SOL (Switch On Leadership) is an independent, high-touch, high-impact leadership consultancy designed to serve ambitious and discerning multinationals, major institutions, and high-growth businesses that believe in the power and potential of their leaders to shape the future, unlock growth, and drive the change their organizations need.
We help leadership development champions in major—often technology-forward and science-based—companies turn their leadership investments into meaningful mindset shifts and behavioral changes that deliver concrete strategy, innovation, transformation, culture, and engagement outcomes after participants return to work.
What We Do
We design and deliver highly customized transformational executive retreats, leadership offsites, experiential leadership journeys, leadership development programs, executive training, and innovation and transformation journeys for organizations navigating rapid, ruthless, and relentless change.
Our work deliberately blends neuroscience-based leadership development with immersive experiences, restorative wellbeing moments, breakthrough stimuli, real business challenges, coaching, reflection, and practical tools.
Our aim is to build more adaptive, creative, inspirational, and transformational leaders who can drive the change needed for their enterprises thrive in the ruthlessly, relentlessly, and radically changing realities.
“Huge impact! Outstanding framework and powerful tools.”
President, The Kellogg Company, North America
Our Clients, Experience & Work
Since 2004, we have developed 100,000+ leaders, designed and delivered 220+ leadership programs, and led 100+ breakthrough innovation and transformation programs for organizations including Nike, Novartis, Unilever, Microsoft, Disney, and Diageo.
Our clients invest seriously in their executives because they know strategy, technology, and AI create value only when leaders can handle greater complexity, navigate uncertainty, adapt to relentless change, unlock creativity and innovation, and build cultures capable of winning the future.
We design highly customized transformational executive retreats, leadership offsites, experiential leadership development programs, and executive training around the specific capabilities, breakthroughs, and changes that will make the greatest difference to our clients’ growth, strategy, and ambitions.
100,000+ leaders developed
220+ leadership development and training programs designed and delivered
100+ breakthrough innovation leadership programs driven
“Challenging and thought-provoking, and great to see the emphasis on deep transformation.”
COO
HSBC Bank Plc
Our Insights & Ideas On Leadership Have Been Featured In
“A compendium of insight on growth and development.”
The Times
Our Game-Changing Approach To Leadership Development & Executive Retreats
Most leadership programs fail to deliver the results they promise because they are locked into an outdated training model that doesn't produce transformed leaders or concrete business impact.
With roots in strategy, innovation consulting, and the creative industries, and deep training in behavioral and brain science, we have developed a genuinely pioneering approach to maximize your leadership development investment by changing leaders as fast as humanly possible.
Comprehensive Self-To-System™ Leadership Curriculum
Over 25 years, we have researched, evolved, tested, and codified a coherent and cohesive "Self-to-System" leadership development curriculum that starts with how to change oneself and ends with how to transform systems.
State-Of-The-Art Transformative Interventions
We have developed a wide range of transformative interventions to unlock and sustain exceptional leadership. These range from peer-to-peer coaching to AI and breakthrough innovation fieldwork, all aimed at driving breakthroughs in how leaders feel, think, act, interact, communicate, and collaborate.
Experiential Leadership Development For Immersive Impact
We design original, high-concept signature experiences that combine immersive learning, quests, sensory surprises, and expert facilitation to create unforgettable, genuinely transformative leadership journeys.
Deep Design For Maximum ROI
Deep Design™ turns leadership development from a collection of interesting activities and interventions into an intentional journey that drives lasting change. The goal is to create the highest-impact developmental arc possible within the available time, budget, culture, and ambitions.
Transformational Facilitation & Catalysis
Our transformation catalysts do something different from conventional facilitation. They combine master facilitation with executive coaching, leadership development, strategy and innovation expertise, neuroscience, and deep transformation expertise to help participants change themselves and their enterprise in the room.
Science-Backed Theory For Rapid Change
Everything we do is built upon a neuroscience-based theory of leadership development, Bio-Transformation, or BTX®. We developed this methodology to ensure that all our activities work with, not against, the realities of human biology, so leaders transform as quickly as humanly possible.
“Brilliant theory and insights on transformational leadership.”
SVP, Pfizer
Are We the Right Fit for You? How We Deliver The Best ROI
Switch On Leadership is a small, independent, high-touch, and high-impact leadership consultancy.
We do our best work when the business genuinely wants something to change and the organization values thoughtful customization, courageous partnership, creative design, and expert facilitation.
We Are Likely To Be A Great Fit If You...
