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Lorena Balestrieri is an Amsterdam‑based organisation design and talent strategist, serving as Board Chair of the European Organisation Design Forum, founder and Head of Business at New Talent Center, and Head of Operations at luxury villa platform One of a Kind Travel, with over 15 years of experience in global hospitality, e‑commerce and operations leadership. Learn more about her on her expert page.
This episode is about career reinvention, modern org design, and seeing your own value clearly.
Lorena Balestrieri shares her unconventional path—from hospitality in Argentina to tech at Booking.com, to helping mid-career professionals reinvent themselves globally.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple but powerful idea:
Most people underestimate their strengths because they focus on what they lack.
Lorena breaks down how leaders and professionals—especially mid-career—can:
Reassess their skills and strengths
Navigate career transitions with confidence
Understand what “success” actually means (and how it changes over time)
Use networking as a strategic advantage
Translate org design into something practical and human
This is especially relevant for:
Middle managers feeling stuck or underdeveloped
Professionals considering a career pivot
Leaders trying to better understand talent, potential, and structure
It’s less about theory—and more about practical steps to move forward when you feel stuck.
[00:00:05] Tim Brewer: ​Welcome to the Org Design Podcast. My name is Tim Brewer, one of the co-hosts. I have with me Damian Bramanis
[00:00:11] Damian Bramanis: yes. I'm very excited to be sitting across the table from Lorena Balestrieri, who is from the New Talent Center in the Netherlands, and is the future chair of the European Organizational Design Forum, EODF. Lorena has been the co-chair of EODF for a little while, and is stepping into the chair role in the coming months. So welcome, Lorena.
[00:00:35] Lorena Balestrieri: Thank you. Thank you. I'm very pleased and honored to be here to share my story with you.
[00:00:40] Tim Brewer: Oh, awesome. No one on the podcast so far has ever said at school when the teachers asked, "What do you want to do in life?" They're like, "Ooh, ooh, I wanna be an org designer." They always have, a really interesting path into the realm of org design. Tell us a little bit about your path. I know you've got a background in technology companies, which is really cool and interesting for me. That is my background. So we'd love to hear how did you end up doing what you're doing today?
[00:01:05] Lorena Balestrieri: I have a background in hospitality and in business administration, so two careers there. I started 10 years in the hospitality industry, that was back in Argentina, then 10 years in the technology industry, working for Booking.com, and there I opened all the offices across Latin America, and then I started managing teams from Europe. I'm living in Amsterdam already for six years, so I came here by chance, but, we've had a pandemic in the middle, and that pandemia made my role redundant, which meant you can look for something else within the organization or you can leave. And that was after 10 years, I said, "This is enough. I'm leaving," and I left.
I started looking for a job. I understood a little bit what the market was looking for and how they were looking for it, what were the challenges I was facing, and I also had a whole network within Latin America and the hospitality industry that were affected very heavily by the pandemia. So I started helping them find a job and reinvent themselves and find their strengths, their careers, whatever they had to do. So I spent more time talking to people, trying to find a job than trying to find my own job. Then I made that my job. And I've always been related at some point with HR.
Because we're opening offices, so very close communication with the recruiters, the HR department, and also hiring manager. I was a hiring manager and I had to choose and understand and select people from across the world to match into the roles and the culture of the organization. So that gave me the tools to also find both ways, what was happening with the people that were looking for a job, but also what the companies were looking for. And then, as you might know, Latin America has crisis, and many people within Latin America want to come to Europe. So I started bridging those differences and helping those people find a job. So that's a little bit the journey.
How did I get to org design? I saw that within the HR world, there are many things that are broken. So I thought the org design community was the great place to come and learn a little further what was going on, how can we help, how can we enlarge our network and support others? So it was a little bit on the side of networking, but also a little bit on the side of learning what else there is and how can we advance that field. So org design was the perfect place to come, and I got so in love with the organization that I applied to be the co-chair and the chair, and there I am.
[00:03:29] Damian Bramanis: It's a great intersection between knowing how HR people think, knowing what the hiring manager's thinking and what it is that they're looking for, and also being part of this organizational design community to be able to pull together those different threads of experience and empathy and understanding of others into how org design is evolving in the world today.
[00:03:52] Lorena Balestrieri: Yeah, definitely. For me it's a learning process. I think there is a lot that needs to be done yet, but I've realized in the last couple of years that there are professionals that are also seeing what's missing and how they can do it. And they're trying. And I also learn from their challenges. It's not only my challenges. I worked in a very big organization that has great examples of success, but also some examples of failure. So for me, it's putting the dots together within the org design spectrum.
