Dr Change — Senior Systems Change Strategist
Richard Fossey, EdD, PMP · Calgary, Alberta, Canada · richard@rftfgroup.com · (403) 615-6583
Adapt the system, not just the strategy
Dr Change is a senior systems-change strategist working with executives and leadership teams who are tired of patching wicked problems with linear playbooks. The work helps organizations build the adaptive capacity to actually change.
Linear thinking solves complicated problems — the kind with right answers waiting to be found. Complex problems behave differently. They adapt, push back, and surface unintended consequences the moment you intervene. Organizations don't fail because their strategy is wrong. They fail because the system around the strategy can't move.
Consulting & advisory
Embedded, multi-month engagements with senior leadership teams navigating transformation, restructuring, or stalled change initiatives. Includes systems diagnosis, leadership team rhythms, executive coaching, portfolio orchestration, and 90-day re-reads. Typical duration 6–18 months.
Presentations & workshops
Keynotes, executive retreats, and intensive workshops on systems thinking, complexity, and building adaptive capacity. Offerings include "The Adaptive Leader" keynote, a half-day systems thinking workshop for leaders, and a two-day retreat on building adaptive capacity.
The working cadence across all engagements: Diagnose, Frame, Engage, Review.
When Project Management Culture Undermines Organizational Change. A case study examining the real and measurable costs incurred when command-and-control leadership cultures within large organizations resist, marginalize, or superficially accommodate Organizational Change Management (OCM) practice. Developed through semi-structured interviews with a senior OCM practitioner in the energy sector, it explores how project leadership can neutralize OCM effectiveness and undermine change readiness through exclusion, non-responsiveness, and the weaponization of process — and what organizations lose as a result. Eleven sections, with recommendations for executive sponsors, HR leadership, project governance bodies, and OCM practitioners.
Becoming More Adaptable by Richard Fossey, EdD, PMP. Do change differently. Disrupt your understanding of change and learn simple rules to help you manage a complexicated world. Begin to see your world differently and learn to ground your approach to change in Systems Thinking. Become more sensitive to the contextual, people-based elements of the change process. Help yourself, your organization, and your family better manage wicked problems and become more adaptable. If you are a change thought-leader, then this book was written for you.
Available on Amazon.ca
Short, research-grounded videos drawing on 35+ years of organizational change management experience and the 12 Simple Rules from Change is Simple, But Not Easy. Topics include the wicked problems of change, the tension change creates, the dark forces working against you, and why culture eats strategy for breakfast. Watch on YouTube.
A consultant in the field of people change management. Across more than three decades, work has spanned industries as diverse as energy (electricity and gas) and banking, with organizations ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups through to international enterprises.
Credentials: Doctor of Education (EdD), University of Calgary, 2022 — research on executive-level senior leadership-team adaptability with a province-wide healthcare provider. Project Management Professional (PMP), 2008. Past sessional instructor, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary.
Beyond the work: Senior Black Belt in Karate, training since 1980 and teaching since 1985, currently at Karate Rosemont in Calgary. Semi-professional trumpet player. Executive board member across non-profits, recognized in 2012 as an Honoured Athletic Leader by the Calgary Booster Club.
Every engagement starts with a 30-minute call. Email richard@rftfgroup.com or call (403) 615-6583.