Diane Burrus

Diane Burrus is a Senior Consultant for WFD Consulting, and Workplace Flexibility, Team Effectiveness Practice Leader. In that role she has lead the development of WFD’s Team Effectiveness Process, a structured dialogue and team flexibility and work-life effectiveness planning process with innovative on-line assessment and tracking tools that are being utilized by several leading companies including Astra Zeneca, Cummins, Deloitte & Touche, IBM, Marriott, Texas Instruments and others. She also leads WFD consultants and clients in achieving business results through new and flexible ways of working with an emphasis on managing a dispersed, virtual workforce.

Diane has over 25 years of experience as a consultant, facilitator and trainer with specific expertise in developing management and organizational practices that enhance employee commitment, engagement, resilience, retention and effectiveness. She was instrumental in developing ManagingSmartä: Creating A Flexible, Productive Work Environment, the first management training program on work-life issues and workplace flexibility to be developed and delivered to over 70,000 managers in leading corporations in the US and Canada.

Diane consults with global companies to identify and overcome barriers to commitment and develops workplace strategies, guidelines, and management practices that address issues of women’s advancement, workload, flexibility, virtual teams and work-life support. She has designed and developed customized management tools, videos and interactive computer-based multi-media training interventions for numerous clients including AOL, Astra Zeneca, Corning, Deloitte & Touche, Dell, Discover Card, Dow Chemical, IBM, Prudential Insurance, Merck, Nations Bank, Shell, The St. Paul Companies and Xerox.

She was the primary consultant for IBM in global initiatives to address workplace flexibility, workload and work-life issues the US, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe. She developed and delivered management training on workplace flexibility throughout Latin America and in Australia, designed strategy and tools to enhance flexible, supportive management practices in Japan, and developed the People-Oriented Work Redesign process and tools for e-based, global application.

Diane also assisted in the development and implementation of a global organizational resilience strategy and training program for a major pharmaceutical company. She is a co-leader of the Leadership Forum for Women’s Advancement, a group of corporate women’s initiative thought leaders that are creating breakthrough solutions to women’s advancement to leadership.

A graduate of Arizona State University, Diane is a member of International Who’s Who of Professionals currently serves as a member of the strategy board for World at Work’s Alliance for Work Life Progress. She is frequently quoted in articles on flexible management practices, work-life issues and women’s advancement for national publications and is a frequent speaker at national conferences sponsored by such organizations as: American Society for Training and Development, AWLP, World & Work, International Quality and Productivity Center, The Conference Board, Society for Human Resource Management and International Personnel Management Association.