William Brendel earned his doctorate at Columbia University and for over 20 years has honed his craft in strategically transforming leaders, teams, and organizations. As founder and principal consultant for the Transformative Learning institute, William enjoys helping a wide variety of organizations around the world including North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He shares many of his own client case studies to illustrate the process and value of his transformative approach to organizational change.
In addition to consulting, William is also an Assistant Professor and teaches graduate courses to aspiring consultants at Penn State University. He has also taught in programs at Columbia University, Georgetown, Texas A&M, Temple University, and the University of St Thomas. In 2021, William received the Lisa Kimball Evolving the Field of Organization Development Award, one of the field’s highest honors, for his outstanding accomplishments in connecting diverse people and ideas to advance OD theory and applications worldwide. He served as a trustee on the board of the Organization Development Network as well as the Organization Development Education Association.
William is also the creator and executive director of OpenSourceOD, a Transformative Learning Initiative, which hosts:
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M.O.S.T. Meaningful Careers, an assessment and customized report that helps OD graduate students and professionals identify their career calling.
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Immersive Learning Circles, a set of scenario-based video simulations that help OD practitioners develop and infuse mindfulness practice in their craft.
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Innovation Labs, a space for OD students, practitioners, and researchers to prototype, test, and share new OD applications.
William also serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Organizations. He has numerous publications in journals, including the OD Review, OD Journal, Journal of Transformative Education, Journal of Management Development, and Advances in Human Resource Development. William also shares his knowledge of organization development practices through his publications in books, articles, blogs, and popular press; see: Amazon. His recent co-edited book represents the History and Evolution of Organization Development through the lens of OD thought leaders from the inception of the field in 1968 through 2022.
William is frequently interviewed about current events that pertain to organizational strategy and culture. In 2017, William was interviewed by Variety Magazine, for his views on corporate culture and complicity surrounding the Harvey Weinstein scandal. He has written frequently for the Star Tribune, and blogs on cutting-edge approaches to strategic transformation on LinkedIn. Click here to learn more about his insights, publications, and videos .Dr. Brendel has provided consulting and leadership development to the following organizations:
