About Pace Synergy
Strong collaboration requires more than good intentions
In many teams, the intentions are good. People want to contribute, take responsibility, and collaborate carefully. Yet, collaboration does not become stronger on its own. Certainly not when decisions are not well received, feedback becomes tense, expectations differ, or important signals remain unaddressed.
Pace Synergy helps management teams, departments, and professional teams make collaboration stronger, fairer, and more effective. Not by merely talking about collaboration, but by working in practice where collaboration under pressure becomes visible.
For teams that want to go further
Pace Synergy works with teams that consciously want to strengthen their collaboration. Sometimes this is because conversations are becoming strained, decisions keep getting backtracked, or tension is not being expressed. Sometimes it is because people spare each other, swallow signals, or responsibility remains unclear. But it is also because a team is functioning well and wants to see more clearly what can be improved. Pace is there for teams that want to understand what is going on and are willing to speak up about what is needed.
The gaze of Pace Synergy
Collaboration does not become stronger by looking only at behavior, attitude, or communication style. In teams, multiple layers usually operate simultaneously.
Conscience
Do people dare to look at themselves? Do they recognize what triggers them and what role they play in the team's dynamics?
Organizational structure
Are his roles, responsibilities, mandate, and decision-making clear enough to work well together?
Communication
What is said and what is left unsaid? How do people listen to each other? And what happens when feedback becomes tense, interests clash, or pressure mounts?
Pace brings these layers together. Where appropriate, the Synergy Assessment provides in-depth insight into where collaboration is strong, where risks lie, and where there is room for development. Subsequently, Pace works with the team on better conversations, clear decisions, stronger ownership, and agreements that stand.
What makes Pace different
Pace looks beyond communication alone. The approach connects awareness, organizational structure, and communication, because collaboration rarely stalls at a single level. The form depends on the team's needs. Sometimes targeted training is sufficient. Sometimes it starts with assessment and analysis. Sometimes the team requests guidance during the conversation itself, with live communication advice at the moment it matters.
The approach is based on insights from psychology, communication, conflict mediation, team development, and risk management, combined with years of practical experience in complex collaboration issues.
While many programs primarily provide insight or practice skills in isolation, Pace works closer to the team's practical reality: in the conversations where decisions are made, feedback becomes tense, expectations clash, or signals are not voiced.
The result: less recurring noise, clearer decisions, stronger ownership, and conversations that are no longer postponed.
The team
Specialist in communication, collaboration, and conflict management
I am Sibèl Berkhout, founder of Pace Synergy.
Communication has always fascinated me. I grew up in a multicultural environment, where different perspectives sometimes ran parallel. There I saw how quickly misunderstandings can arise and how important it is to speak clearly, listen carefully, and not judge too quickly.
After studying Dutch Law, with a focus on mediation and communication, I worked in employment law. Later, I became head of department at a large international organization in the Zuidas, where collaboration with multiple departments, interests, and pressure were part of the daily work.
There I saw how vulnerable collaboration becomes when tension is not discussed, expectations differ, mandates are unclear, or decision-making comes under pressure. My experience with organizational structure and risk management also stems from that practice: roles, mandates, reporting, and responsibility under pressure were visible on a daily basis.
To further deepen my understanding of collaboration and conflict, I completed a postgraduate program in mediation, specializing in labor, business, and group mediation. Additionally, I delved into communication, group dynamics, and NLP.
That combination forms the basis of my work. I look at what people say as well as the broader dynamics surrounding it: interests, assumptions, tension, roles, mandate, decision-making, and patterns that influence collaboration.
What drives me is simple: we spend a large part of our lives working. It is a waste, then, if collaboration primarily drains energy. I help teams identify what has been left undone, have the necessary conversations, and develop practical tools to enable them to move forward independently.
In conversations, I bring calm, structure, and clarity. I name what becomes visible, without judging or trapping people.
The name S-PACE
S-PACE refers to both Pace and space. Strong collaboration requires space to slow down before reacting, to explore what is really going on, and not to immediately take tension, difference, or feedback personally.
When people experience that space, they can listen more calmly, speak more clearly, and respond more constructively. Then a difficult subject often becomes a concrete problem again that can be solved together.
That idea is reflected in the SPACE method: Signal, Pacify, Articulate, Co-create, and Embed. Read more about the method here .
The logo
The Pace logo shows a head looking both inward and outward. That refers to the core of Pace: collaboration begins with awareness of what is happening within yourself and becomes stronger when you can clearly connect that with what is going on between people.
Inner clarity → clear interaction.
Core values
Integrity
The conversation may be honest, without becoming careless. What needs to be named is named: not harsher than necessary, but also not softer than is helpful.
Connection
Connection does not mean that everyone has to agree. It means that differences can be discussed without the relationship immediately coming under pressure.
Non-judgment
Behavior, tension, and patterns are examined without reducing people to the problem. Pace sharply identifies what becomes visible: direct, calm, and careful.
Freedom
Freedom means that people experience the space to say what is necessary and take responsibility for how they do so.
Growth and movement
Growth begins with seeing what is happening and practicing what can be done differently. Pace helps teams to better conduct conversations themselves that were previously avoided, postponed, or conducted with insufficient focus.