More than you might expect — for three reasons.

• As an outside consultant, Candid can be a neutral party without worrying about protecting its own interests or how what the person is saying personally impacts them. People are often eager to open up because they want to see change.
• The conversations are confidential. We share patterns and themes with leaders without attribution to particular individuals.
• Adam can quickly build rapport and connections. One example from outside of Fidelity: Adam writes about baseball for publications including On SI (Sports Illustrated). One assignment gave him access to a major league clubhouse open to reporters for 45 minutes. In that window, one player opened up about his brother's death from a drug overdose. A second shared that his first thought upon being called up to the Major Leagues was not joy but "oh, sh*t, I am not ready for this" — the kind of professional vulnerability most people, especially All-Star professional athletes, seldom reveal. A friend who later read the article put it simply: "You are incredible at quickly building connections."

Candid ensures confidentiality in two important ways.

First, you provide a roster of people Candid can speak with, and Candid selects among them. That means even participation in the process isn't fully visible to leadership.

Second, nothing is ever attributed to an individual. Findings are shared with leaders as patterns and themes only. People can speak candidly, knowing their specific words will not be individually attributed.

This is an important question to ask — and the honest answer is that it requires equal parts clarity and care.

Adam navigated complex organizational and interpersonal dynamics at Fidelity and was known for communicating clearly, honestly, and diplomatically based on that understanding of the landscape.

Another real-world example: Adam mediated a contentious neighborhood dispute through a single email — the kind of situation where people have dug in, emotions are high, and whatever you say will be read defensively by people on both sides. A neighbor described it afterward as: "a masterpiece in diplomacy while being honest at the same time."

Candid brings those skills to communicating findings and helping you gain momentum on solutions.

The large consulting firms tell you what to do. Candid tells you what's true.

This enables you to move forward quickly in the right direction. Most consulting engagements begin with a hypothesis and work to confirm it. Candid begins with the people closest to the work, surfaces what they know but haven't been able to say, and then helps you craft a plan, align people on that path forward, and gain momentum. You also get value in 60 days versus having an army of consultants in your organization for quarters, if not years.

The core engagement runs 60 days: an initial insights brief with early findings and no-regret action steps by Day 14, a full root cause analysis and recommendations by Day 28, and a solution acceleration phase through Day 60 where Candid works directly with leadership to build alignment and get things moving. Beyond Day 60, senior guidance is available on an optional, lighter-touch basis through execution — and we can connect you with vetted implementation and training partners when you're ready to build. We are open to customizing the scope and structure based on your specific needs.

Candid works best with mid-market companies in the $25 million to $1 billion revenue range — large enough to have real organizational complexity and to see a strong return on the investment, but not so large that the work becomes a multi-year institutional undertaking. We are an especially good fit for mid-market companies that want to get more value from AI or have a complex and critical project not progressing as planned.

That said, the underlying challenge Candid solves — leaders needing the truth to make good decisions and build momentum — exists at every size.