Ken Rickard

The Change Awakens: Escaping the Dark Side of Organizational Gravity

Ken is a spark for transformative good—a change alchemist, deep thinker, and catalyst for personal growth and organizational evolution. As co-author The Six Big Ideas of Adaptive Organizations, he has created powerful frameworks and sense-making models that enable people to navigate complex situations effectively. With more than 25 years of experience in the business and IT communities, Ken has dedicated himself to unraveling the intricacies of organizational change and personal adaptation. 

His journey has evolved from championing specific agile frameworks to embracing a more holistic, adaptive approach—one that values continuous experimentation and deep systems thinking over semi-rigid frameworks. Ken’s work emphasizes agility as a continuous process of adaptation rather than a static set of practices, and his insights have helped numerous leaders and organizations unlock their potential to thrive amidst uncertainty and complexity.

His workshop –

The Change Awakens: Escaping the Dark Side of Organizational Gravity “Just when you think your transformation is moving forward, the gravitational pull of old behaviors drags you back into the status quo. The real battle isn’t against resistance—it’s against the illusion of change itself. In this session, we’ll explore the Vortex of Behavioral Patterns, a model that reveals why organizations struggle to sustain change and how deeply embedded habits create an invisible force field that keeps them stuck.

We’ll unravel the hidden mechanics of why transformation efforts so often spiral back to familiar patterns—and what it takes to break free. You’ll walk away with a fresh lens to diagnose stagnation, recognize behavioral gravity wells, and apply strategies that create real movement instead of just another lap around the transformation treadmill. Whether you’re coaching teams, influencing leadership, or driving large-scale transformation, this session will challenge your thinking and sharpen your ability to shift organizations toward true adaptability.

 If you’ve ever felt like you’re fighting an unseen force in your change work, this session will help you name it, tame it, and escape its pull.” The workshop is about sense-making, a practice largely unknown to many Agile and Change practitioners. The sessions are designed to learn about and apply sense-making to better understand your context. The session will start with an explanation of The Vortex of Behavioral Patterns. Attendees will be asked to think about and place a circle sticky on a word associated with their change context. Sharing and a discussion will follow.