We can support you to, collectively:

1) Determine your long-term purpose,

The short statement should inspire, and sustain your commitment to each other and those you serve. - Why did you join the profession…What is a natural expression of who you are and what you stand for? 

2) define the reciprocal culture,

It is a 1-2 day discussion resulting in a behavior-based blueprint that everyone can unite behind. - Based on your Purpose, what is the right way to be there for your students, families, community, and each other?

3) build the environment, and

This is the transformational work of integrating your desired ethos into existing forms of hiring, accountability, appreciation, communication, performance management, and other decision-making practices.

4) maintain the cohesion.

The discipline is the long-term path of keeping score regarding organizational integrity. - To what extent are relationships anchored in your ethical intelligence, and, in return, impacting trust?

Structural Cohesion: Journal Article and Readiness Assessment

The behavior-based framework has consistently shown the capacity to be a reliable driver of continuous improvement. To learn more, review the following journal article and the readiness assessment. Contact us regarding available support.

What people are saying.

 
“In consideration of our work on multiple projects, we fully support Rich as a specialist in this process.”
— Ann Rhoades is author of the best-selling leadership book, Built on Values (2011) with the foreword written by Stephen Covey. She is also founder of the consulting firm, People Ink, experts in organizational culture. For over 25 years, People Ink has helped organizations in a variety of fields to create high-performing values-based cultures. Their clients include those in higher education, healthcare, non-profit, hospitality, financial services, technology, as well as sea and air transportation. Ann has been quoted in numerous articles and books on organizational culture leadership and is a long-time member of the Washington Speakers Bureau.
 
“Follow your next strategic planning process with the complementary work of building structural cohesion. To learn more, speak to Rich.”
— Christopher T. Cross is a past senior fellow with the Education Commission of the States and the Center for Education Policy, president of the Council for Basic Education, assistant US secretary of education, president of the Maryland Board of Education, and director of the Business Roundtable Education. He has been a highly-valued resource to local, state, and federal educational leaders for decades.

About LSF

Capacity builder LeadingSchools Forward was launched in 2017 thanks to support from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Covey-endorsed People Ink. Today, following significant experience in the field and scholarly research, our mission is to enable leaders of schools, systems, and state departments/colleges of education to distribute trust and related long-term continuous student improvement.

Rich has supported elementary, middle, and high school communities to create culture and system/district leaders to increase their related capacity. He has also conducted corresponding studies as a Ph.D. student. Previously, he led the collaborative turnaround of two charter and two district schools, Pk-12, and the continued improvement of an elite college preparatory school. In the field of organizational development, he is a part of the People Ink coaching tree led by Ann Rhoades and Gayle Watson. His passion for sustainable cohesion and associated student progress follows an early teacher’s transformational impact on his life and growing up in a racially diverse family including stepcousins killed and imprisoned following gang-related violence. Finally, he is a third-generation educator who continues to spend significant time in the classroom. (His grandfather, Theodore led the integration of the schools represented in Remember the Titans.) Formerly from North Carolina, he, Amy, and their son Cole reside in Colorado.

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PEOPLE INK Chief Operating Officer Gayle Watson has helped create cultures across many professions, including patient-centered medicine and higher education. She has over 30 years of experience working in and partnering with numerous U.S. and global organizations. Before that, she was an experienced chief learning officer for a large organization in which she was responsible for culture transformation, organizational and leadership development, and talent management. She is also a national leader for women entrepreneurs, having served as Board Chair for the National Association of Women Business Owners and as a board member for the Center for Women’s Business Research. She serves on the board of directors for New Mexico Community Capital, a private, non-profit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Gayle lives in Bella Vista, Arkansas. She is an avid golfer along with her husband Grant. To learn more about Gayle, Ann, and the rest of the team, go to www.peopleink.com.

What others are saying

testimonials

Faculty and Staff

“How much everyone wanted not only to create a great environment for the kids but a great environment for the adults as well. | The opportunity to be involved in a wonderful school environment. | I appreciated the philosophy and values of the school and the PBL focus. | The school’s values.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE SCHOOL THAT ATTRACTED YOU? - Survey responses from staff members who were brought on together following the process

Principal

“Rich helped us dig deep as a new school to understand and fully flesh out our shared values and then to integrate and live those values throughout the school. The shift takes time, but for us has paid dividends over the years in creating a cohesive group of adults who are moving forward toward a common educational vision.”

