Marian de Kleermaeker

Facilitator

Marian De Kleermaeker works as an operational manager, change catalyst, advisor and facilitator in the public domain. Her work centres on multi-stakeholder collaboration between government, institutions and citizens, where complex social challenges require not only smart solutions, but courageous and careful thinking together.

She currently works as Operational Manager within the National Programme “Samen Nieuw-West” in Amsterdam, a long-term transformation programme focused on improving liveability, safety and opportunity in one of the Netherlands’ designated focus areas. Her work is national in scope and situated firmly in the public domain, where collaboration across organisational, professional and societal boundaries is both necessary and challenging.

Trained as a sociologist, Marian spent many years as an independent professional supporting change processes within municipal government. Her background lies in the social domain, yet her work increasingly cuts across domains: from social policy to spatial planning, from administration to citizen-facing services. Across these fields she sees a shared challenge: how to work as equal partners in networks of diverse stakeholders, each with their own perspectives, power and responsibilities.

Marian is a registered Time to Think Facilitator. The methodology is deeply woven into her professional and personal life. For her, Time to Think creates ease: the ability to slow down, to exhale, and to stay present with uncertainty and discomfort rather than trying to resolve it too quickly. Her facilitation style is characterised by warmth and enthusiasm, combined with clarity and directness. She does not avoid difficult conversations, but brings what she calls “loving discomfort” into the room — naming what matters, without going around it.

She primarily uses Time to Think in group settings: supporting change processes, decision-making and collaboration in complex networked environments. Creating psychological safety while also inviting bravery is central to her work. All ten components of a Thinking Environment matter to her, with particular emphasis on truly seeing one another — not as a nice extra, but as essential working material.

A formative experience in Marian’s development was a learning journey to South Africa with Van Vieren, where she encountered Time to Think alongside Theory U. The experience also confronted her, viscerally, with the lived realities of structural racism — something she had previously been able not to see, or not to feel, within a European context. This deepened her understanding of power, perspective and responsibility in change work.

A recurring question in Marian’s work is: “How do I seek to change others — and what does that ask of me?” She believes meaningful transformation starts with self-reflection and the willingness to be changed oneself.

Outside of her professional roles, Marian finds energy in motorcycling, reading and culture. She is an avid tabletop role-playing enthusiast and has a deep love for stories — for telling them, listening to them, and allowing herself to be carried by them. Story, like thinking, is for her a powerful way to make sense of complexity and connect across difference.