Richard N. Knowles
Organizational Anthropologist
Married to Claire E. F. Knowles, 1 step-daughter, 3 daughters, 5 grand-children.
Over the course of 36 years in safety, management, and leadership within a large organization, I began to see that the most important lessons about organizations could not always be found in conventional leadership theories. That realization led me into 25 years of studying Systematics, Chaos, Complexity, Complex Adaptive Systems, and Complex Responsive Processes.
What began as a professional journey gradually became a deeper exploration of how people, relationships, and organizations actually change and evolve. Bringing these two worlds together—decades of practical experience and years of theoretical study—ultimately led to the development of Self-Organizing Leadership© and the Process Enneagram©: a holistic approach to understanding and facilitating organizational transformation.
“Twenty-six years on from first working with you and your process still shapes how I go about my work.“
People know you now as a safety leader, but you got there as a plant manager. The environment you describe, where people are valued for what they know and look out for each other, wasn’t a safety programme. It was how you ran a plant, and the safety performance came out of it.
That’s the part our profession keeps getting backwards. Safety excellence isn’t produced by safety. It comes out of operations being led well, and you’re the clearest proof of it I know.
Mike Boyle
Risk Mentor Pty Ltd and Risk Mentor New Zealand
Education
- University of Rochester, Rochester, NY Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry – 1961
- Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH. BA Chemistry – 1957
Professional Experience
- Self-Organizing Leadership© and Process Enneagram© consulting in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK. – September 1996 – Present (world wide zoom conferencing now)
- Co-Founder and Director of The Center for Self-Organizing Leadership, Inc™ – October 2003 – Present
- Former Board Member of DuVersity, The Study of John Bennett’s Systematics – January 2005
- Former Board Member of The Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickinson University – May 2004
- Visiting Professor, Adelphi University – October 25, 2004
- Visiting Professor, Bowling Green State University – October 19, 2004
- DuPont Company: Director, Emergency Response and Community Outreach – February 1995- September 1996
- WV State Emergency Response Commission Member – 1990 – 1995
- DuPont Company: Plant Manager, Belle, WV – April 1987- February 1995
- American Chemical Council: Community Awareness and Emergency Response Task Group – Sept. 1987 – Sept. 1997
- DuPont Company: Plant Manager, Niagara Falls, NY – August 1983 – April 1987
- DuPont Company: Assistant Plant Manager, Deep Water, NJ – January 1980 – August 1983
- DuPont Company: Manufacturing Manager, Wilmington, DE – September 1978 – January 1980
- DuPont Company: Various Manufacturing, Sales Market Development and Research Activities (40 US Patents) – October, 1960 – September 1978
Awards & Recognition
- December 2012 ASSE – Florida Central Chapter on “Leadership Approach and Safety Outcomes” – Guest Speaker”
- Partnering for Safety and Business Excellence” – Buy Here.
- Richard Knowles has had two papers accepted for the AIChCE conference – the 15th Process Plant Safety Symposium for April 29-30 in San Antonio TX
- EPA Region III Chemical Emergency Planning and Preparedness Partnership Award in 1995 for the leading role played in Safety Street, Managing Our Risks Together, a 1992-1994 ground breaking risk communications effort [prelude to the Clean Air Act] in the greater Charleston, WV Area.
- Featured in The New Pioneers by Tom Petzinger, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1999.
- Featured in The Soul at Work. (Chapter 9) by Roger Lewin and Birute Regine
- Listed in Who’s Who in the World, in America and in Science and Engineering.
- Strathmore’s Who’s Who, 2009 Professional of the Year-Organizational Change and Leadership Consulting.
Three ways we can help you and your organization
Each grew out of decades spent inside real organizations solving real problem.
Pick the starting point that matches what you're facing.
The Process
Enneagram©
A proven nine-step framework for working through complex, high-stakes problems, used across manufacturing, healthcare, and civic organizations.
Self-Organizing Leadership©
Coaching and organizational design that helps leaders build teams capable of adapting on their own, instead of waiting on top-down direction.
Safety Leadership
ProcessTM
Workshops and culture-change work that helps plants and field operations move from compliance-driven safety to genuine safety leadership.