[00:04:21] Damian Bramanis: A lot of the conversations that we have with org designers start from a position of acceptance of, that's the way the world is and I want to navigate how people are. I think it's very interesting that you've started talking about the things that you want to see change, much more of a pioneer's mindset. I'm interested to, to learn more about that and how you're bringing that mindset to the EODF.
[00:04:45] Lorena Balestrieri: From an HR perspective, I'm trying to build a team right now that has different backgrounds within the org design world, but different backgrounds and where they've worked, how they've worked and where they are in their career as well because I do think that the community needs to evolve and it's not only about a few mindsets, it has to also do with the new generations. What are they seeking for? How are they seeking for it? I think it, it's something that's much more out there right now. Org design is something much more tangible than 15 years ago, and that really helps. And as an opportunity, you can also embrace that and make changes and bring new people on board. From a personal perspective, I like learning. I'm always curious. And I also see that there are things that are broken many times. I have that kind of, demanding eye, let's say. I like looking for what can be better, and I also l- like disruption a lot. I enjoy disruptive. If you go to my LinkedIn, you will see that I'm always talking about things that it's not followed by the books. I just go ... I wouldn't say against just to go against, but if I have an idea and I want to put it out, I will put it out and I want that discussion to happen.
And then if I can drive two or three people that agree with me or not, but let's have this discussion. And I'm also a person that changes a lot in regards to, you show me your arguments, if they're good, I might change my opinion. I'm fine with that. Yeah. I start with something disruptive and then let's talk about it because those are the questions that need answering, not the ones that have an answer and just keep building on them. If we want to do something different, otherwise you just keep in the same direction.
[00:06:18] Damian Bramanis: And that clarity, that honesty is kindness, that is being kind.
[00:06:22] Lorena Balestrieri: Yeah, I am transparent. I like sharing, and this is me as a manager many times. If I would not agree with something, I would let people know that I do not agree. But that doesn't mean that we do not do it or that we do it in a bad way. We do it, we try it, we move forward.
[00:06:39] Tim Brewer: When you're at a dinner party and someone asks, "Oh, what do you do? " How do you explain your work to someone who doesn't work in business or how do you explain org design to a leader that doesn't know what org design is?
[00:06:52] Lorena Balestrieri: Generally I don't speak in the terms of org design because org design sounds like a different language to them. So I try to explain them the end goal, what is it that it's trying to achieve? It's easy in that sense for me because I come from operations and if somebody asks me what does operations mean, operations has a different meaning in every different environment. And I can do many of those things in different environments, but people do not understand. So basically I explain what I do. And if I have to explain org design simply, I would say it's the way an organization can be set up in order to succeed. And the org designers are the ones with the capabilities and the knowledge and the understanding to be able to do that. That's the simple way that I would go. I would not use any kind of book definition.
[00:07:44] Damian Bramanis: succeed. Yes. What, what does succeeding mean?
[00:07:48] Lorena Balestrieri: success changes according to the environment and to the people, success is not the same for you, it's not the same for you, it's not the same for me. And success will not always be the same success across the years. Today, what might be successful for me today, what might not be for me the five years time and 10 or five years back in time. So success depends on the organization and what is their strategy at the end of the day, and that will be the direction.
[00:08:19] Damian Bramanis: So start by defining what is success for you.
[00:08:23] Tim Brewer: Our audience on the podcast is mostly non-expert org designers. So they're people with, everyday org design problems or leaders with org design challenges.
How would they know that what you're working on at the moment is a good fit for them? Tell us a little bit about your work now and what kind of customers or clients or people are you trying to, place? How do they know if they're listening to the podcast? "Oh, that's really interesting, I might reach out.
[00:08:49] Lorena Balestrieri: So I'm focused and niched at some point to mid managers. So all those people that have quite a lot of experience but that want to move into their career. I have gone twice through a reinvention in my career and many people middle age, I don't like calling myself middle age, but like in the middle of their career, decide to do a switch in their career. And those are the people I'm working with, the ones that want to reinvent themselves, the ones that do not understand which are the skills and which other skills and how they can reinvent themselves.
People don't tend to look at themselves, in a way the world sees them. We're very critical with ourselves and when we don't trust each other. And if we talk about women, we have extra challenges or some of them have extra challenges in finding their path of feeling themselves valued. So from that perspective is that many times I help women, I help middle career managers or middle career people. And yes, we do a whole reinvention process. We can do from strategy to finding a job, going into a market, changing industries, you name it.
[00:10:03] Damian Bramanis: I love what you said just there about people don't see themselves the same way that the world sees them. I imagine it must be challenging holding that mirror up to someone so that they can see themselves as, as the world sees them. How do you do that? What's, what are the tools and the processes that you use to be able to make that happen?
[00:10:20] Lorena Balestrieri: Mostly it's conversational.
