Byham Biography

William C. Byham, Ph.D., is president and cofounder of Development Dimensions International (DDI), which specializes in helping organizations recognize and use their most powerful and dynamic resource-people. DDI works in close partnership with clients, c reating cultures where there is a high degree of employee involvement by integrating three key areas: organizational culture change, hiring and assessment, and training and development.

Byham has been a pioneer in several fields. In the 1970s, he introduced the assessment center method (evaluating people based on behavior in simulations as a predictor of future behavior) to corporate America. On its heels, he created Targeted Selection, the first interviewing system based on using past behavior to predict future behavior.

As Byham studied existing management training and found it provided little, if any, lift in skills he helped develop the first commercially available and effective behavior-modeling leadership training system-Interaction Management. Over the next two deca des, Byham and his colleagues introduced team, customer service, and management training systems that have met and often gone beyond the current demands of the marketplace. Today DDI training programs are available in 19 languages.

The genius of Byham's product development is that each new program is based on a common set of competencies and beliefs. This integrated approach helps domestic and international companies make links in areas such as hiring, training, and performance mana gement throughout their network of offices or plants. To gauge the effectiveness of programs, DDI documents results extensively.

Byham is an internationally known educator, consultant, and speaker. He has actively championed empowerment since 1987 when he wrote Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment, which The Wall Street journal, pointing to its fable style, says "redefined the genre of business books." Zapp!, translated into nine languages, has sold more than 2.5 million copies. Other business novels by Byham include HeroZ: Empower Yourself, Your Coworkers, Your Company and The Selection Solution: Solving the Mystery of Matching Peop le to jobs.

DDI began in the basement of Byham's home. Today, more than 1,000 employees serve 12,000 active clients through 75 offices and affiliates around the globe.