ABOUT US

Alex Mislin, Ph.D. + Chris Mattingly, J.D.

Alex and Chris began their careers working together in information design consulting, helping organizations communicate complex ideas more clearly and solve business problems more effectively.

They later built expertise along different but complementary paths. Alex became a professor of management at American University, studying trust, judgment, and the everyday negotiations that shape work. Chris continued as a strategic consultant, supporting Fortune 500 companies through complex conversations, training, and organizational change.

Seventeen Camels brings those perspectives together to help organizations work through friction, clarify responsibilities, and design more effective collaboration across teams and human-AI workflows.

WHY 17 CAMELS?

In an old desert fable, a father leaves 17 camels to his three sons and asks them to divide them so the eldest receives one half, the middle one third, and the youngest one ninth. The brothers cannot make the numbers work.

A wise woman listens and offers them one camel of her own. With 18 camels, the division suddenly becomes possible: 9, 6, and 2. The brothers receive their shares, resolve their disagreement, and one camel remains to return to the wise woman.

We chose the name Seventeen Camels because it captures something central to our work: some problems are difficult to resolve because people are working within the wrong frame. Progress often begins by stepping back, clarifying what matters, and introducing the missing element that makes movement possible.