An investment rather than an expense

Support comes at a cost. Changing nothing has a cost too, often higher and less visible. Here is what you need to compare the two before deciding.

These figures come from published studies and surveys. They give orders of magnitude, not a promise of results for your organisation.

What you are paying today

The cost of a team under strain appears on no invoice. It is paid in absences, departures and decisions that go nowhere.

Switzerland loses CHF 6.5 billion a year to work stress

This is the estimated loss in productivity. More than 30% of working people say they are emotionally exhausted.

For a team of 10: about CHF 12,000 a year, and 3 people exhausted.
Health Promotion Switzerland, 2022
Depression and anxiety cost 12 billion working days a year

This is the worldwide figure, nearly US$1 trillion in lost productivity.

For a team of 10: about 35 working days lost a year.
World Health Organization
Only 1 employee in 5 is engaged at work

That was the worldwide figure in 2025. Low engagement is estimated to have cost about US$10 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.

Gallup, 2026

See how this is calculated

The team-scale or budget-scale equivalents are calculations from the published figures: for example, CHF 6.5 billion divided by 5.24 million working people in Switzerland (Federal Statistical Office, end of 2022), or 12 billion days by 3.4 billion people in employment worldwide (ILO, 2023).

Transformations that miss their target

6 to 8 company projects out of 10 fail

This is the range from the studies gathered by consulting engineer René Rupert.

René Rupert
2 transformation programmes out of 3 fall short of their objectives

This is the finding of a Booz & Company survey cited by Curt Blattner.

Curt Blattner, 2020

See the caveats on these rates

These rates come mostly from consulting firms. Research calls for caution: no solid empirical study sets a precise failure rate (Hughes, 2011). Surveys still converge: a large share of transformations miss their objectives, and each failure costs the investment and the teams' time.

Digital projects that overrun budgets and schedules

7 digital transformations out of 10 fall short of their objectives

This is the finding of a survey of 825 senior executives.

Boston Consulting Group, 2020
Large IT projects cost 45% more than planned

On average, they also deliver 56% less value than predicted. The study covers more than 5,400 projects.

For a project budgeted at CHF 100,000: about CHF 145,000 spent, for less than half the expected value.
McKinsey and University of Oxford, 2012
1 IT project in 6 ends up costing 3 times its budget

These projects also overrun their schedule by almost 70%. The study covers 1,471 projects.

Flyvbjerg and Budzier, 2011

See a Swiss example

In Switzerland, the Federal Tax Administration's INSIEME IT project was abandoned in 2012 after about ten years. Parliamentary committees found shortcomings in management and oversight, and poorly defined responsibilities (Swiss Parliament, 2014, in French).

AI projects that fail for lack of a shared problem

Fewer than 1 AI project in 5 succeeds

By some estimates, more than 80% of AI projects fail, twice the rate of other IT projects.

RAND Corporation, 2024
19 organisations out of 20 get no measurable gain from generative AI

Yet companies have invested US$30 to 40 billion in it.

MIT, Project NANDA, 2025
First pitfall: a misunderstanding about the problem to solve

Leadership and technical teams do not agree on what AI is meant to solve. This is the leading cause of failure identified in 65 interviews with AI specialists.

RAND Corporation, 2024

See what makes these projects fail

In both studies, technology is not the first culprit: what is missing is a well-defined, shared problem, and an organisation that learns to build the tool into its work.

When concerns do not travel up: the human cost

As René Rupert points out, a project's failure can also be counted in human lives. In 1986, the Challenger shuttle broke apart shortly after launch and its seven astronauts died. The commission of inquiry found a serious flaw in the decision-making process: the engineers' doubts about the seals in cold weather were not conveyed as such to the managers who approved the launch (Rogers Commission, 1986).

This is what hierarchical dialogue works on: making sure what teams know reaches those who decide.

Consulting that creates dependency

When the know-how stays with the provider, each new challenge calls for a new assignment. Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington show how this repeated reliance weakens the capabilities of businesses and governments (The Big Con, 2023). In Switzerland, the federal government spent CHF 673 million in 2024 on external services and consultants, about CHF 75 per inhabitant (Blick, 2026, in French).

My approach aims for the opposite: unless otherwise agreed, the methods are published under free licences, and each assignment ends with pointers to carry on without me.

What you can gain

Reported gains vary widely from one study to another. Together, they outline a range, from modest to very high.

The most engaged teams are 23% more profitable

Compared with the least engaged, they also have 78% less absenteeism and 70% more thriving employees. The analysis covers 183,806 teams in 90 countries.

At team scale: where the least engaged team has 10 days of absence, the most engaged has about 2; for every CHF 100 of profit, CHF 123.
Gallup, 2024 meta-analysis
Mental health at work returns 5 times what it costs

This is the average return measured in the United Kingdom: £5 back for every £1 invested.

Deloitte, 2020
Results × 3

At Nescafé, Curt Blattner applied the Three Contracts of emerging change with 250, then 500 people. He estimates that his unit's results were multiplied by three.

Curt Blattner, 2020 · Read the story

Autonomy, participation, open source: successes in figures

Self-governing nursing teams provide care with a third fewer hours

At Buurtzorg in the Netherlands, self-organising teams of 10 to 12 home care nurses spend 108 hours per client per year, compared with 168 elsewhere. Total cost, medical care included, stays close to average.

For 10 people cared for: about 600 fewer hours of care a year.
KPMG 2015 and Ernst & Young 2009, via the Commonwealth Fund
With participatory budgeting, almost every household is connected to water

In Porto Alegre, the share of households connected to water and sanitation rose from 75% to 98% between 1988 and 1997, and the number of schools quadrupled. Across Brazil, participatory budgeting is associated with a sharper fall in infant mortality.