- You genuinely believe your leaders hold the keys to the future, and already invest in developing them to unlock new sources of growth, navigate complexity, and lead meaningful change
- You have meaningful strategic, innovation, transformation, and people ambitions that require highly effective and transformational leaders
- You want more than a polished retreat or well-run program. You want a program or intervention to create real change.
- You seek a collaborator who listens deeply, helps define the real problem before coming up with a solution, acts as a valued thinking partner, and designs creatively around your particular group of leaders and your culture, strategy, history, context, and ambitions
- You commission executive development designed to transform how leaders lead rather than simply give them more information or an enjoyable experience
- You value neuroscience-driven content, experiential learning, human connection, originality, and evidence-based practices
- You want senior, highly experienced practitioners closely involved in the design and delivery
We May Not Be The Right Fit If You...
- You see leadership development primarily as something to satisfy a requirement, keep stakeholders happy, or look impressive internally, rather than as an investment in the people who will shape your future
- You believe that your organization will continue much as it is whether or not your leaders make a step change in their effectiveness, capacity, and ability to lead strategic, innovation, transformation, and people breakthroughs
- You mainly want a polished retreat, enjoyable experience, or training course without a genuine appetite for real change
- You want a provider to deliver a predetermined solution, are gathering creative ideas before giving the work to another provider, or are running a speculative pitch process where multiple agencies are asked to design the solution before there is an understanding of the real problem, genuine partnership, or commercial commitment
- You are primarily looking to deliver information, replicate an existing program, or meet a training brief rather than transform how leaders lead
- You are driven by procurement, where lowest cost and least risk are the overriding decision factors vs. impact, creativity, and sustained change
- You are seeking to scale training at the lowest possible economics rather than high-touch consulting for optimal outcomes
We Are High-Touch, High-Impact By Design
Since 2004, we have intentionally remained a boutique firm so we can bring senior attention, original thinking, creative solutions, exquisite customization, and genuine care to the work.
If your challenge matters enough to warrant this level of partnership, we would be delighted to explore it with you.
“Amazing, amazing feedback from our leaders.”
Global HR Director, Intel
Our Background, History & Team
SOL grew out of a breakthrough innovation consultancy, creative agency, and technology venture accelerator that Nick Jankel co-founded in 1999.
Our wider team brings experience not only in leadership development and transformation consulting, but also in advertising, film and production, performance, choreography, brand activation, experiential art, festivals, cultural experiences, and event design.
This creative heritage taught us how to work with attention, energy, emotion, narrative, environment, participation, movement, surprise, and memorable human moments. We combine that craft with rigorous leadership development based on brain and complexity science, so experiences are not simply engaging or spectacular, but genuinely transformative.
Since 2004, we have intentionally remained a boutique, high-touch consultancy so senior practitioners can stay deeply involved in the thinking, customization, design, facilitation, and delivery of our work.
“Truly inspirational, thought-provoking, and incredibly helpful.”
CHRO, Fortune 500
Our Founders Introduce SOL’s Flagship Leadership Programs
“I am really impressed with the passion, detail, and research behind the topic, which is then coached and practiced in safe forums rather than taught or lectured. Challenged me to deepen reflections, increase self-awareness, and practice, practice, practice if we want to innovate.”
COO, Syngenta
Our Ethos & Purpose: Our Ethos: Transformative, Not Performative
We love creating exciting, beautiful, surprising, and unforgettable leadership experiences, retreats, and programs. But the experience is never the point. Transformation of leaders, their teams, their organizations, and their systems is always our purpose and ambition.
Whether we are designing a multi-day executive retreat, an immersive experiential leadership development event, or a months-long leadership development journey, everything is designed to help leaders genuinely change how they feel, think, act, interact, communicate, collaborate, and lead.
That means connecting inspiration and expansion with reflection, challenge, practice, integration, and real work, so the energy generated in the room translates into meaningful change back in the organization.
This reflects our wider ethos. We believe organizations and institutions, when led with both heart and smarts, both reason and relationality, both rigor and revolutionary ideas, and both intellect and imagination, can be extraordinary engines of ingenuity, progress, and positive change.
We believe in genuine partnership, original thinking, deep customization, creativity, integrity, and care. And we believe that when leaders can both be the change and lead the change, everything is possible.
Let's Start With a Conversation
No pitch, no pressure. Just a focused dialogue about your business and leadership challenges and whether we're the right partner to help.
You tell us what's happening in your organization, what feels stuck, what the future is demanding, and what your leaders need to be capable of next.
We'll show you what a transformative leadership development program or executive retreat could look like for your enterprise.