Minerva Scavo is a ValueMatch practitioner who combines a diverse skill set across multiple disciplines. She is an experienced airline pilot at Transavia and a consultant specializing in team performance optimization and personal development. Additionally, Minerva is a seasoned skydiver, paraglider, and speedflyer, actively engaging in high-risk and high-level activities such as formation flying. These experiences equip her with a profound understanding of the requirements for teams to operate effectively under pressure while maintaining operational safety and excellence.
In addition to her aviation career, Minerva is the founder of Performanceandpeople.com, where she empowers individuals, teams, and 
organizations through tailored training, coaching, and workshops. She combines Crew Resource Management (CRM), Spiral Dynamics, and ValueMatch assessments to help teams excel under pressure as well as to foster personal and organizational growth.
Minerva’s consulting focuses on assessing workplace culture, identifying opportunities for improvement, and aligning teams with organizational goals. With expertise in high-risk industries like aviation and emergency services, she delivers actionable tools and strategies to enhance safety, communication, leadership, and collaboration.
We have interviewed her to understand better how she integrates Spiral Dynamics with CRM to achieve this. In this article, we first explain Spiral Dynamics and CRM and then focus on how Minerva integrates those both in theory and practice.
Spiral Dynamics: Understanding Values and Motivations
Minerva is certified to work with Spiral Dynamics, a model that explores the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies. It identifies distinct worldviews, or value systems, that shape people’s motivations and are reflected in our cultures. This framework explains how people can be motivated by a variety of different beliefs and priorities.
Each worldview gives rise to unique management styles, organizational cultures, and structures. As humans evolve, their social environments grow more complex, leading to the development of new value systems to navigate this complexity. These value systems profoundly influence decision-making, leadership styles, and organizational structures.
The Purple value system is characterized by a safety-driven tribal order. Organizations at this level can be family companies that focus on keeping the traditions alive. The Red value system is egocentric and power-focused. Leadership is often based on dominance and control. The Blue value system seeks purpose and order. Organizations at this level value structure, rules, and authority. The Orange value system is strategic, achievement-oriented, and values individual success. In organizations, this translates to a focus on competition, financial success, and strategic operation. The Green value system is relativistic and emphasizes human connection and equality. Green organizations strive to be socially responsible and environmentally accountable, focusing on the well-being of all stakeholders and the employees in particular.
The Yellow value system is focused on creating overall healthy systems, both within and outside the organization. Organizations are purpose-driven and organically organized, and leadership emphasizes empowerment, collaboration, and adaptability. In Yellow organizations, structures are flexible and designed to match individuals with stimulating work, with an emphasis on long-term sustainability and contribution to society as a whole.
There are many ways Spiral Dynamics can be utilized in organizations, both as an instrument to analyze and as a model to help improve communication. A leader who is results-driven (Orange values) for instance, can learn how to best create a functional working environment for someone who is more task-driven with stronger Blue values, by giving clearer instructions.
Minerva is also trained in the use of ValueMatch assessments, a unique set of instruments that help determine the dominant values for individuals, teams, and the organizational culture.
Crew Resource Management: creating high-performance teams
Another expertise of Minerva is Crew Resource Management (CRM), a method designed to enhance team effectiveness by improving collaboration skills. Originally developed in the aviation industry, CRM was created in response to incidents and accidents where human error played a critical role. Its primary goal is to enhance interaction, communication, and teamwork within the crew, ultimately improving flight safety.
CRM emphasizes understanding human behavior, effective communication, leadership, and decision-making. It uses targeted techniques to foster teamwork, identify and manage risks, make sound decisions under pressure, and ensure effective communication and coordination during flights.
The Importance of CRM
CRM revolves around making optimal use of all available resources—both human and technical. It encourages every team member to actively participate in the decision-making process and share relevant information. This approach values the knowledge, experience, and skills of all team members, regardless of rank or position. By fostering openness and recognizing the importance of diverse perspectives, CRM helps optimize resources and significantly enhances safety.
CRM provides a structured framework for better decision-making in high-pressure and complex situations, increasing operational reliability. By improving communication and information-sharing, it minimizes misunderstandings and enhances team resilience, enabling effective responses to unexpected challenges. Additionally, CRM fosters a positive work environment where team members feel valued, supported, and empowered, contributing to overall team morale and effectiveness.
Application of CRM
Originally developed for flight crews, the principles of Crew Resource Management (CRM) have been successfully adapted to other high-stakes industries, including healthcare, maritime operations, police, and fire departments. These sectors are considered high-risk due to the complexity of their operations and the significant safety and health risks involved. In such environments, working under pressure is a daily reality, requiring strict adherence to regulations, robust safety measures, seamless teamwork, and effective decision-making to minimize risks and maintain safety for both personnel and the public.
In a business context, CRM also proves invaluable by fostering collaboration among employees, enhancing decision-making, and driving organizational performance. Minerva has successfully implemented CRM methodologies in the medical industry and management teams.
CRM training typically combines classroom instruction, (simulation) exercises, and role-playing scenarios. Participants face realistic challenges designed to test and improve their communication, teamwork, and decision-making skills under pressure.
The training emphasizes the development of essential “soft skills,” including assertiveness, conflict resolution, and adaptability, which complement technical expertise. Additionally, CRM highlights the importance of debriefing and continuous improvement, encouraging teams to reflect on their performance, learn from mistakes, and enhance their effectiveness over time.