Out of 100 households: 23 more connected.
WRI, via SDG16+; Touchton and Wampler, 2020
Every euro invested in open source returns 65 to 95 euros to the economy

In 2018, about €1 billion invested by companies in the European Union had an impact of €65 to 95 billion on its GDP. Without open source, companies would spend about 3.5 times more on software.

For a company that spends CHF 10,000 a year on software: about CHF 35,000 without open source.
European Commission, 2021; Harvard Business School, 2024

Closing the autonomy gap

René Rupert sets the useful level of autonomy according to the complexity of each activity, then compares it with the autonomy people perceive and the autonomy they want. The gaps show where to act: where control holds people back, and where freedom lacks bearings. I mapped these gaps with the team at Fujitsu (report, 2013, in French) and with 84 teachers at the Lausanne Hospitality School (EHL).

See the limits of these gains

Gains are not automatic. A meta-analysis finds medical costs fall by about US$3.27 and absenteeism costs by about US$2.73 for every dollar spent on workplace wellness programmes, that is US$3,270 and US$2,730 per US$1,000 (Baicker et al., 2010). But a randomised trial found no effect of a standard programme on health, spending or job performance after 18 months (Song and Baicker, 2019). That is why I start from the team's situation and from what it decides for itself, rather than from a ready-made programme.

What I invested to know where to strike the hammer

The story is well known: an expert bills for one hammer strike, one franc for striking, the rest for knowing where to strike. Here is what that knowledge cost me.

My education cost as much as surgical training

Its full cost at 2026 prices is CHF 623,500, fees and public share included; with the same method, surgical training costs about CHF 626,000. The “How much to budget” table below compares with other professions.

That is about CHF 36,700 per year of full-time study.
CHF 2.2 million of value created with more than 1,000 volunteers

That is about three and a half times the cost of my education. On top of this, CHF 420,000 raised for research.
In my projects, every franc of financial support came with 5 francs of volunteering and in-kind contributions

This is the leverage of my background, which alternates study and fieldwork across several fields. A linear path, like a surgeon's, builds expert intuition where situations repeat with quick feedback (Hogarth et al., 2015); an iterative path helps with new problems where several disciplines are at stake. Its impact spreads through the people trained and the methods published under open licences.

For CHF 1,000 of financial support: about 130 hours of volunteering, more than three weeks full time.
My thesis, 2023, tables 11.2 to 11.5

See what is not counted and the method

Not counted: salary forgone during my studies and 870 hours of training in “hostile” environments. Method: public reference costs (Federal Statistical Office, SERI, cantons) and published course prices; details on request.

How much to budget

What the professions whose skills my background combines charge

Years of education after compulsory school, full cost of studies and hourly rates of independent professionals in Switzerland, in Swiss francs.
Profession	Years of post-compulsory education	Full cost of studies	Hourly rate
Technology lawyer	9–10	≈ 402,600	≈ 350–500
Organisational development consultant	8–9	≈ 432,600	150–300
Agile IT project manager	6–7	≈ 452,800	120–250
Artificial intelligence researcher	11–13	≈ 539,700	≈ 150–310
Research and development director	11–13	≈ 555,700	≈ 140–205
Fabio Balli	17 full time, over 26 years	623,500	See below
Psychiatrist, consultation (TARDOC)	15–17	≈ 646,100	≈ 210

See the sources and method

Hourly rates: for lawyers, CHF 200 to 500 in Switzerland, with specialists in the middle to upper part of the range (GetYourLawyer, 2025); for organisational development, CHF 150 to 300 from an experienced to an expert profile, and for IT consulting, CHF 120 to 250 (Magic Heidi); for AI, CHF 1,200 to 2,500 per day of consulting (Dialogis, 2026); for research and development leadership, 1% of the annual salary per day of assignment (Swiss Interim Management, 2023), applied to the salaries published by Payscale; for psychiatry, an estimate based on the TARDOC point value of about CHF 0.90. 8-hour days. Years of education: from the regulatory minimum to the estimated average length. Full cost of studies: same method as mine, including continuing education up to age 45. Values preceded by ≈ are estimates.

Prices charged in my field

Price ranges charged by independent professionals in facilitation, team support, training and participatory research, by type of organisation.

Ranges charged, in Swiss francs, excluding VAT and travel expenses
Service	Institutions and companies	Associations	Citizen collectives
Individual support, per hour	200–260	140–160	100–120 depending on income
Training, per classroom hour, preparation included	180–300	120–150	100
Day of design, preparation or research	1,600–1,800	1,000–1,100	400–600
Day of leadership team support	1,800–2,200	1,000–1,300	400–700
Day of large-group facilitation	2,000–2,400	1,200–1,400	500–800

See what these ranges include

These ranges usually include a reasonable amount of preparation and follow-up time. For citizen collectives, third-party funding may be possible: we can discuss it during the 20-minute call.

The amount of each assignment depends on its duration, the number of people and the deliverables: we set it together during the 20-minute call.

I give priority to projects that create resources the general public can freely reuse; this is entirely compatible with a traditional business model. Unless otherwise agreed, the methods and processes I put in place may be documented and published in scientific publications under a free licence.

On this compatibility: the guide to the contribution economy by Lourdin (2019) (in French) and the economic analysis of open source by Lerner and Tirole (2002).

Working languages: Bilingual in French and English; German and Italian for simple individual sessions only.
Locations: Meetings by video call or in person, depending on what is possible. Depending on the contract, available to travel internationally; free to work in Switzerland, the European Union and Canada. Visa facilitation in some Commonwealth countries.

Sources

These figures come from published studies and surveys. They give orders of magnitude, not a promise of results for your organisation.

See the 39 sources

Considering working together?

Briefly describe your situation. I will reply to see whether my approach can help.

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