Andrea Belk Olson helps companies translate big-picture strategy into everyday mindsets & behaviors.
The strategy-execution gap isn't caused by lack of planning, insufficient resources, or poor communication.
The failure occurs for two reasons:
1) When attention fragments across competing priorities.
2) When people don't know how to turn strategy into action.
Initiatives lose momentum. Employees burn out.
As a behavioral scientist and expert on change adoption, Andrea understands how people think, behave, and what they really need to embrace change. In short, she knows how to shift organizational mindsets and behaviors.
Author of the bestselling book, "What to Ask: How to Learn What Customers Need but Don’t Tell You", she regularly contributes to top publications like Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur Magazine, Big Think, and INC Magazine.
She’s worked in over a dozen countries, and teaches Applied Entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa.
Andrea also volunteers as a board member of a non-profit organizations to develop affordable housing in the Quad Cities. Oh, and she's a TEDx speaker coach and the Executive Director of TEDxDavenport.
Andrea's writing and research has been referenced in multiple major magazines, articles, and books including:
USA Today Best-Selling Author C.K. Bray's Book
Your First 90 Days Managing People
Forbes
The Myth of the Productivity Crisis
Fast Company
5 Red Flags You're Not Operating at Peak Performance
Author Kate Towsey's Book
The Research Operations Handbook
Co-Founder of the Changemakers Initiative Kathleen McShane's Book
Leadership After Empire
HBR Article on Managing Uncertainty
How to Make a Seemingly Impossible Leadership Decision
HBR's 10 Must Reads Boxed Set
Updated and Expanded, 6 Books
Andrea's most popular work has been selected in multiple guides, transations, and "must read" compilations from Harvard Business Review:
Helping teams align, focus, and make change stick.
Cut Through the Noise and Create Lasting Change
Andrea Belk Olson's workshops are designed to help organizations break free from ineffective change efforts and reactive strategies by fostering clarity, alignment, and employee engagement driven by Behavioral Science.
From securing authentic employee buy-in during major transformations to crafting a strategic guiding principle and core commitments that anchor decision-making, each workshop provides practical tools, real-world examples, and interactive exercises. Andrea's workshops empower leaders and teams to move beyond surface-level fixes and build lasting, purposeful change from the inside out.
Turning strategic change into everyday thinking and behavior.
Cutting through trendy fluff to embed strategic clarity and execution into daily operations.
Andrea Belk Olson is the CEO of Pragmadik, a Strategic Change Agency. Pragmadik brings a grounded, no-nonsense approach to diagnosing organizational change challenges and aligning teams around what truly matters.
Their proprietary methodology, The Steering Guide, is your strategy's operating system. It serves as the decision-making framework and alignment tool for teams. Rather than pushing fleeting solutions, Pragmadik helps organizations eliminate change resistance, and operationalize strategy in a way that sticks.
Actionable insights from a behavioral scientist and change expert.
Dynamic and deeply engaging keynotes, rooted in the science of human behavior, strategy, and critical thinking.
Andrea Belk Olson offers dynamic and interactive keynotes designed to transform organizational behavior and customer engagement. As a Behavioral Scientist and customer-centricity expert, Andrea delivers over 25 keynote speeches annually, blending humor with actionable insights.
Her presentations, which range from 60 to 90-minute talks and workshops, focus on topics including differentiation, customer-centricity, and culture change. Her approach emphasizes practical application, ensuring that audiences leave with strategies they can implement immediately.
Andrea Belk Olson was invited to lead a Masterclass at Harvard Business Review's Boot Camp for Leaders — hosted by Editor-in-Chief Adi Ignatius and featuring top experts from Amazon, Harvard, and Kellogg. She shared a new approach to get people on board with organizational change.
