We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Stelzer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.

Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

There’s a sense in consulting that firms are hired to tell businesses what they ought to do. That is, a company will hire management consultants to help solve a problem and the expectation is that the consulting company will present the business with the “correct answer.”

That’s a mistake.

There is undoubtedly value in hiring subject matter experts when the circumstances call for it but, by and large, consultants should act as collaborative thought-partners who use their client’s expertise to provide a framework for making choices. I

n other words, the consultant shouldn’t enter the room pretending as though they have the magic answer. Instead, they should use active inquiry – the process of asking open-ending questions – to empower their client to “see the forest through the trees.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an author, keynote speaker, and co-founder at Strategy of Mind, a Boston-based management consultancy specializing in strategic communications, organizational performance, and executive coaching. We’re still nimble enough that all engagements are bespoke and tailored to suit the unique needs of every individual client.

Prior to consulting, I served at The White House as a Presidential Management Fellow during the Obama Administration, where our team was responsible for improving and sustaining high levels of performance across federal agencies. Before that, I worked as a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. I received a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and undergraduate degrees from Boston University and the University of Cambridge in the UK.

I’m incredibly proud to share that my published work has received over 1 million collective views across leading international media platforms including The Washington Post, TEDx, LinkedIn (where I author a bi-weekly newsletter), Quartz, and Fast Company. And, to the embarrassment of my nieces, I have developed a growing presence on TikTok.

My first book, “Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans,” was co-authored with Dr. David Brendel and published by Hachette: PublicAffairs in September 2021. As an author, I am represented by Kneerim & Williams and, as a keynote speaker, the Harry Walker Agency.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Between David and myself, we have something like 20 combined years of higher education and we’ve been fortunate to study at some incredible schools like the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Yale. Suffice it to say, we thought we know how to write a paper or long essay.

When we first pitched our book concept to our agent, she asked that we draft a 3,000-word summary explaining what we wanted to accomplish. This would help a publisher better understand our key objectives, she said. We spent a couple of weeks working on the draft and collaborated closely. Once complete, we were confident that we had nailed it so we sent it over to her.

When we received the draft back from our agent, I would estimate that 70-80% was either cut or heavily edited. Despite writing for a combined two decades in school, it turns out we really didn’t know how to write. We had never learned how to write for a wide audience, how to tell stories at extended length, or how to translate research findings into accessible language.

Thankfully we have the best agent in the world, and she was incredibly patient as we honed our skills. It’s something we still try to improve on every day because, like a sport, writing is something that requires constant practice.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

David and I met almost by accident. I was working in consulting at the time and a friend from DC cut out and snail-mailed me an article in The Economist called “Philosopher Kings.” It talked about how business leaders would benefit from studying great writers. That was when the lightbulb went off – I had no clue how to make it happen but I knew this was the kind of work I wanted to be doing. Coincidentally, the article mentioned a Boston-based psychiatrist named David Brendel who used great writers in his medical practice. Being in Boston myself, I found David online and sent him an email, just asking if I could pick his brain. He invited me out to coffee and, after two hours in Starbucks, we had a company sketched out on paper. Just one of those bizarre and serendipitous meetings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.strategyofmind.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanjstelzer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ryanstelzer.author
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-stelzer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanjstelzer
• Other: https://www.ryanstelzer.com/

Image Credits
Main photo/headshot photo credit: Ian Johns