Integration of CRM and Spiral Dynamics
Minerva integrates CRM and Spiral Dynamics to bring a holistic approach to team and organizational development. Spiral Dynamics provides insights into the ‘why’ behind individual and team behaviors, explaining how values and motivations shape actions and behavior. CRM focuses on the ‘how’ of effective communication, teamwork, efficiency, leadership and situational awareness. By combining these approaches, Minerva addresses the deeper value systems that influence team dynamics as well as practical skills to enhance teamwork and efficiency.
Feedback
One example of Minerva approach is her feedback workshops. Drawing from the CRM framework, she emphasizes the importance of effective feedback for ensuring both safety and operational efficiency. Through CRM, organizations are encouraged to establish robust feedback processes, while individuals are trained in the skills necessary to both give and receive feedback constructively. To deepen understanding, Minerva incorporates Spiral Dynamics, helping participants recognize and appreciate different value systems within the team and organization. For instance, those with a more Green values orientation might prioritize creating a harmonious team culture, while individuals driven by Orange values may focus more on results. By understanding these differences, team members can avoid conflicts, leverage each other’s strengths, and enhance overall performance.
Leadership
Another important aspect in CRM is Tailored Leadership, which connects well with how Spiral Dynamics provides insights into how value systems develop different leadership styles and in what environment these styles are effective.
In her workshops, Minerva regularly incorporates the ValueMatch ValueGame cards, which allow participants to explore their preferences regarding leadership styles. Participants are asked to identify the leadership style they prefer to work under, the style they currently exhibit, and the style they aspire to develop. Minerva encourages a discussion around the idea that leadership styles can be flexible, as different situations call for different approaches. She fosters an open dialogue, helping participants explore how the context, whether high-pressure or relaxed, can influence the most effective leadership style.
For example, in high-pressure scenarios, a more directive leadership style, aligned with the Red value system, might be necessary. Conversely, in less stressful situations, a collaborative, Green approach might prove more effective. Minerva underscores that the strengths of the Red value system can be valuable even in complex contexts, and emphasizes that using one style doesn’t mean neglecting others. Leaders become more effective when they can adapt and draw on a variety of leadership styles to suit the situation at hand.
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is another area where Minerva combines the practical tools of CRM with the deeper insights of Spiral Dynamics. She uses Spiral Dynamics to help team members understand the root causes of their clashes, guiding them toward mutually beneficial solutions. Minerva explains that many conflicts stem from the assumption that others share the same motivations and values. By recognizing and respecting these differences, team members are better equipped to appreciate one another’s perspectives and find more effective ways to collaborate. The communication techniques taught through CRM then enable individuals to express themselves in ways that foster connection, rather than creating further conflict.
By combining Spiral Dynamics with CRM, Minerva creates a more systematic approach that considers the deeper motivations of people within a team and an organization as well as providing them with the skills to apply these insights to improve the efficiency and quality of their work. Including the deeper values ensures that changes that are implemented are sustainable, as they will fit both the people and the required culture in the organization.
Example
Recently, in collaboration with Aviation Coaching, Minerva conducted an in-depth study of the values and culture at the Amsterdam Ambulance Dispatch Center. She first used the ValueMatch Values and Culture assessments to collect information, conducted many interviews with employees, and then spent time observing the dynamics in the workplace. This research offered insight into the various value systems and cultural dynamics within the organization and its teams. The findings served as the basis for targeted advice, training, and workshops for all employees.
Each culture has its specific aspect. At the Ambulance service, for instance, many of the medical staff are trained nurses, and Green egalitarian values are quite dominant in this group. At the same time, all have a good understanding and respect for the importance of the Blue rules and regulations, while those responsible for the efficiency of the organization may be inclined to focus on Orange success and efficiency-driven values.
The results of this survey were presented to the management team, accompanied by recommendations on how to improve the efficiency and teamwork of the organization. The recommendations included a multi-year training program, of which the first trainings have been conducted.
All employees were trained in Spiral Dynamics to foster awareness around this diversity and to develop a greater understanding of each other, which is essential to building a strong, inclusive culture. The ValueMatch assessments provided each individual with insights into their own values and team- and organizational profiles, gave information on the dominant values in others as well as those of the organizational culture.
The training focuses on implementing CRM by equipping employees with key skills in feedback, decision-making, conflict resolution, and communication. One specific challenge faced by the Ambulance Dispatch Center is the frequent turnover and reshuffling of teams, which adds complexity to leadership dynamics. To address this, considerable time was dedicated to exploring various leadership styles—when and where each style is most effective and how to recognize and adapt to the individual preferences of team members.
Conclusion
The integration of Spiral Dynamics and Crew Resource Management (CRM) offers organizations a robust framework for cultivating a culture of openness, respect, and effective collaboration. By understanding the diverse value systems that influence individual and team behaviors, and by developing essential communication and leadership skills, organizations can significantly enhance performance and resilience.
Minerva’s unique approach bridges the gap between practical teamwork strategies and deeper motivational insights. Her work equips organizations to navigate complex dynamics, foster inclusive cultures, and adapt to evolving challenges. Through her expertise in CRM and Spiral Dynamics, Minerva empowers teams to unlock their full potential, ensuring they are better prepared to thrive in high-pressure and ever-changing environments.
You can reach Minerva via this link https://performanceandpeople.com/contact/ and follow her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/performance-and-people/
Written by Auke van Nimwegen
