Keynote speaker on change and starting over

After nine years of gymnastics, a knee injury ended it. From the outside it looked like an ending. In fact, a lot from those years of training came with me, and other things I had to learn from scratch in athletics. The result: the 400 m at the European U18 Championships in 2022 and eight medals at Swiss Championships. Teams in a transformation need exactly this distinction. Which skills carry over, and which need to grow anew? Separate the two clearly and you keep people's experience instead of throwing it out with the old process. And employees don't hear 'everything was wrong', but 'this is what we build on'.

The keynote 'Starting over after the end' follows three steps. First, 'The end': the moment it's clear that what came before is over. Then, 'What stays': what came with me from gymnastics to athletics, and what didn't. Finally, 'Your team': three questions leaders can take straight into their own change. What stays? What do we retrain? How do we know we're improving? This turns a personal story into a tool for the next workshop, the next team meeting or the next management meeting. Length: 20 to 60 minutes, depending on your conference programme.

After athletics I joined a large insurer as a Management Associate. I work in teams where most others are over 50, and I present to the executive board. So I also know change from the side of the person who is new: you bring something with you, but you don't fully understand the rules yet. That perspective matters to leaders, because in every transformation people move into new roles. What they bring is often overlooked. What they need is rarely asked. The keynote shows both.

The keynote works best where change has been announced or is already under way: the leadership conference after a reorganisation, the kick-off of a transformation programme, or the management day before a new strategy. If you also want to address the first step, combine it with 'Courage before it feels safe'. If you want to know how change holds in everyday work, add 'Routines that hold'. Available as a keynote, a shorter talk, a workshop or online and hybrid, across Switzerland and Germany.