The consultancy for
leaders and leadership teams

We make
leadership work.

We say what others tiptoe around. And we stay with it until you reach your goal.

How we work

Our name is a promise in German: Dranbleiben means staying with it until it sticks.

How we work

The Dranbleiber approach:

01
Name it
Make room for what matters most to reach the table.

Our mind-map diagnostic creates a setting where nothing essential stays unsaid.

>
02
Simplify
Focus on the few levers that really make a difference.

Once every topic is on the map, the decisive step follows: the courage to simplify. Complexity is the biggest obstacle to change.

>
03
Deliver
Concrete action plans, and straight into doing.

We do not run a workshop and disappear. We agree on what needs doing and stay with it until it is done.

Voices · translated from German

„
Die Dranbleiber! New and surprising ways of working. Straight to the point, even when it stings.
„
After an intense stretch of work together, we moved closer as a leadership team and had a clear roadmap for the next 12 months.
„
With Die Dranbleiber we were able to work through every critical sticking point and leave with tangible results.
„
Strong in communication and facilitation, always thoroughly prepared, excellent command of method. A clear recommendation.

Formats

Our core offering: five formats.

01

From multi-module programs with training sessions to confidential one-on-one coaching and sparring, for individual leaders and entire leadership levels alike.

02

Team or leadership team, even in the middle of upheaval and change: our proven workshop format turns a group of individuals into a team that holds together. Step by step, until it lasts in everyday work.

03
Facilitation

Facilitating management offsites, board retreats and change initiatives. We make sure the topics that really matter get on the table, especially the uncomfortable ones.

04
Conflict resolution

Structured resolution of team and leadership conflicts. We name what keeps the conflict going and stay with it until it is settled.

05

Insights Discovery® profiles and the team workshops or coaching built on them, for when communication patterns need to be questioned and improved systematically.

Christopher Prätsch at the flipchart during a workshop
Impression
At the flipchart:
many topics become the few that matter.
Michael Schön in the workshop room
Impression
In conversation:
we name the elephant in the room.

Focus Topics

Beyond that: focus topics with partners.

Change architecture Structures & processes

DranbleiberKraus & Partner

Shaping a major transformation

Focus topic: transformation

When our work with leadership teams grows into broader organizational development, K&P brings the capacity that takes: transformation experts since 1987 and co-owner of Die Dranbleiber. They design effective structures and processes, we implement them together with the leaders.

Hands-on AI Leading in the AI era

DranbleiberExponential Executives

Using AI in your own leadership

Focus topic: AI for Leadership

Here the focus is on the leader: how does AI change their own work? The Vibe-Coding Masterclass makes it tangible, hands-on from the first self-built prototype to a new view of leading in the AI era. Exponential Executives opens the door to the technology, we translate it into leadership practice.

AI strategy & design Process automation

DranbleiberWEBUILDAI

Embedding AI across the organization

Focus topic: AI for the Organization

This is about the bigger picture: processes, strategy, architecture. The name WEBUILDAI is literal: they build, from analysis through design to production. They build, we anchor leadership, collaboration and acceptance in the team.

Communication Psychological safety

DranbleiberInsights Discovery®

Improving team effectiveness

Focus topic: team effectiveness

When teams stay below their potential, ability is rarely the reason. The friction sits in communication and the way people work together. Insights Discovery® makes preferences visible, gives a team a shared language and lays the groundwork for psychological safety and real team effectiveness. As a Licensed Distributor we also open the path to becoming a practitioner yourself: access, terms and a contact afterwards.

Presence & impact Acting methods

Dranbleiberfem:up

Strengthening presence and impact

Focus topic: presence

Leading effectively also means being present: how you enter a room, how you speak, how you hold it. With fem:up we bring in trained actresses who work on exactly that with methods from the stage, rooted in female empowerment and increasingly with mixed groups.

Clients

From start-up through the Mittelstand to the DAX corporation.

Small business, global corporation, university or church: we feel at home in any kind of organization, because we know them from the inside.

Bosch
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Telekom
BASF
Techniker Krankenkasse
Vaillant
DEVK
Vantage Towers
Diocese of Essen
Westphalian University of Applied Sciences
Caritas
Seeberger

Team

Direct. Experienced. Close by.

We are not a consulting factory. The people you meet are the people who do the work.

Michael Schön
“the business psychologist”

„Most friction in a leadership team is not about the content. It is about the people. That is exactly where I start.„

Michael Schön
Founder & Managing Director
Ludger Sieverding
“the CEO”

„A strategy is only worth as much as each person has made it their own.„
​

Ludger Sieverding
Managing Partner
Christopher Prätsch
“the entrepreneur”

„I know the difference between a workshop that feels good on Friday and one that changes something on Monday.„

Contact

And what is on
your mind?

Write to us or call. We reply within 24 hours. We are based in Cologne and work across the German-speaking region and internationally, in German and English.

Or reach a person directly:

Michael Schön
Founder & Managing Director
Ludger Sieverding
Managing Partner
Christopher Prätsch
Managing Partner

Common Questions

Good to know.

What does Die Dranbleiber do?
We make leadership and teams more effective, with a proven approach: name it, simplify, deliver. Sometimes as a workshop, sometimes as coaching or sparring, always aimed at concrete results rather than slides. Add to that five focus topics with partners, from team effectiveness through AI to transformation. Groups of 5 to 30 people, across the German-speaking region.
Who is this worth it for?
For leaders and teams willing to invest in how they work together. The biggest lever comes when a team creates a shared starting point: a common picture of strengths, friction points and ground rules that collaboration can build on for years.
Based in Cologne, but working elsewhere too?
Yes. We are based in Cologne, many engagements run in North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rhineland, and we work across the German-speaking region and internationally, in English on request. On site especially at the start; coaching and sparring are often remote afterwards.
How does working together start?
With a free first conversation: 30 to 45 minutes by video, directly with one of the three partners. Then you receive a concrete proposal with format, scope and price.