Author: Rick Nobles

The last few years have seen a steady rise in conversations about culture: what it is; what it does; and why it’s important. Much of the content has been based on human resources issues, including recruiting, retention, employee engagement, et al. While these are all worthy topics to explore and can impact your bottom line,…
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If you are talking to your Board of Education about the advisability of conducting a pre-election phone survey to determine whether your long-term facility ideas will be received favorably, below is good information to have. Five things a pre-election survey can tell you: Ready to find out what your pre-election survey can tell you? Contact…
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Frankly, I don’t know anybody or any profession that doesn’t have occasional communication challenges. A big part of the challenge is simple. Most people think they are communicating clearly when it’s simply not happening. And it’s not happening for one reason. The communication is incomplete. To help you understand the basics of communication, take a…
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We recently completed patron satisfaction surveys where the data showed patrons who once had students in the district were less pleased with the district than patrons who had never had children in the district. The prevailing thought is once you are familiar with the district and your children and you have a positive experience, you…
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Involving citizens in the life of the district is a grading question that often receives low marks on patron surveys. They feel like they are not part of the conversation when the district is making decisions about things like new buildings, renovations, boundary changes, etc. The problem is districts are still using 1950s practices when…
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If you Google the word “leadership,” you’ll get more than 4 trillion responses, with many of those focusing on the meaning of “leadership” or the definition of “leadership.” With so many pundits weighing in, I thought I’d add my two cents. For me, leadership is all about three things: Vision. If you are a leader, you…
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How your district approaches communicating all the good work happening in your schools determines how much support you will receive from staff, students, parents, and the community as a whole. The best way to determine this is through a communications audit. The process includes: Conducting 20-minute telephone interviews with 20 Key Opinion Leaders from around…
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Looking to do a “deep dive” into what is really happening in the various buildings around your school district? Now, is the time to do a climate and culture study. These surveys provide you with contextual data, so both students and staff may perform at optimum levels. Topics include leadership performance, teacher/staff performance, building atmosphere,…
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By Rick Nobles I recently celebrated my birthday, and it was not a big deal. Although it was a milestone birthday – 65 – which means I get $2 off my next haircut at Great Clips and some other swell discounts, it still was not a big deal. To me. Or to anybody else. Want…
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We recently were hired by a long-time client to conduct internal research about employee perceptions on a variety of topics. We used virtual Listening Sessions via Zoom combined with a real-time online survey to hear from 19 different leadership and staff groups. And the findings have been remarkable. First, we were pleased (and a bit…
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