- Tammy Finch, Director of The Expedition School (K-8 charter; NC)

Principal

“I put my heart and soul into the school and I was concerned that like so many other schools that lose a long-term leader, the turnover rate would soar and damage the program we had built together over so many years. … Rich’s guidance was completely successful. After I left, the turnover rate did not spike, and the framework continues to be in place years later.”

- Mitch Stensland, retired principal of Chatham Central High School (NC)

Superintendent

“Having a people-centric culture, that is, one that nurtures your employees, students, and families, can help your school system stand out from the competition. If you are new to the superintendency or your board and team are ready to go to the next level, consider speaking with Rich. Our experience impressed us and we hope to work with him and Gayle again.”

- Dr. Markley, former superintendent of New Hanover County Schools (NC)

Teacher Preparation Authority

“Teacher turnover is much more than a pipeline, preparation, and pay issue. It is an organizational alignment problem. Great schools reflect their community or their culture. Principals, including great ones, come and go. I know this having spent my life in education. Rich knows this too and he is not just talking about it.”

Dr. Charles Coble, a long-time authority on teacher preparation and development, and past Vice President of the Education Commission of the States

P-12 Education Authority

“Too many times we have gone into a school and the work failed to take root as a result of the culture not being ready from the start, or the conditions changing when the principal left. Rich’s initiative can help change this common paradigm and the related long-term growth of our kids.”

- Dr. Terry Roberts, long-time director of the National Paideia Center, one of the oldest school reform models in the United States

Research-Based Authorities on P-12 Education, Nationally and Internationally

In addition to better matching the needs of communities; developing and in return, paying teachers; the US needs to enable principals and superintendents to create and sustain organizations in which true professionals can do their best work.

National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), National Council for State Legislatures (NCSL), and The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 2017-2018.

Practician

“For years I, like Rich, have been partnering with Ann Rhoades and People Ink. Today, the framework is reflected in the cultures of the five universities that make up the Texas Tech system. The shift has allowed students, faculty, staff, future health practitioners, and other graduates to thrive and grow in ways not previously realized.”

- Steve Sosland, Leader and Culture Development Vice Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System

PURPOSE (facilitation & analysis): What is your ideal future regarding interdependence and how well aligned is your current environment regarding such?

TRANSFORMATION (partnership): Are you up against substantial adversity (e.g., student achievement, behavior, enrollment, or general cohesion) and ready to move forward and embrace significant change?

LEADERSHIP (guidance/coaching): Do you need some help better engaging your community, asserting yourself to overcome obstacles, building trusting relationships, and/or or making informed and unbiased decisions?

OUR PURPOSE

To make access to loved, transformative, and enduring student/people-centered cultures increasingly dependent only on the commitment of each community.

OUR VALUES & BEHAVIORS

COMPASSION: We champion a people-first approach to building relationships and community.

  • Greets others with eye contact and a genuine smile.

  • Takes the time to develop, support, and maintain positive relationships.

  • Demonstrates people-centered practices.

HUMILITY: We believe an individual’s strength is best used for the benefit of the team.

  • Demonstrates a significant desire to discover what others can offer.

  • Recognizes the contributions of others and affirms and celebrates their successes.

  • Demonstrates a commitment to transparency; sharing objectives, metrics, and ideas openly to attain the best result and increase collective knowledge.

GROWTH: We focus on the continuous improvement of personal and organizational goals.

  • Exhibits a sense of humor that allows us to take ourselves lightly while continuing to take our work seriously.

  • Thrives by developing oneself and others by learning from past successes and failures.

  • Explores all challenges with an attitude of curiosity; asks why, why not, or what could be; thinks big and differently.

INTERDEPENDENCE: We succeed together.

  • Contributes the best of one’s ability for the good of the team.

  • Supports each community to use its purpose, values, and metrics to promote diversity of thinking and culture.

  • Maintains a disciplined focus on people (little & big) and community-centered progress.

  • Goes the extra mile to help others be successful and takes the initiative to fill voids.

INTEGRITY: We have the courage to always do what is right.

  • Consistently takes personal responsibility for their quality of work.

  • Exemplifies the Values, never compromising them for short-term results.

Contact us:

Please leave a message below and we will follow-up with you shortly. Thank you.

 

GENERAL INQUIRIES

rsincla3@uccs.edu

PHONE

(719) 800-1529