Author: Nelson Coulter Getting better is a tough slog. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about our personal “state” or that of our organization. Why? Because getting better always means a change in the current state. Change is hard even if we agree that it’s needed. It’s particularly hard if we don’t. There are three common and powerful Impediments to …

Author: Nelson Coulter No, there’s not a contest or tournament which results in declaring who the World Champion Leader is. Yet, those of us in leadership roles typically long to be viewed as exemplars of the craft. IF, however, such a contest existed, at the very top of the list of determinant criteria would reside a powerful attractor: Respectfulness. Everyone wants to …

Author: Nelson Coulter Organizational dysfunction or inertia is typically the result of subversive behavior on the part of some members of the organization (either a few of ’em or a lot). Assuming that we are voluntary members of organizations that have worthy and noble intentions, what are some ways we — you and I — can be better team members, …

Author: Shavan R. Galindo, Lytle Primary School Principal For most of us No is the last thing we want to hear, especially as we progress through our career. In this, my twentieth year in education all the No’s led me to where I am today. I started my career in education in the very small town I grew up in, …

Author: Shelly Slaughter, Superintendent Cumby ISD So often I can get caught up in all the things that I have to do and who I have to be, and I completely forget my why and the things that truly make life worth living. The people around us and the relationships we have with those people are my why. In order …

Author: Nelson Coulter Learning has ALWAYS been personal. Even when we were sitting in lecture halls with hundreds of others, whatever learning we took out of the experience was personal. We either owned it, or we didn’t. Governmental insistence over the last several decades, through standardization and accountability measures, implies that learning occurs en masse. It does not, and it never has. …

Author: Nelson Coulter Research indicates that one of the most powerful “attractors,” and most persistent “repellants,” in our workplaces is the quality and behavior of the folks leading the organization. Here’s a wish list (what we’d like Santa to bring us) for organizational leaders to consider: Show a little energy and enthusiasm. We know your job is hard, but………..so is …

Author: Nelson Coulter Folks who are interested in continuous improvement — the purposeful pursuit of betterment — are really in the business of transformation. Transformational shifts occur when we learn to optimize the alignment of our Ways of Thinking, our Ways of Behaving, and our Ways of Symbolizing to our Vision — what we have decided to be and where we have decided we want …

Author: Nelson Coulter I recently read A Leader’s Guide to Excellence in Every Classroom: Creating Support Systems for Teacher Success by John R. Wink (2017). JRW does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive framework to ensure optimal learning for ALL students. My top takeaways: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can be matched to Wink’s Hierarchy of Student Excellence, from a teacher efficacy perspective. A …

Author: Nelson Coulter There are two big drivers in our personal learning journeys: 1) Process, and 2) Outcomes. The Learning Processes entail things like: The content we consume — the knowledge, skills, ways of thinking, and ways of behaving The pace at which we learn it — the speed, which can be slow and steady, or it can be on steroids The products we generate — …

Author: Nelson Coulter Achieving continuous improvement in organizations is a tough slog. The efforts of each individual or division in the organization certainly helps. The stacking up of those efforts can be thought of as the addends in a mathematical sum. Looks something like this: a + b + c + d + e + ….. = Improvement A more …

Authors: Co-written by CEN Chief of Staff Dr. Rachael McClain and Chat.OpenAI If you have been engaging in the virtual learning series hosted by CEN over the past few months featuring Dr. Bill Daggett, you should have heard two common themes: GPT3 (and 4, 5….) will result in a tremendous shift in technology’s impact on education and life in general. Savvy …