Advisory 83
Strategy, Storytelling and Systems.
The future requires a different kind of thinking.
We help leaders navigate complexity, align around what matters, and turn bold thinking into meaningful organizational direction.
Clients we've served
Point of view
The challenge isn't always the strategy. Sometimes it's the conditions surrounding it.
Organizations don't make decisions in a vacuum. Culture, relationships, assumptions, incentives, systems, and the stories leaders tell all shape what becomes possible.
Advisory 83 helps organizations examine those conditions, challenge familiar thinking, and create the clarity required to move forward.
Strategy. Storytelling. Systems.
The three pillars
Three dimensions. One integrated approach.
Strategy
Define the direction.
We help organizations understand complex challenges, identify opportunities, make consequential choices, and establish priorities for what comes next.
Storytelling
Create shared meaning.
We help leaders articulate their direction, communicate value, connect with stakeholders, and create the shared understanding necessary for organizational alignment.
Systems
Make the strategy actionable.
We help organizations connect strategic intent to the structures, processes, relationships, and practices required to move forward.
Movement
Organizations are always in motion. Direction is the difference.
The 83 Method
A different way to arrive at the right direction.
The 83 Method brings structure to imagination and intention to strategy. Built through years of experience across leadership, culture, communications, and organizational change, it helps teams move from complexity to clarity.
- 8
- movements
- 3
- stages
- 1
- direction
The 83 Method™
Eight movements. Three stages. One strategic direction.
Pause
Create space
Observe
See what is actually happening
Question
Challenge assumptions
Imagine
Explore what could be possible
Create
Make possibilities visible
Challenge
Test ideas and expose tensions
Decide
Identify what matters most
Activate
Move from insight to action
Decompression
Quiet the noise
Imagination
Expand what is possible
Strategic Convergence
Turn imagination into decisions
Signature experience · Strategic Imagination Lab
Your next strategy session needs a little Coltrane.
What if your next strategic breakthrough begins by changing the room, the questions, and the way your team thinks together?
The Strategic Imagination Lab brings strategy and imagination into the same conversation, helping leadership teams move beyond familiar answers and toward meaningful organizational direction.
Explore a signature Advisory 83 experience designed for organizations ready to think differently about what comes next.
How we partner
Built around the challenge. Designed for the outcome.
- 01
Discover
Understand the organizational context, challenge, stakeholders, and desired outcomes.
- 02
Design
Explore possibilities, challenge assumptions, and shape the strategy and direction forward.
- 03
Deliver
Translate strategy into practical next steps, ownership, and implementation.
An illustration of our engagement philosophy — distinct from the stages of the 83 Method.
Who we work with
For leaders carrying consequential questions.
From executive leadership teams and boards to institutions, founders, and organizations navigating change, Advisory 83 partners with people responsible for shaping what comes next.
CEOs & the C-suite
Navigating growth, change, or organizational complexity.
Executive teams
Seeking alignment, strategic clarity, and stronger execution.
Boards
Facing consequential decisions or institutional change.
Institutions
Universities, foundations, associations, and mission-driven organizations.
Founders
Preparing for the next stage of growth.
Transformation teams
Shaping new strategies, operating models, or direction.
Founder & Managing Principal
Strategy informed by scholarship. Grounded in experience. Designed for the real world.
Dr. Aerial Ellis is a strategist, researcher, educator, executive coach, and entrepreneur whose work spans organizational strategy, leadership, culture, and strategic communications. Advisory 83 brings scholarly rigor, executive-level experience, entrepreneurial perspective, and cultural intelligence together in one practice — so the thinking behind a strategy, the story that carries it, and the systems that sustain it are designed as one.
Insights
Ideas for the questions organizations can't afford to ignore.
Strategy
Placeholder: When the plan is sound but the conditions aren't
Storytelling
Placeholder: The narrative is part of the strategy
Systems
Placeholder: Where strategy goes to live — or quietly disappear
The next chapter starts with a better conversation.
Whether you're preparing for a new strategic planning cycle, navigating organizational change, or questioning whether your current approach is still the right one, let's begin with the challenge in front of you.