Richard McDermott is a leading thinker, author and consultant on designing knowledge organizations, building communities of practice and developing deep expertise. He has worked for four decades with engineering, professional service, sales, and manufacturing firms to maximize the productivity of knowledge workers. He was the subject matter expert for three international studies of best practices in knowledge management; creating a knowledge-sharing culture, institutionalizing communities of practice and developing and transferring deep expertise. He’s published 51 articles and two books, “Cultivating Communities” and “How to Think Like an Expert” (forthcoming). Richard is a frequent speaker at international conferences. Prior to starting his consulting practice, Richard worked in the Corporate Education department at Polaroid a Research Assistant at the Harvard Business School. Richard has served on the faculty of Lesley College and the Henley Business School where he taught organizational behavior, organizational change and knowledge management.