I also use some existing tests to give them reassurance on what they are strong at and whatnot. And what management has taught me along the years is that you have to focus on the positives and not the negatives. We all have negatives, but the positives generally are the ones that we don't look at. Quick example is latin america, talent trying to enter the European market. And in that case, we're talking about people that maybe English is their second language, but as they do not speak it perfectly or as in Spanish, then they doubt and they forget about all the other skills they have, and they just focus on their English is not perfect. But my spanish is not perfect either, and I'm Argentinian. And that means I, I am comfortable finding the way around words because it's my language. In English it's exactly the same, or in a second language is exactly the same. So generally they focus on the bad and they don't look at the good. So we go through all their achievements, we find those goals they have achieved, all the value they've added in the organization. And once they have that, we build a good resume. Then we go into LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the platform that I generally recommend for international search, and then we go into interview preparation. And I just go through a few steps, simple, not over complicating, but yes, working on which are the weakest points of that person. And after two or three conversations, I grasp where they are.
[00:11:49] Tim Brewer: So if someone is a middle manager listening to the podcast- they've been like plonked in that position, like actually this management thing kind of gels with me, but I need some more experience or maybe I wanna get out of the organization, I'm in, and find a spot that fits my skills and capabilities or as a stretch role for them. Particularly coming from South America into other markets, is a really interesting niche at the moment. I get asked very regularly about training for middle management- Yeah. ... and which seems to be severely lacking. It, there's a bunch of it we know of out there, but it's not, not very popular and then organizations run into trouble and their middle management just don't have the skills to do what they're there. They just got promoted over time as people left or moved on as the organization grew. So I can see how that would be in demand, at the individual level rather than the organizational level. Do you only work with individuals directly.
[00:12:43] Lorena Balestrieri: I haven't gone into organizations yet. It would be a choice because I have received those trainings and I know how important they are and which has been the impact on me, but I also work with individuals because many times some organizations don't have the budget, or they're not willing to invest in their employees, and this that you mentioned is really key.
You become a manager, but you're never ready for a manager. There's no management school out there as management, because that's about leadership at the end, and how do you develop your leadership skills? So I do follow the whole process with them, and sometimes I'm hired for six or eight months, and I just follow them through the process and take them. I've mentored ... I don't like calling myself a coach, because I am, I don't have the studies within it, and I'm more a mentor. I like shortcutting sometimes. I'll tell you just what to do. I'm not gonna ... I'm not your therapist. I'm not gonna have you there six weeks in a row for you to try to figure out what's going on.
I'll tell you what to do, try it, you'll do it or not. It's not you have to do it. It's, these are options. Try it this way, try it the other way, and they just move forward, and then you unblock things that are really blocked, and they didn't even realize they had it blocked.
[00:13:51] Damian Bramanis: So imagine I'm at the point that I'm considering reinventing my career, and I'm maybe in middle management, not 100% happy with things, and I feel that i'm a little bit stuck here. I want more, but I'm not entirely sure what to do next. What advice would you have for someone in that situation as the first steps or steps that they should be taking?
[00:14:17] Lorena Balestrieri: If they want to have a kind of conversation to learn where they are and what they're good at, I would always suggest do yourself a SWOT in regards to where you stand. For me, SWOT is one of the simplest but key elements that help you, but it's not you on your own.
[00:14:34] Damian Bramanis: What does SWOT mean?
[00:14:35] Lorena Balestrieri: It's a good question. I'm sorry. It's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and t- threats. I'm sorry, I had it in spanish. So you analyze your strength and weaknesses personally, and then yourself against the environment. And when I say environment, it's a context, and I generally keep it to business and professional because I think that's where I have my strength and I can help you and I'm not willing to fix your life. I'm just willing to fix your professional life or make you happy there and give you tools to be able to succeed in your profession.
So from that perspective, I would just go for start with a SWOT. If you do not know where to start, ask your friends, ask ex- colleagues, ask your partner, ask people that are around you what they think you're good at, how do you do it? How do you come across? Because sometimes we do not realize all the good things that we do. You forget what you have. So I would also have these conversations with these people, these people and ask them a little further in, what are they good at? How, what have they succeed? Try to go over your professional career and find those moments in life that, in your professional life that have changed the way that you were doing things.
Many times we struggle to know or learn which were our accomplishments. But if we identify those turning points as turning points, I don't know a project that gave you a promotion, conversation that you had, a project that you led, whatever, that turning point is something that you need to see it as a strength later.
[00:16:09] Damian Bramanis: You actually spoke about strengths two different ways there. You first started talking about strengths as the work that you do or the tasks that you perform and what are you good at doing, but then you spoke about strengths as the value, the things that you create or the outcomes that you produce that have been successful.
How would you recommend someone thinks about strengths? Which of those two things, or is it both of them?
