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Eva-Maria Zoll
Co-Founder culturedesign.org
Eva-Maria Zoll is a seasoned facilitator, teacher, and business innovation consultant with a strong focus on creating healthier work environments through her expertise in team culture and learning experience.
She is the co-founder of culturedesign.org & belong.community, pioneering in the field of Culture Design since 2018.
Eva-Maria holds a Design Thinking certificate from Hasso Plattner Institute, a BA in Business Administration from Tecnológico de Monterrey, and a BA in Business Administration from Alanus Hochschule für Kunst und Gesellschaft, one of Germany's most innovative business schools.
With over 18 years of experience, Eva-Maria's background includes roles as Creative Leader at Neol, Marketing & Communication Lead at Mimi Hearing Technologies GmbH, and Education Consultant at trommsdorff + drüner, among others.
She has worked and lived in various countries, including Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, India, Peru, and the USA, which has provided her with a unique perspective on power dynamics and team culture.
Eva-Maria is a BDVT certified business trainer and a member of Sandbox, a global community for young innovators.
Her passion for shaping team cultures early on stems from her experience as the first employee at mimi.io, an award-winning health tech company, highlighting the importance of establishing a strong culture DNA within a team.
She is known for her work with clients worldwide, offering her expertise in team culture, learning experiences, and business innovation consulting.
Currently based in Frankfurt, Eva-Maria Zoll continues to drive innovation and positive change in work environments globally.
To learn more about Eva-Maria Zoll and her projects, visit culturedesign.org and belong.community.
Highlights
Going to my doctor, I usually do not expect to discuss team culture. Until last week.
On my way to the waiting room, I already noticed my favorite doctor’s assistant. We usually meet while she takes blood from me or does other prep work. When I sat down, for a test, she said: “𝘔𝘳𝘴. 𝘡𝘰𝘭𝘭, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸. 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦. 𝘉𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦”.
The conversation we had, was an excellent example in consciously shaping team culture and way too good to not share it. 😉 #teamculture #courage #commnunication #personaldevelopment
How does your nervous system feel, when you get an email or call from your tax accountant?😍 🧘🏼♀️🤯
This morning, I just had to sort through some open questions with my tax accountant. I left the call with excitement and gratefulness. How crazy right? My nervous system feels calm now, but it hasn’t always been like that.
Having to deal with tax declarations back in the day, I was often terrified of opening emails from him or opening letters from the financial institution. My body went into an immediate fight-flight mode, thinking, they caught me. I did something wrong, and I just wanted to hide in a corner because most probably I’m the only person who hasn’t figured that out and doesn’t know stuff.
It felt like this ticking time bomb, being part of life, and you never know when it would explode. I felt lost and stupid for not knowing how to navigate those adult things. 6 years ago, I made a conscious decision that doing taxes and navigating the bureaucracy jungle is part of choosing the freedom of being self-employed. So instead of accepting the fight-flight response, I wanted to have a calm and professional, maybe even playful approach. I started to actively observe what happened to my body when a letter comes or I didn’t know the answer to a question.
Over the years I realized a few things that led to the point that my heart rate stays calm when opening a letter from the financial institution or any communication from my tax accountant.
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I realized, my tax accountant has a great way of explaining things to me, so I understand the bigger context, which is usually important for me.
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I started to ask him “every stupid question” because they usually led to him explaining things to me, so I felt informed, calm, and in control.
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He loves his job and I can feel that enjoyment in the way he works.
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I let go of the thought, that I have to understand things and realized, that he is the expert and I pay him so he does things I do not know how to do. That is basically the whole point of working with experts, right? If he had to work with a team on team culture, he would probably not do it as well as I would. So why would I be ashamed to ask him questions about his field of expertise?
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The communication feels extremely professional yet incredibly easy and informal because he knows my family, I have known him for a long time and I feel comfortable with him and trust him.
I’m writing this down because I know that anything tax-related can be massively triggering for a lot of us. My insight from being self-employed for over 6 years now: Get yourself a tax accountant you look forward to talking to and your nervous system stays calm. It’s a real game-changer.
