Richard Beckhard (1918–1999) was an American organizational theorist, adjunct professor at MIT, and researcher in the field of organization development.
Beckhard was an adjunct professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1963 to 1984.
Through the Organization Development Network and The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland in the United States and The Professional Development Institute PDI Inc. in Canada, Richard Beckhard shared this precept, for over thirty years, with managers and executives in business and governments.
The formula proposes that the combination of organisational dissatisfaction, vision for the future and the possibility of immediate, tactical action must be stronger than the resistance within the organisation in order for meaningful change to occur.
[4] Another area of Beckhard's work was concerned with change and continuity within family-owned businesses.