Profile

Dr. Donald T. Tosti is an educator, and recognized expert in performance-based approaches to organizational effectiveness. For 30 years, he has conducted pioneering research in the study of management behavior, organizational systems, and human resources development.

Training & Development Magazine and the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) have acknowledged Dr. Tosti as a key contributor to human performance improvement (HPI) technology in the United States. In particular, ASTD notes Dr. Tosti's introduction of the Organizational Scan Model, which uses feedback to identify actions individuals and companies can take to improve performance.

Dr. Tosti is a founding partner of Vanguard Consulting, Inc., where he and Senior Partner, Stephanie F. Jackson, have co-authored five Persona programs: Leadership, Professional Manager, Organizational Agility, Customer Value Survey, and Partnering.

He has consulted on a wide range of organizational change programs for companies in the United States and Europe. His clients include British Airways, Honeywell Bull, IBM, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, American Express, and Bank of America.

Dr. Tosti is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and professional societies. He has had numerous publications on performance technology.

Focus

Dr. Tosti is an industry leader in the application of human performance technology to organizational change culture. Named "the Feedback Guy" by ASTD, Dr. Tosti has spent a significant portion of his career creating programs that enable organizations to successfully institute changes using feedback, thereby improving performance.

Performance-based leadership is at the heart of the Persona Leadership and Professional Manager programs that Dr. Tosti and Ms. Jackson have co-authored. Through interactive feedback in 36 key areas of leadership, managers can create practical plans to improve their own performance and the performance of their respective departments. While Leadership gives managers the tools they need to become better leaders and to drive positive changes within their own organization, Professional Manager helps mid-to-upper level managers become more effective in their functional areas and throughout the organization. Both programs are well received and widely adopted by our clients.

Current Activities

At Vanguard Consulting, Dr. Tosti consults with companies on issues relating to leadership, management, culture change, internal marketing, customer value, and strategic alliances. He is also actively involved with Persona, representing attending conferences around the world and assisting clients in meeting their specific performance goals.

Dr. Tosti holds adjunct professorships at the University of New Mexico, Catholic University of America, San Francisco State University, and the California School for Professional Psychology.

Experience

Dr. Tosti is a pioneer in research on contingency management. His career in performance-based research began when he was serving as a principal investigator for the Multimedia Leadership and Management Course at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he adapted the methods of performance analysis to the study of leadership and management behavior. Later, Dr. Tosti served as a principal investigator for the Bahamas Project, whose goal was to transform the region from a fishing culture to a modern agricultural economy.

In 1978, he developed the Performance-based Management Systems, a series of human performance improvement (HPI) training programs that had a huge impact upon the industry. Since then, he has conducted numerous research projects and consulted to companies, using the principles of performance-based management and organizational alignment.

Education

Dr. Tosti holds a Ph. D. and a M. S. in psychology, and a B. S. in electrical engineering, from the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Tosti's publications include:

* Article, "Global Fluency," Performance Improvement, Feb. 1999
* Book chapter, "Organizational Scan", Intervention Resource Guide, 1999, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer
* Working Paper, Partnering: Working in Alliances, 1998, Vanguard Consulting, Inc.
* Working Paper, Riding the Winds of Change: Creating an Adaptive Company, 1996, Vanguard Consulting, Inc.
* Article, "Organizational Alignment, How it Works and Why it Matters," with Stephanie Jackson, Training Magazine, April, 1994
* Working Paper, The 10 Rules of Organizational Change, 1994, Vanguard Consulting, Inc.
* Book chapter, "Influencing Others to Act (Leadership, Teamwork, Partnering)", Handbook of Performance Technology, 1991, Jossey-Bass