Michael Fryer

Consultant/Facilitator/Educator

Michael Fryer has 27 years’ experience accompanying organizations and communities around the world as they learn to navigate the dynamics and tensions that often lead to unhealthy conflict. He is grateful to be able to draw on a remarkably diverse and extensive range of professional experiences. From working in areas of political conflict such as Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, through to leading a team to reimagine their mission statement on a strategic retreat, Michael’s always guided by an enduring commitment to being adaptable, approachable, creative and authentic.

Michael’s goal with those he works with is to ensure that they find their way to better questions. Using frameworks, models and the practical wisdom always found in stories, Michael intentionally crafts spaces that allow teams to approach complex problems in ways they hadn’t thought about before. Every positive and sustainable change that he’s observed over the years has emerged through listening. It’s the spark and catalyst behind all new ideas and approaches and is why he named his consulting firm Catalysten.

In addition to his work as a consultant with organizations and corporations, since 2019 Michael has been a Professor of Practice at the Joan. B. Kroc School, University of San Diego where he helps bring real life learning into the classroom setting.

Michael is currently writing a book called ‘How To Complain Effectively’, and developing a podcast focusing on the practical wisdom found in the work of grassroots peace and social change practitioners. He is originally from Bradford in the UK and now lives in Julian, CA with this wife Vanessa and their two young daughters. Michael loves to cook, research family histories and is rekindling a love of playing traditional Irish music. He will always have a project on the go at home such as construction, landscaping, gardening or thinking up how to create or build something new for the family to enjoy. Over the years, he’s found that it is during these times of ‘pottering’ that his greatest insights and inspirations emerge.

Michael can be found at:

https://www.catalysten.net

and

https://www.michaelfryer.com