How Can I Be a Philosopher in a Non-academic Career?

Ryan Stelzer earned a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He is now cofounder of Strategy of Mind, a consulting firm that improves business performance using the tools of philosophy. He is the author of “Why I Left Management Consulting to Start a Philosophy Company,” for which he also delivered a TEDx. His book on the role of active inquiry in professional life will be released by PublicAffairs next year.

Stelzer spoke with Dana Delibovi on behalf of the Blog of the APA about his experience using philosophy to help business.

Q: During graduate school, what was your primary focus?

Ethics—I studied at Chicago with Jean Bethke Ehlstain. I wanted to find the “E=mc2” of ethics, to combine my interest in ethics with the appeal of logic.

But my graduate school experience included much more. Chicago is heavily interdisciplinary. Departmental boundaries are dotted lines. So, I was fortunate to study a range of subjects that included religion, law, business, political science, economics, and, of course, philosophy.

Q: When you started graduate school, did you know you would pursue a non-academic career?

My intention on entering grad school was to get a PhD and have an academic career. I recall going to a seminar early on, where a dean remarked that only 10-20 percent of us would finish the doctorate, because we would find other interests. Of course, all of us thought—“not me.”

Chicago had a program that helped grad students find those other interests. You could get your MA, then leave for 2 years to explore other things, and come back for the PhD without reapplying.

I liked this idea. I thought I might take some time to see how philosophy could be useful in the “real world.”

Q: How did you act on that thinking?

My wife was a researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School while I was in Chicago, and she called me one night about a program that Harvard was promoting. It was called the Presidential Management Fellowship. These fellowships allowed recent graduate students to work in Washington, D.C., for two years for pretty much any federal agency, which coincided perfectly with Chicago’s two-year allotment.

I was mulling over applying for the fellowship, when a funny encounter gave me a nudge.

One day, while at my work-study job in the university library, I was alone in the stacks—or so I thought. Turned out, a woman from Italy who was in the PhD program was also there. This woman spoke very little to anybody and we had not said more than a few words to each other. But she must have caught wind that I was considering going to D.C. Through the bookshelves, like ghost, she said softly, “Don’t stay. Go to Washington.”

So I applied, and was selected. From 2012 to 2014, I was a fellow in the Obama administration and wound up at the White House.

Q: Was the Fellowship your turning point?

Yes. Through the fellowship, I gained experience in strategic planning, administrative work, and other things my philosophic training qualified me to do. Since President Obama had been a professor at Chicago, I had the chance to connect with colleagues from the university who had moved to D.C. to serve the administration.

I also met consultants from McKinsey & Company. That got me thinking “Why don’t I try consulting?” So after my fellowship, I went to work at a consulting firm in Boston.

Q: Since 2015, you’ve had your own business, which uses philosophic methods to improve business performance. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

In 2015, I read an article in The Economist entitled “Philosopher Kings” about the ways business leaders can benefit from philosophy. The light bulb went on: This is what I want to do!

I connected with a psychiatrist, David Brendel, who had been using philosophic approaches in his medical practice. We met over coffee and founded Strategy of Mind five years ago. Our company provides coaching and consulting to improve business performance. To do that, we use dialogue —the kind of active inquiry we learn in philosophy.

Q: When you say “dialogue,” I think of the Platonic dialogue. Is there a connection?

Yes. If you think of Socrates and Plato, they’re all about questioning and free exchange, which turn out to be very important in business.

That idea that free exchange is important in business is supported by Google’s research in Project Aristotle—good name, right? The researchers wanted to know why some business teams perform well and some do not. They discovered that better performance occurs when team members have psychological safety. People who are psychologically safe feel free to share, converse, and question openly.

In other words, high-performing teams are those that can engage in the active, open inquiry philosophers engage in.

Q: Since your academic focus was ethics, do you weave ethics into your consulting work?

That’s the subversive element! I hope we can show people that the way to lead a good life is through inquiry—to ask, what does it mean to be a good teammate, a good corporate steward, a good citizen?

Q: Do your clients ever doubt the utility of philosophy in business?

The clients that seek us out generally feel some enthusiasm for philosophy. Still, sometimes people fear the subject. So we don’t carry on about how this is a 3,000-year-old practice, and we don’t explain concepts of philosophy. We just do philosophy.

Q: Did you receive any faculty mentoring that helped in your non-academic career?

I had two great mentors, one in college at Boston University and one in grad school at the University of Chicago: Philosopher C. Allen Speight and social theorist Ralph Lerner, respectively. Both showed me that I can do philosophy anywhere. They taught me the inherent value of philosophy applied to any area of life.

I’m not sure that all faculty believe in the applied use of philosophy. But in reality, philosophy is hugely helpful in any professional field. I wish more schools could piggyback the MA in philosophy onto existing professional-degree programs—joint MBA-MAs, JD-MAs, and MD-MAs. Having the MA in philosophy would give these students unique training that sets them apart.

Q: Do you have any practical tips for philosophers considering non-academic careers?

 Well, for business, I would say learn the language of business. Philosophers use academic language, and it’s completely different in tone and vocabulary from the way people communicate elsewhere.

Every time you apply for a position, tweak your resume to align with the position. The resume should show how you can meet the organization’s the specific needs. Never have just one resume.

Q: If you had it to do over again, would you still have gotten your MA in philosophy? 

Yes—there’s no question. Philosophy has been the unique thing about me in my career. It is the flag, the distinguishing characteristic, that people are drawn to.

It’s also been personally rewarding to study philosophy. I had the chance to explore concepts I would not have been able to pursue otherwise.

When I was in college, I remember looking at the catalog, and going down the majors. “Art history? Sounds good. … History, sounds better—contains art history, but it’s bigger. … Philosophy—this is the biggest one here!” And I love it.

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This interview originally appeared in the American Philosophical Association blog. It was written by Dana Delibovi.