Dean Anderson, Ed.D.
Dr. Dean Anderson, CEO and co-founder of Being First, Inc., coaches executives and senior consultants of Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies, armed forces, and large non-profit organizations.
As a speaker, writer, consultant and no-nonsense trainer with over forty years of experience, Dr. Anderson coaches his clients to design and implement transformational change, deliver breakthrough results, increase organizational change capacity, and establish a high performing, co-creative corporate culture that unleashes human potential. Dean’s eclectic understanding of mindset, culture, and process gives him a unique perspective that established him as a thought-leader in the field of Organization Transformation.
Dr. Anderson specializes in developing conscious change leaders who can lead their organization through successful transformation. He’s passionate about co-creation—the high-performance way of being and working that produces results for one’s self, the other individuals involved, and the whole enterprise.
Dr. Anderson co-wrote two best-selling books in the Practicing Organizational Development series, published over fifty articles, and was featured in Business Week. He currently publishes in Warren Bennis’ Leadership Excellence periodical, speaks worldwide, and is writing a book on Co-Creating and Personal Transformation.
Select Clients
- NATO
- Loblaw
- Microsoft Corporation
- PeaceHealth
- Servus Credit Union
- Canadian Park Service
- Detroit Edison
- DTE Energy
- Exxon
- Cincinnati Gas and Electric
- City of Calgary
- The Clorox Company
- Holiday Inns
- United Way of America
- Home Savings of America
- Levis Strauss
- People’s Gas
- RR Donnelley and Sons.
Professional History
Dr. Anderson’s insight into personal transformation and the inner dynamics of high performing people, teams and organizations began at an early age as a national champion swimmer: Dean was the first ten-year-old boy in the world to ever break sixty seconds in the one hundred yard freestyle, and the first twelve-year-old to ever break two minutes for the two hundred yard freestyle.
Dr. Anderson received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Stanford University, where he continued his excellence as an All-American swimmer and water polo player. On this foundation of elite performance, in 1980, Dr. Anderson founded the Optimal Performance Institute (OPI), where he taught high performing executives, athletes and performing artists how to manage their internal states of consciousness to optimize their external performance.
Dean’s Optimal Performance Training, one of the first self-empowerment and personal change programs delivered in organizations, provides the framework for Being First’s Self Mastery Trainings. This innovation and pragmatic curriculum—which produced Olympic champions at OPI—is now applied to improving change leadership skill, developing leaders, technical skill performance, creativity, communications, conflict resolution, teamwork, and responding effectively to organizational change.
In 1988, Dean merged the Optimal Performance Institute with Linda S. Ackerman, Inc. to form the comprehensive change strategy company Being First, Inc. At Being First, Dr. Anderson developed the Co-Creating System™ for optimizing personal and organizational results. He co-developed with Linda Ackerman Anderson the landmark Change Leader’s Roadmap, often referred to as “the most comprehensive, pragmatic and user-friendly resource for organizations undergoing transformational and transitional change.” He also developed the Co-Creative Partnering Process and the Co-Creative Team Development Process. In addition, Dean produced the Self Mastery Series audio program.
In 2001 Dean co-authored with Dr. Linda Ackerman Anderson two books in the Jossey-Bass Practicing Organization Development Series; Beyond Change Management: How to Achieve Breakthrough Results through Conscious Change Leadership and The Change Leader’s Roadmap: How to Navigate Your Organization’s Transformation. The Organization Development Practitioner, the OD industry journal, called these two books “the most comprehensive and the most immediately usable of all approaches available.”
When he’s not engaged in complex transformational change, Dean loves spending time with his wife, Linda, and his daughter, Terra. He also enjoys fly fishing, river rafting, hiking, snowboarding, playing the guitar, and drumming.
Select Publications
- “How Visionary Leaders Pursue Breakthrough Results”
- “Achieving Breakthrough Requires Transformation in Four Key Areas”
- “Awake at the Wheel: Moving Beyond Change Management to Conscious Change Leadership“
Read blog posts from Dean here.