Ken Shepard, PhD., is the Founding President of the Global Organization Design Society, a worldwide professional association of academics, business users, and consultants practicing the application of Requisite Organization concepts. 

Current RO-related interests and projects

• Supporting the work of consultant and organizational GO Society sponsors
• Identifying successful management consultants who are Mode VI or higher and have access to CEOs who are interested in adding RO methods to their practice.
• Developing extensive support for consultants who work with small and medium-sized organizations SMEs as these seem most likely to make the best use of RO concepts.
• Creating the infrastructure and financing to ensure long-term availability of the GO Society's extensive resources
• Working with the GO Society's most senior consultants to develop a Requisite Execution Capability Audit to measure the extent and quality of RO implementation to date and to recommend improvements in the organization's execution capability.
• Further developing the GO Society's online professional development program.

Distinguishing experiences that provided the foundation for his RO-related roles

• Work experience as a senior manager, academic, and consultant with roles in business, government, not-for-profits and education.
• A doctorate in management specializing in organization behaviour, organization development - his research including building a network and community in the field of organization development.
• An early meeting with Elliott Jaques in 1978
• Experience in building leadership networks, designing multi-stakeholder consultations, creating learning experiences, and designing and moderating conferences.
• Dr. Shepard founded the management of change program at the Niagara Institute in 1981 and directed it for a decade before leaving to found the Canadian Centre. In that role, he benchmarked best practices at major Canadian corporations and designed a wide range of senior management development programs at the VP level. Dr. Shepard has designed and led the following workshops often tailored for application within a corporation.
  • Creating the CEO Role
  • Strategic Planning
  • Strategy Implementation
  • Organization Design
  • Talent Pool Design and Management
  • Leadership and the Management of Change
  • Public Affairs, both fundamentals and advanced.
  • Working Effectively with External Stakeholder Groups
• International experience - residential periods in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina plus extensive travels in Latin America and Europe - 
• As a consultant and Principal of the Canadian Centre for Leadership and Strategy for 24 years, Dr. Shepard worked with CEO's, Deputy Ministers, and seconds-in-command responsible for major change projects in Canada and abroad.
• Ken's practice was largely based on Requisite Organization concepts developed by Elliott Jaques complemented by state-of-the-art organization development processes.

Contributions to the field of Requisite Organization

Ken met Dr. Jaques in l978, brought him to Toronto in l992 and produced 3500 participant days of public workshops in Requisite Organization with Dr. Jaques introducing these concepts to senior consultants and line managers.? Over time he benefited from Dr. Jaques's advice on his major consulting projects.

He was the chief editor and a contributing author of the book, Organization Design, Levels of Work Complexity and Human Capability: Executive Guide.

Contributions to the Global Organization Design Society

A member of the Toronto Legacy Group that began meeting after a memorial service for Dr. Jaques in 2003,  Dr. Shepard retired from consulting work to dedicate his volunteer energies full-time to preserving Dr. Jaques's legacy.  He incorporated the GO Society as a non-profit and served as its founding president from 2003 to the present.  He also chaired the Society's Editorial Board for that same period.

He networked to build a community of RO practitioners worldwide.

He produced and moderated five world conferences in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2014

He developed the GO Society's website and managed the transition through three platforms and countless revisions.

Major resources on this website:

A short overview of RO for those new to the field:  Requisite Organization -- An accountability-based system to implement strategy in managerial employment hierarchies that matches levels of work complexity and human capability to design an integrated system of structure, staffing, policies, processes, and practices. 

A white paper for CEO's who are considering use of Requisite Organization  An Executive’s Guide to RO-based Organizational Design

An overview for HR professionals   The Rigour Of Requisite Organization   An Interview with Ken Shepard by Queen’s Industrial Relations Centre July 1, 2008

The GO Society book:  Organization Design, Levels of Work & Human Capability: Executive Guide

Contact info

Email:                   [email protected]

Telephone:          +1-647-570-6805

Webpage:            https://globalro.org/

Linkedin URL:     https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-shepard-51915111/