Field notes — method: structuring a executive leadership initiative in Basel over 90 days
Let's start where it really starts: a coffee in Basel with a leader who hesitates. The subject reveals itself in those conversations, not in reports. A executive leadership transformation doesn't play out in two days or two years. Ninety days is the window in which an observable, measurable change can be produced without exhausting the organisation. Here is the sequenced method we use in Basel.
Days 1-15: diagnosis and framing
Five internal interviews, two field observations, one document review. Goal: produce a one-page framing that precisely names the target behaviour, the linked business stake and the responsible sponsor. Without this document, what follows drifts. Three weeks. That's the window beyond which a new behaviour fades unless it is explicitly re-anchored.
Days 16-30: sponsor and collective alignment
The sponsor publicly states the stake to the team. Short (20 minutes) but the moment that legitimises everything that follows. We systematically prepare it together — message, tone, formulation of expectations.
Days 31-60: guided practice
Two 4-hour collective workshops three weeks apart, complemented by individual coaching for key profiles. The phase where executive leadership shifts from declared to practised.
Days 61-80: anchoring through rituals
We install the new behaviours into existing rituals: weekly team review, one-to-ones, steering committee. No new meeting — we transform meetings that already exist. That's what makes the change sustainable. (our executive and employee training programmes)
Days 81-90: impact review
Honest measurement: follow-up interviews, field observation, business indicators. We separate what genuinely changed from what stayed declarative. This review produces the next decision: extend, deepen, or stop.
One last thought
To close — and I say this carefully — most transformations we see succeed are not spectacular. They are stubborn. That is probably the main lesson of this decade in the field. To go further: explore the Executive Leadership training in Basel, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Executive Leadership in Basel
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