The Action Design network consists of experienced practitioners who have worked with Action Design for several years. Members of the network join us as faculty in our competence building programs and as colleagues in selected consulting engagements. We also include in this directory scholars and senior practitioners with whom we have worked closely.

This page is in progress.  Many of our valued colleagues are not yet listed here.

Action Design Network

Dianne Argyris is President of Endicott Archer Consulting, a practice she began in 1998. Dianne works with organizational leaders at all levels to help them develop and implement strategies for bringing about cultural change. She has extensive experience with management development and Human Resources, both as an internal member of an organization and as a consultant. Prior to beginning Endicott Archer Consulting, Dianne was Director of Human Resources at AT&T's UNIX Systems Laboratories and Head of Training and Development at Lotus/IBM. She did her undergraduate work in psychology at Connecticut College. Dianne holds an MA and an Ed.D. in Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She can be reached at diarg@verizon.net.

Hilary Austen is a principal and co-founder of Catalyst Consulting Team, a California-based management and organization development firm.  Hilary earned her doctorate at Stanford University in the artistry of practical and professional activity.

Iris Bagwell, M.Ed., is an organizational consultant with an independent practice in Newton, Massachusetts.  Ms. Bagwell has over twenty-five years of experience working with individuals, groups and organizations in a variety of contexts.  She combines a strong clinical background from her extensive work as an individual, group and family therapist with a more recent intensive emphasis on organizational learning.  Her current practice includes a focus on executive coaching and working with organizations to build effective learning teams.

Todd Cook helps organizations build internal capability in the areas of leadership, change management, and talent development. A major part of his work is focused on coaching executives and facilitating teams working on critical business issues. He is experienced working with both Fortune 100 companies and emerging entrepreneurial organizations in a variety of industries. His clients have included AlliedSignal, BP, INSEAD, Penn State, Johns Manville, Grainger, and Shell. He has been working with Action Design since 1993.

Rafael Echeverria is a principal of The Newfield Group, a consulting and education firm.  He is a scholar and writer on the nature of language and communication.  He worked with Fernando Flores and has designed courses on the language of business and ontological coaching.  He collaborated with Bob Putnam of Action Design on a course for executives sponsored by The Center for Quality of Management in Cambridge, MA.  Much of his work is in Latin America and Spain.  His web site is in Spanish, but if you click on "Estados Unidos" you will get an English version.

Idar Johannessen is Associate Professor of Organization Studies at Stord/Haugesund University College in Haugesund, Norway, where he teaches courses on organizational behavior and organizational communication. He has been training and working with Action Design since 1988 and has extensive experience as a trainer, coach, and consultant in both Europe and the United States. His work has focused on helping consulting firms develop the skills of their professionals and on writing about the case methodology. Currently, his research focuses on how managers cope with complexity in the Norwegian maritime industry. He can be reached at idar.johannessen@hsh.no.

David Kantor is a family systems therapist and theorist.  He has been a founding principal in each of the family therapy institutes in the Boston area over the past three decades.  His most recent book is My Lover, Myself:  Self Discovery Through Relationship.

Knut Ivar Karevold has an independent practice as an organizational psychologist in Oslo, Norway. His consulting work focuses on applications of Action Science in management training, team development, inter-organizational relations and innovation efforts. He also does research on communication and organizational performance. He can be contacted at knut.ivar.karevold@in3.no.

Annie Marks, MBA, has over 12 years of experience consulting in the areas of organizational learning, development and change, and executive development and coaching. She has worked in a wide range of business contexts, including the implementation of new technologies, organizational restructuring and company-wide business process change. She has an independent practice, based in New York City, and specializes in training and coaching executives and teams on handling particularly difficult situations in order to resolve recurring organizational dynamics. She can be reached at amarksnyc@gmail.com.

Grady McGonagill is principal of McGonagill & Associates, a consulting firm that for 18 years has helped organizations and individuals build capacity for learning and change. He has offered workshops on coaching, teamwork, and interpersonal skills in North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Asia. Grady's current interests lie in training for change leadership, executive coaching, and helping team leaders at all levels become better developers of others. He also has a special interest in working with environmental advocacy organizations. Grady can be reached at GradyMcG@aol.com

William Noonan is an educator and consultant with an international practice including many leading learning organizations. His practice includes facilitation, conducting workshops and designing web-based learning programs. He was a content expert for Peter Senge's multi-media CD ROM titled "Activating the Fifth Discipline." He completed a project with Peter Senge and the internet media company Ninthhouse, designing a web-based corporate training program on mental model skills. Recently, he collaborated on two web-based courses for the Harvard Business Review Publishing Company, Productive Business Dialogues and Managing Difficult Conversations. Bill received a BA from University of San Francisco, Masters from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union/UC Berkeley. He teaches at Marylhurst University in the Business Department, the Art Therapy Department, and the Religious Studies Department. He teaches the Philosophy series at Columbia Gorge Community College. He can be reached at wnoonan@gorge.net.

Roger Schwarz is an organizational psychologist and president of Roger Schwarz & Associates. He teaches, consults, and writes about facilitation, managing change and conflict, and developing effective work groups. He is the author of The Skilled Facilitator (Jossey-Bass, 1994).  He co-leads the workshop Facilitating Reflective Conversation with Bob Putnam of Action Design.

Julia Sullivan has been an independent consultant since 1984. Her specialty is in helping clients introduce breakthrough technologies, define new strategies, or solve problems neither they nor others have previously faced. Since 1995 Julia has been working closely with Dr. Jerry Porras of the Stanford Business School, as the lead consultant for Jerry Porras Associates, the consulting group that supports the implementation of principles described in Built To Last by Dr. Jerry Porras and Jim Collins. In association with Action Design, Julia has led case analysis workshops for senior executives attending Transition to General Management offered by Columbia University and Leading and Managing Change offered by Stanford University.

John van Zwieten is a co-founder of foreAction.com. He established the company in 1999 to provide interim management and coaching services to high tech and internet-based service companies. He has worked with Silicon Valley startups to help them refine business plans and execute to those plans, redesign business processes, as well as helping emerging companies in the Valley through acquisitions and mergers. His clients have included Abilizer, Post Communications, Confer, Fast Forward, Netcentives, Alta Vista, UBUBU, and JustArrive. Prior to founding foreAction.com, John was a consultant with the Catalyst Consulting Team, Santa Cruz, CA. His major focus at Catalyst was to help corporate managers align with changes in strategic direction. He also established an executive coaching practice to help senior executives work more productively with others. John holds a BA from Antioch College and an MA in psychology from Duquesne University. He was on the editorial review board of the Journal of American Society for Training and Development and is on the editorial review board of Consulting Psychology.