Some days, Gil Peri, president and CEO of Milwaukee-based Children’s Wisconsin, acts as an imaging manager or a mission control director. In 2026, he will spend half a day working in the hospital cafeteria.
These temporary roles are part of Mr. Peri’s monthly “CEO swaps,” during which he trades jobs with an employee for half a day, followed by a debrief over lunch. He began the initiative at a previous organization and continued it shortly after stepping into his current role in August 2024.
Mr. Peri said the swaps allow him to be visible, available, authentic and relatable — key attributes for a CEO looking to better engage staff.
“I started doing these with the idea that I would be more effective walking in other people’s shoes and giving people an opportunity to experience what it means to lead an organization,” Mr. Peri told Becker’s. “This is based on my belief that CEOs cannot do their job from their office. I’m a big believer that we have to really understand and engage our teams.”
Each month, a new leader who expresses interest is randomly selected to participate. Both Mr. Peri and the participant share their takeaways during the system’s monthly leadership meetings.
“What did they learn? What did I learn?” he said. “There’s a little bit of a cascading effect where the whole organization benefits from the swap.”
Beginning in January, the swaps will alternate monthly between managers and front-line team members.
“What I always appreciate is, as much as I think I know about this organization and what it means to lead in this organization, I’m always learning the complexity and the nuance in each of their roles,” Mr. Peri said. “I can read all I want, but until I walk in their shoes and see the level of detail and the depth of expertise they bring, it’s hard to truly understand that. You’ve got to live it.”
Lauren Giuliani, vice president of clinical services, who participated in a swap, said the experience has provided valuable perspective on the complexity of the issues brought forward for direction from the CEO.
“The CEO swap is a powerful opportunity for leadership visibility, obtaining bidirectional perspectives, and to reinforce a strong culture within our teams,” Ms. Giuliani told Becker’s. “Our front-line staff had the opportunity to develop relationships with our CEO, to share what they love about their roles and to be honest about the challenges they experience. I know our teams felt more connected to our senior executive leadership after the experience, and I’m confident the faces and hearts of our front line left an impression on our CEO as well.”
Middle management
Engaging middle managers and supporting leadership development has been a core focus for Mr. Peri since taking the helm 16 months ago.
“I am a big believer that the management level is the toughest role in the organization,” he said. “They have to take direction and strategy from the top, and they have to engage their team members.”
While attending a meeting during a swap, Mr. Peri observed that managers had varying levels of skill in setting measurable, realistic and time-bound goals — prompting him to share how senior leaders approach goal-setting.
“It’s important for CEOs to figure out how to close gaps,” he said. “If the vertical is the technical skills, the horizontal is where I think we have a lot of opportunity to support our leaders: crucial conversations, motivation, sense making. When someone becomes a leader, they act as the chief sense maker and the chief culture officer. We have to train people and provide them tools to help them do that effectively.”
To support leadership growth, Children’s Wisconsin launched a program this year called Accelerate to develop high-potential managers and directors.
The program includes executive coaching, senior-led didactic programs to close technical gaps and a project in an unfamiliar department — for example, an ambulatory leader might take on a community health or marketing project. Each cohort includes five to six participants and is sponsored by an executive.
“I have a project that I’m supporting, but then I also have time every month for group mentoring, and they can ask me anything: ‘How do I deal with crucial conversations? Gil, tell me about when you had an experience like this.'” he said. “The secret sauce is giving them experiential learning, but also mentoring and being somebody that they can trust.”
Mr. Peri added that team support remains the top priority.
“Our teams are our No. 1 asset, and how we’re enabling them to be at their best should be on the minds of every CEO,” he said. “At the end of the day, without our team, the buildings and the technology don’t matter. Without a strong team, you’re never going to be able to create an organization that’s sustainable and growing.”
