2.  An experienced business executive with more than 25
years of management and consulting experience, Dane
D’Alessandro has served as Section Chief of Consumer
Response Investigations at the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau since 2011. In addition to his professional
career, Dane D’Alessandro is completing a PhD in
Organization Development at Benedictine University's
College of Business in Lisle, Illinois.
Organization Development (OD) is commonly defined as
the system-wide application and transfer of behavioral
science knowledge to the planned development,
improvement, and reinforcement of the strategies,
structures, and processes that lead to organization
effectiveness.

3.  Grounded in the seminal mid-20th century research of Kurt
Lewin, Douglas McGregor, the NTL Institute and the UK's
Tavistock Institute, OD theories and principles inform a wide
range of strategic initiatives pursued by today's global
organizations, including business transformation, planned
organizational change, organization design and work design,
team development and effectiveness, employee empowerment
and involvement, organizational learning and knowledge
management, performance management, workforce diversity,
sustainability, and organization culture.
As organizations expand their global reach and operating
borders, face an accelerating pace of change within their
industries, rely more extensively on knowledge work to produce
products and services for their customers, and manage an
increasingly diverse and blended workforce, they leverage
advanced OD theories, frameworks, and practices to maintain
organization effectiveness.

4.  OD initiatives and programs are supported
with the expertise of internal staff, internal
OD consultants, and external management
consultants. An emerging trend is the
increasing prevalence of the OD scholar-
practitioner, who applies the latest OD
theory and research to help organizational
leaders address both challenges and new
opportunities, while synthesizing insights
gained in applying OD practices to further
advance theory and research.

5.  Recent advances in applications of OD to
organizational strategies include the shift
towards positive and appreciative approaches
to creating change within and across
organizational borders (leveraging
organizational strengths in lieu of a problem-
oriented focus), the development of cross-
cultural competence as organizations expand
their global reach, and refinement of
corporate sustainability strategies to improve
both business model durability over the long-
term and the organization's impact on
community and society.