This programme deepened my understanding of working as a global leader across cultures. It heightened my awareness of my own context and that of others, teaching me to honour my authenticity while respecting diverse perspectives on a much deeper level.
Daicka Gruisen began her career in a Dutch bank, steadily advancing through roles in sales, Agile coaching, and process management within the Netherlands. Her early career unfolded in a Dutch context, characterised by direct communication, low-context interactions, and a slow, deliberate approach to building trust.
As her career progressed and Daicka transited to ING’s global head office, she encountered a new reality—one where she was no longer part of the majority but in fact, a Dutch minority. "I soon realised that my way of working, my way of giving feedback, and my communication style were vastly different from my colleagues'," she reflects. This shift exposed the influence of ingrained assumptions on interactions, sharing: "At one point, I thought, 'Why isn’t my feedback coming across clearly?' and realised it was because I was assuming a shared understanding." This spurred her to deepen her understanding of how culture impacts communication and collaboration.
As her career evolved, Daicka transitioned into roles with increasing responsibility, including her first leadership role in a data team, a field unfamiliar to her but one that allowed her to develop both her leadership and cultural expertise. Today, as Global Lead of Customer Operations and Transformation Academy at ING, Daicka is responsible for creating learning solutions for over 17,000 employees across thirty-six countries.
Navigating Challenges in Modern Learning and Development
In her current role, Daicka faces significant challenges in aligning priorities for learning and development. "Everyone acknowledges the importance of investing in human capital," she notes. "But when it comes to implementation, business priorities and compliance requirements often take precedence, leaving holistic learning programmes undervalued."
Under Daicka’s leadership, her team operates as an end-to-end learning and development unit, designing, developing, and implementing solutions tailored to specific business needs. Her approach to training has been one of continuous refinement- "It needed to be more practical and digestible," she admitted, reviewing her earlier training materials.
Over the past year, her team has refined programmes based on learner feedback, recognising that modern learning solutions age rapidly. “What used to be relevant for years now feels dated within months,” she explains, underscoring the need for iterative improvements. "The real success is when participants come to me after workshops and say, 'I wasn’t aware of why I was standing on a certain dimension' – that awareness is exactly what I strive for," she says. In fact, one of her proudest achievements today has been the development and approval of the Cultural Agility Programme, which is set to roll out globally this year, reaching approximately 10,000 people across ING's hubs to learn and adopt.
It felt like a rollercoaster ride, but each low led to a higher achievement.
Daicka entered INSEAD's Leading Across Borders and Cultures programme with clear goals: to learn from her peers and explore practical strategies for implementing cultural awareness initiatives across large organisations. "I wanted to understand how to implement cultural awareness—the principles of the Culture Map—into a big, global corporation like ING," Daicka shared about her programme motivations. Despite her prior experience in designing cultural awareness training, she grappled with the challenge of scaling these efforts across such a dispersed organisation.
At the heart of her challenges was the difficulty in securing sponsorship and prioritisation for cultural programmes amidst competing business demands. "We spoke with many leading decision makers in the organisation who recognised its importance but taking it to the next level—getting it on their priority list—was a hurdle," she shares.
Programme Director, Erin Meyer, was particularly helpful to Daicka, providing actionable insights into scaling cultural programmes without overburdening herself. “Erin suggested that I shouldn’t conduct the training myself because my colleagues viewed me as a peer rather than an outside expert," Daicka explains. Instead, she adopted a more strategic, scalable approach—acting as an influencer and guide. "She showed me how to use my position to give keynote speeches and float the programme into the organisation, letting it spread organically rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all rollout."
This shift in strategy has allowed her to focus on creating momentum and fostering interest in cultural agility across different regions and teams. “The key,” Daicka reflects, “is finding people who are naturally drawn to the topic and letting the programme grow through their advocacy.”
Broadening Perspectives Through a Global Leadership Mindset
Going beyond her immediate goals, the programme offered unexpected insights into global leadership. One particularly impactful session explored management styles and the challenges of driving organisational change. "I had another ‘aha!’ moment - if you’ve been successful in a certain way, it is especially hard to change. Afterall, why change it? That’s still the hardest part to implement."
The programme also gave her real-world examples of effective global leadership, Daicka recalled a peer in that cohort who presented himself as a global leader not only verbally, but also in mannerisms and behaviour, providing her the revelation - “It is not just about your profile or knowledge you have on certain topics; It’s really about your personality. Are you self-aware? How social are you in different environments? Can you adapt yourself? Are you fast and flexible in adapting yourself?"
Since returning, Daicka has been actively reflecting on cultural differences even within her team. She shares: "In the Netherlands, we tend to see conversations as having a beginning and an end, and then it stops." Reshaping her approach to team dynamics and leadership, she strives to foster ongoing, authentic dialogue that has allowed her to connect with her team more meaningfully, blending her cultural awareness with her leadership style.
That’s something I learned during this course and took back as a learning towards my team—to have these continuous conversations authentically as myself but being aware of how Dutch I am.
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