David Preston

When you buy a service, you’re also buying into the values that create the brand – and in this case, that’s me. So here is a little bit about me. I look forward to meeting you and learning about you too.

School & Early Career

I grew up in Los Angeles, where I attended public schools from kindergarten to UCLA. I completed a B.A. in Communication Studies, a master’s degree in Teacher Education, and a Ph.D. in Education Policy & Organizational Management.

I wrote for the Los Angeles Times, I taught at UCLA for 11 years, and I led a Los Angeles-based management consulting practice.

Even though I don’t live there anymore, I still love LA. I know where everything is, I know where everything used to be, and I love eating at tiny, family-owned restaurants in strip malls. I also love travel, because there is a tiny, family-owned restaurant in your hometown that I haven’t tried yet. And I can’t wait.

My Light Bulb Moment

9/11 may seem like ancient history to some, but I remember that morning like it was yesterday – it was a devastating reminder that flaws in our thinking have real-world consequences. In the years that followed I focused my research and consulting more directly on the implications of learning in organizations and social systems. When I dug deeper, I discovered 100% of my clients and graduate students – ALL OF THEM – felt like they had to actively recover from their schooling to lead healthy lives. Some of the most successful people in their generation revealed that they had to heal cognitive and affective injuries caused by school just to regain their sanity and establish healthy relationships. Only then could they succeed in their professions, become entrepreneurial, innovate, or create.

(Every generation has had its issues with school, but now the stakes are higher than ever. Today’s students won’t necessarily have it better than their parents – they don’t even know what economic or environmental landscape to expect when they graduate. Meanwhile, for all the ink spilled on research, the literature on school does not account for the lived experiences of teachers or students.)

I decided to explore K12 schools from inside the classroom. In 2004, I accepted an invitation to teach high school courses in America’s fifth-largest high school, located in Los Angeles. I had nothing to lose so I broke stuff. I confounded my new colleagues by using technology and common sense to disrupt the curriculum and the classroom. The experience gave me exactly what I was looking for: hands-on experience with the bizarro bureaucracy and toxic organizational culture of school.

My plan was to teach high school for a year or two. At the time, I thought of it like a tour of duty in an imaginary domestic Peace Corps.

Man Plans God Laughs

You know an idea is universally wise when Public Enemy names an album after a Yiddish proverb.

My short-term “domestic Peace Corps” plan was derailed when Zolzaya Damdinsuren walked into my classroom carrying The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. It was unusual to see a student on that campus holding any book – but… the Dalai Lama? For real? When you and I get to know each other better, I’ll tell you all about Zolzaya, how I wound up spending time with his family in Mongolia, and my ensuing journey to Tibet. The experience changed my life.

When I returned from Asia, I realized my exploration was far from over. I decided to continue teaching K12 while maintaining an active speaking, consulting, and professional development practice. I accepted a position at a high school on California’s Central Coast. In the evenings I supervised an administrative credential program and taught master’s degree courses at a satellite campus of a university. I continued using online tools and techniques to bring the world to my clients and students and and my clients and students to the world.

Open-Source Learning

In 2009 I coined the term “Open-Source Learning” to describe my practice. I defined OSL as a philosophy that empowers people to expand their networks and develop personally meaningful learning experiences that can be shared with everyone to create immediate value.

People responded to the idea and invited me to speak at universities, corporations, think tanks, nonprofit foundations, professional conferences, TED, and even the Royal Geographical Society in London.

When the coronavirus pandemic locked everyone down in 2020, my learning communities didn’t miss a beat. We accelerated. And when everyone else went back to normal, I again looked ahead. Now, in addition to advising organizational leaders on transactions, leadership, succession, strategy, and other traditional topics in management consulting, I also help organizations develop internal and external Open-Source Learning communities.

When I advise leaders, or deliver keynotes and training programs, I reflect – with a lot of gratitude – on the various ways my journeys have helped me develop insights that continue to create value. T.S. Eliot nailed it when he wrote, “We shall not cease from our explorations, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”

Thanks for reading. Let’s connect.