5 STEPS FOR DEVELOPING A POSITIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT DURING TOUGH TIMES By Beverly Ingle An experience strategist develops policies, usually at a high level within a company or organization, that focus on creating ongoing successful experiences for the organization’s stakeholders. An experience strategist is also concerned with the organization’s internal structure, culture, processes and values [...]

CONVERSATIONS ON CREATING COLLABORATIVE AND INNOVATIVE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EDUCATORS AND BUSINESS LEADERS By Paula Yoder What “assumptions” do educational institutions make about corporate business leaders?  What “assumptions” do corporate business leaders make about educators? Why should we be interested in the assumptions that one makes about the other? And what do assumptions have to do [...]

ADOPTING NON-PROFIT PRINCIPLES FOR QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION By Gary Godsey Has anyone ever turned to you and said, “What now?” At this moment, it almost feels like the entire public education system in Texas is saying just that. We find ourselves in a very tight place, a nexus unlike almost any other time in our [...]

HOW TO LEVERAGE HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE NEW ECONOMY By Christine Reyes Within the next six months, top performers – in particular – will be polishing up their resumes and looking for work environments that will help them develop their skills and careers in exchange for increased productivity and engagement. During the economic downturn workers [...]

PLAYING WITH OUR POTENTIAL:  THE FUTURE TEXAS WORKFORCE By Laura Seargeant Richardson The headlines are staggering. According to Newsweek the United States is in a creativity crisis. TIME reports that today’s students are less tolerant of ambiguity and have an aversion to complexity. The Futurist suggests the biggest challenge facing our children is their inability [...]

GENERATION TX: CREATING A COLLEGE-GOING CULTURE ACROSS TEXAS By Katherine Jones With 20 percent of Texas’ population over 25 having a high school diploma as their highest level of educational attainment, Texas ranks last among the 50 states. Only 17.4 percent of Texans with children between the ages of 0-14 have a bachelor’s degree. This [...]

METHODS FOR DEVELOPING THE EAR OF YOUNG MANAGERS By David Downey Two guitarists were playing and singing to diners in a crowded outdoor restaurant under a moonlit sky. “I can’t see which one it is,” my wife told me, “but the guitarist playing the lower melody line is tuned flat.” Odd, it sounded fine to [...]

A GEN Y’S PERSONAL STORY OF PURSUING A GRADUATE DEGREE, AND THE BENEFITS FOR EMPLOYEE & EMPLOYER By Megan Mutschler On pace to be the most educated generation in American history, Millennials are finishing college in record numbers. But an undergraduate education may not be the golden ticket it once was. Recently released data from the [...]

WHY AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE IS THE KEY TO TEXAS’ GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS By Sylvia Acevedo In the 21st century, globally competitive cities will be the key to economic growth, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.  And it’s not just expanding populations that will drive urban growth. To compete, grow and prosper, the cities that will be [...]

KEEPING TEXAS TEENS OUT OF HARM’S WAY ON THEIR FIRST JOBS For many businesses, hiring teenagers is commonplace. But teen employees bring little knowledge of workplace safety to the job. According to figures provided by Texas Mutual Insurance, 160-thousand teens nationwide are injured on the job each year. A third of them need to go [...]