Latest Thinking

When all organization design elements are in place and carefully aligned with the strategy—structure and roles, business and people processes, leadership, and employee engagement—an organization will create a set of customer experiences that, in turn, lead to desired financial results. It’s a matter of turning intangible human systems into hard financial results. Driving all of this must be an aligned senior team.

In the most successful companies, the top team not only creates the organization’s business strategy but also collaboratively executes on that plan. This means building or maintaining the organizational capabilities called for by the strategy.

Areas of Expertise

Rick supports organizations as they make accelerated strategic change. For 30 years, Rick has worked with clients providing a variety of services in support of strategy execution. Those services include executive coaching, leadership development, strategic visioning, top team alignment, and organization design.

Dr. McKnight’s work focuses on realigning internal functioning with the demands of the external marketplace. He is skilled in quickly enabling large numbers of employees to understand and embrace a company’s new strategy, in aligning work unit effort with the strategy, and in fostering cross-divisional collaboration.

Rick speaks and publishes on the topics of strategy implementation, leadership, and organizational change. His work has appeared in journals including Training & Development, Supply Chain Management, Training Magazine, Human Resource Management, and The OD Practitioner. In addition to his books, his most recent article is “Top Team Alignment: The Epicenter of Strategy Execution,” which appeared in the April, 2009 issue of The OD Practitioner.

Background

Post-doctorate, Rick was employed as a Senior Organizational Consultant for Sunoco, was then self-employed for 20 years as a consultant to senior leaders in various Fortune 500 businesses. He was VP, Organizational Consulting at Right Management for five years prior to founding McKnight • Kaney.

Education

Rick holds a Doctorate in Organizational Psychology from Temple University and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington. He also holds a BS in Industrial Design from Montana State University.

Rick is a member of The Harvard Business Review Advisory Council.

Rick is a Certified Trainer of Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® and Lateral Thinking Tools®.