In this article, we talk to mountaineer, speaker and writer Katja Staartjes about the highlights of her book Top Teams. Katja is best known as the first Dutch woman to climb the top of Mount Everest in 1999. Before she devoted her life entirely to her expeditions to great heights, she worked for years in management jobs, including as operations manager at Campina. Because she knows how to combine her professional background with her experiences in the most extreme circumstances, she is able to bring beautiful metaphors and inspiring analogies from the high mountains back to the workplace. With her books and lectures, she inspires organizations, teams and leaders. Summiteers is therefore very happy with Katja as a highly valued connection and speaker. Especially because the ideas from her book “Top Teams” are so in line with Summiteers' vision when it comes to guiding teams to achieve their goals. So it's high time to introduce Katja to you.

Tip: For extra inspiration, it's nice to know that you can win the book Top Teams via Summiteers. Wondering how? Be sure to read on!

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On an expedition as a team

What inspires us so much about Katja's ideas is that an expedition to the top of a high mountain perfectly symbolizes the journey for anyone who wants to achieve an ambitious goal with a team. Whether that's implementing an organizational change or making a project plan. The comparison with a mountain expedition makes all the steps of this exciting process clear and tangible from start to finish. Just like an expedition, you can only reach the top through excellent team play. That starts with defining the goal and identifying the individual qualities that are needed in the team. It starts with the necessary, often ungrateful, basic preparation, managing logistics, effective leadership and making solid agreements to ensure that no one gets lost along the way. What to do if someone can't move on? When do we turn around or adjust? Are we actually still doing the right things? Above all, the symbolism speaks because, just like making strategic decisions, a lot is at stake. Although implementing a plan in the workplace is not a game of life and death, expectations are often high and the possible consequences exciting.
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Are we climbing the same mountain?

According to Katja, when it comes to working together, it starts for teams to first consider: Where are we actually heading? What is actually our goal? Do we climb the same mountain at all? It's something you don't think about every day and, according to Katja, you don't have to. Katja says about that: “From time to time, it's good to check again if you have the same thing in mind. It often turns out that everyone has a slightly different point of view, or that you thought there were clear agreements that were interpreted slightly differently.” In practice, we often see clients find it logical that you talk to each other about the goal at the beginning, but team members then lose each other along the way.

“Reaching the top together is not possible if everyone climbs their own mountain.”

“You also have to deal with differences between people,” says Katja. What pace do you maintain, how do you deal with egos? Of course, friction also occurs, especially during an expedition. I would like to say that it is crazy if that is not the case. What you learn is precisely that if things rub and things don't go well, you learn to deal with it and always have to look at the common interest. The further you get up the mountain, the more it comes down to commitment. Do you still believe in it? How far do you want to go? Do we really still have the same thing in mind? Perhaps the mission is too ambitious. If you think: “We're never going to get this,” it doesn't inspire either. And if it's too easy, everyone just gets a little bit casual. A truly ambitious goal is one that you really have to do your best together. What makes a team enthusiastic.”
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The basics in order

An analogy that also resonates well in Katja's lectures is about “the base camp” and “going back to the base camp every time”. “Having the basics in order in an expedition is actually preparing,” says Katja. During an expedition, there are so many things that we cannot control. So it is extra important that we have everything we can influence very well organized. The physical preparation, the organization, the stuff. We often spend days away from civilization.” Looking at the analogy in organizations, Katja sees that getting the basics in order often turns out to be so much more work than previously thought.

‍“At the base camp, we start the climb, but we also return there every time, because you can't climb to the top all at once.”

“Often, that's not about the most interesting work. It's mostly buffalo. You usually don't 'shine' with that, and that also applies in organizations. You need everyone to achieve results, including support, people who don't come out. Everyone's role is important. To get to the base camp during an expedition, we often need carriers. The wearers usually do not get the credits, but are crucial. Without carriers, there is no top, not even a start at all. That is an important message for me. The base camp is also where we come back again and again. How important is it to get back to basics? To recover, to recharge, to get the logistics back in order. Many organizations forget to take a step back in time. It would be great if we could launch that new system or product tomorrow, but sometimes it is necessary to take more time. At the base camp, we start the climb, but we also come back there every time, because you can't climb to the top all at once.”

Dealing with (your) boundaries

“What is especially essential, when we do reach the top, is dealing with borders,” says Katja. “Once you've defined the top, is there still room for your own well-being along the way? And where is everyone's limit? Maintaining balance and dealing with borders is, I think, an increasingly topical issue. Because looking more broadly at the world we live in, with a view to climate and sustainability, that is ultimately also about borders. As a collective, we not only cross all kinds of borders, but also on an individual level. I see young people struggling with burnouts because more and more “have to”. And now. It is becoming increasingly important to ask ourselves: where should I stop, where should I change course? Or should I go back? At the team level, you also have to deal with each other's boundaries. If one person doesn't want to move on, how do you deal with that? You cannot give one answer to that; for each situation, you will have to see how you deal with it together. Are you all going back? Can part of it go on? Can you encourage that person to keep going? During an expedition on the mountain giant Manaslu (8163 m), we reversed 30 meters below the top. That was really intense. In some situations, quitting may require more courage than continuing.”

Win the book Top Teams - Moving Mountains Together

If you are curious about more, we recommend that you read the book Top Teams for yourself. It is a beautiful book full of striking analogies, inspiring stories and beautiful images by mountaineer and photographer Menno Boermans. We can give away a copy of Katja. All you have to do is send an email to info@summiteers.nl. We'd love to hear why you'd like to receive the book or why you'd like to give it to someone as a gift. In addition, it is nice to know that a 6th reprint of the book High Game, a highly reviewed book about Katja's expedition to the top of Mount Everest, will be released before the end of 2023.

Katja about Top Teams

“I sometimes jokingly say that writing Top Teams is the biggest expedition I've undertaken. Not so much selecting the photos and the experiences, but connecting those experiences into a coherent story about achieving results together. It includes everything I've learned through my expeditions, through my work as a manager and coach, and through my lectures. By talking about it, getting questions and talking about it again. This has caused me to ask myself again and again: what is the essence? That has made me much more aware of personal leadership, collaboration and the importance of working together in the broadest sense of the word. Everything that is now in top teams has been the ultimate result of that process.”

About Summiteers

Summiteers is mainly concerned with strategy execution, so helping to realize plans. What we often run into is that, once there is a strategy (the top has been determined), there is often no shared image or concrete plan to actually get there. In fact, that's where our work starts, to clarify that. From a shared view, people would like to run straight to the top, but if you start that sprint without thorough preparation, you won't get there and you'll lose each other along the way. Making the plan and going to implement it, i.e. getting from A to B and paying attention to everything that is important in there, is the parallel between Summiteers' work and Katja's story.

Katja about working with Summiteers: “I've enjoyed working with Summiteers for a number of years, an enthusiastic club of people you can connect with quickly. A down to earth organization that delves into the client. To achieve the best possible result together, no matter how high the top may be. Exactly what the name Summiteers symbolises.”

Curious about what Summiteers can do for you? We create movement, make something that is complex understandable again, something big, manageable, a - vague - idea concrete and make something difficult succeed. Follow our LinkedIn page and get inspired and if you want to spar with us about an issue, please contact with us.