Doug Kirkpatrick

Doug Kirkpatrick is a speaker, author, and consultant specializing in organizational self-management. He started his career as a financial controller at The Morning Star Company, where he experienced firsthand the power of a self-managed workplace and postulated the ideas of “Don’t use force” and “Keep your commitment”. That journey led him to become a leading advocate for autonomy in the workplace.

As the founder and CEO of D’Artagnan Advisors, Doug helps companies transition to self-management, fostering innovation, accountability, and engagement. He has served on the boards of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and LiDER, contributing to global conversations on the future of work. He is also the author of Beyond Empowerment and The No-Limits Enterprise, which explore self-management principles in depth.

Session: The Leadership Diamond in Action: Courage, Ethics, and Vision in a Changing World

This fireside conversation will be moderated by Andrea Robb, with featured guests Doug Kirkpatrick (organizational self-management pioneer) and Tim Griffin from Amy’s Kitchen (senior leader driving sourcing, operations, and culture evolution inside a legacy food brand). This is a real-time exploration of what it takes to lead ethically and courageously from within complexity, not theory, but practice.

What happens when you ground leadership, not in charisma or hierarchy/power, but in ethics, courage, vision, and reality?

This session brings together two deeply reflective practitioners - Doug Kirkpatrick and Tim from Amy’s Kitchen - to explore how Peter Koestenbaum’s Leadership Diamond® serves as both a philosophical and operational guide in the midst of real transformation. Amy’s Kitchen, a beloved legacy brand rooted in values and purpose, is quietly navigating a generational shift in leadership, evolving supply chain complexity, and a changing world. Guided by principles from Morning Star and Koestenbaum’s Diamond, Tim and his team are asking hard questions about power, purpose, and responsibility - without defaulting to coercion or control. Doug will bring forward the foundational principles of self-management and “don’t use force,” while Andrea Robb will guide the discussion toward practical application: how these leadership concepts become real inside a food company navigating massive change.