedical researcher. London didn’t become it, but neither was Holland a fait accompli. Then Arlene came into contact with Froke, one of the business managers of Isatis Business Solutions. Initially she and Froke Gilsing (business manager) are looking for projects in South Africa, but soon Arlene sees this as the opportunity to follow her intuition to the Netherlands.
I felt that in the Netherlands there is so much innovation, and such a mix of people, nature and technology. That has always attracted me.
Arlene now lives and works in utrecht as an Agile Project Management consultant. With her experience in guiding technical projects and human resource management, she uses the agile framework to guide teams.
What she wants now? To help teams develop. That requires new leadership. One in which communication, empathy and listening are central. Ensuring that analysts don’t work in silos, but really can, learn and want to reach solutions together. That is what she can add to technically skilled environments. This is also something she can beämen from her own experience; she has had to leave behind the feeling of always wanting to be the best kid in the class.
Feel what it feels like to fail forward, and experiment.
Arlene believes in the process, and also in good guidance for it. Ingredients for this include routine, authenticity of all team members and an achievable rhythm in which people are given room to do things differently. What, according to her, makes a good scrum master? According to Arlene, a Scrum Master is there first and foremost for the team, and is about creating an environment where people feel supported.
You create the environment not for them, but with them. That’s how I want to enter this role.