[00:16:32] Lorena Balestrieri: It's both. It's both at the end of the day because with your strength, you're performing and you're succeeding at something. So if you're not able to see them on their own, if you pro- if you provide that example, then you can phys- take them out.
And many times it's difficult to put into words what you're good at and someone else can tell you, "Hey, you know what? This is for this". Or they give you a list of tasks and those tasks is but do you " realize that behind this task, you need this skill because you would not be able to perform it. So people generally tend to stay on tasks instead of going onto the skills that you need to perform that task. So we just go narrow down to that.
[00:17:09] Damian Bramanis: And then, so I've set, I've had dinner, i've turned off my device Because I'm in a quiet place. I've got a glass of red wine and I've done my SWOT. swats. I've, I'm pretty happy that I've spoken to the right people and I've got that put together. What do I do with that now?
[00:17:26] Lorena Balestrieri: Now you need to find in the market what kind of jobs there are that match your strengths. But before that, I would say you need to identify which of those strengths are the ones that you want to put in place. Because generally when you're reinventing your career, you want to change something of what you were doing. You're good in maths. You said you were good at maths a while ago.
[00:17:48] Tim Brewer: Really good, yeah. Damian's really good at maths. I'm just a spring chicken really learning maths compared to Damian.
[00:17:54] Lorena Balestrieri: So you said you were good in maths, right? If you are good in math, but you don't want to use your analytical skills anymore, we're not gonna focus on those. We're gonna focus on the second and third and fourth that you are good at. And if there is anything that you have to develop, we look for how to develop it. At the end of the day, we were talking about management a while ago. Managers don't become managers overnight. They need to develop those skills. And if you develop them previously, it's a little bit easier to step into the waters. If you're just thrown into the swimming pool without anything, then it's a little bit more complicated. So from that perspective, I would say, identify which are the skills that you need for what you want to do, or which are the ones that you want to use. And if you don't have them, we'll work out the way for you to develop them where you are.
[00:18:41] Damian Bramanis: Using org design as an example many people here at EODF are successful org designers, but there was a point in time that they didn't even know that org design existed, that there was a demand for organizational design. And so that's step two, finding what there's a need for in the market. Are there any resources that people should be looking for of how to find where the demand is or what they could be able to apply their skills to?
[00:19:08] Lorena Balestrieri: I think networking is key. Today, in today's market, networking is key. We're overwhelmed with information from everywhere. So I can give you a whole list of books. I can give you a whole list of websites or whatever. At the end of the day, that's overwhelming. You choose with who you connect, you find those mentors in the market, you find those people that can follow you and help you people are generous. And in the organizational design forum, we it's a such a warm community and it's such a, an open community.
And I always say, and I'm gonna repeat it in a while as well, it's a warm and generous community. That's the reason why I joined. And that's something that is unique to this community. I do not know any other community that is in the same way. The people are generous. They're able to share the mentor. They have meetings. Reach out. Networking is the key. Within org design and out of org design, it's the key.
[00:20:02] Damian Bramanis: Lorena, That's a really empowering conversation that we've had. It often, to many of us, feels that we might be stuck or that we might be limited. And what you've been talking about today really resonates that we are ... Our potential is much greater than we might first imagine in that, that we can reinvent ourselves.
We can go and see beyond our current boundaries. Are there any things that we haven't covered that you wanted to discuss or any resources that you'd like to point people to who might be listening today?
[00:20:34] Lorena Balestrieri: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for reaching out to your network, because I think this is an amazing opportunity as well to get to know people. So I would just invite people on the other side that they feel curious, they want to have a conversation, that they just reach out. I'm happy to have that conversation and see what there is there for them and what that is there for me.
[00:20:54] Damian Bramanis: And what's the best way for someone to do that?
[00:20:56] Lorena Balestrieri: They can reach out for me on LinkedIn. They will find me by my name, Lorena Balistrieri, and then happy to connect.
[00:21:03] Tim Brewer: Awesome. We'll, on the show notes and the author page, we'll make sure we leave your contact details attributing and linking that to the podcast. and that's it for today's org design podcast. Thank you for listening. bye.
[00:21:16] Lorena Balestrieri: Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye.
[00:21:18] Damian Bramanis: Thanks a lot.
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Functionly empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of organizational design by making people, skills, and potential visible—both at the team and individual level. By helping leaders clearly define what success looks like and visualize how their organisation supports it, Functionly enables better alignment between strategy, roles, and real human capability. It encourages a more transparent and practical approach to talent—surfacing strengths, identifying gaps, and supporting growth—so organisations can evolve, not just structurally, but through the people within them. This approach fosters clarity, confidence, and momentum, helping both leaders and employees adapt, reinvent, and succeed in a changing environment.