David Preston

Tao means, “The Way.” Whether or not your organization has documented a vision, mission, core values, or how to integrate those values in daily operations, you already have a way of doing things. (Think of this like eating. You may not be “on a diet” to count calories or lose weight, but you do eat something. Your actual diet is whatever you ate today.) If your way is getting the results you want, keep it up! If you see an opportunity to improve, it’s time to Design Your Dao. We’ll invite stakeholders to examine the patterns that influence observable behaviors and tangible results, and together we’ll integrate systems, processes, and structures that will reinforce and sustain your Tao over time. The outcome will be an operational guide to your organization’s culture and philosophy: “The [Your Entity’s Name Here] Way.”

Building a successful team is an art. 25 years ago I worked with the best coaches in the world to build a program that creates championship teams who savor success and learn bitter lessons: the kitchen. Participants in Too Many Cooks learn the processes and practices of successful teams. Then they apply what they learn in the kitchen under the guidance of our executive chef. The immediate result is a gourmet meal. The lasting impact is a sustainable network of relationships that achieve increasingly high levels of performance.

The first time my Dad took me to the Hollywood Bowl, I was mesmerized by the sound filling the Hollywood Hills and the laser light show overhead. It took me a while to realize that one person was guiding the entire experience: the conductor.

A conductor must know the music and the musicians well enough to move back and forth from the scripted page to what’s happening in real time onstage. Every move the conductor makes is both intentional and spontaneously responsive.

Similarly, a skilled facilitator immediately establishes a similar understanding and rapport that elicits every participant’s best performance throughout the meeting, retreat, or project. When I guide a meeting, lead a training, build a team, or mediate a conflict, I use decades of experience and what I see right in front of me to bring out everyone’s best. Participants risk thinking out loud, they achieve goals, and they have fun.*

*A Note About Fun: Fun is an underrated key to success. We do our best when we are fully engaged, and we are most fully engaged when we are not distracted by thoughts like, “This sucks and I wish I were doing something else.” Fun is also a happy outcome of success. Q: Has a championship team ever moped during the trophy ceremony? A: No.

Clients meet privately or in small groups with me on a regular basis to share confidential information that helps them gain insight and improve their skills. They’ve called me a Consultant. (Yes.) Coach. (Sometimes.) Therapist. (Nope. Please see note below.) Consigliere. (That client was a huge Godfather fan.)

Having an objective, caring expert you can call on is valuable in a variety of situations. We can structure this type of engagement to meet a particular need or create a process over a specific time period.

Please Note: My work with individuals focuses on interpersonal dynamics, such as your understandings, skills, and practices as they relate to organizational communication and performance. If you want to do intrapersonal work such as therapy, I highly recommend that you seek out a specialist in that area.

We learn more quickly and more effectively when we learn together. Unfortunately, many of us confuse learning – which is a highly personal, extremely active process – with schooling, where we spend our formative years passively following rules and keeping our eyes on our own paper.

When I taught at UCLA and California high schools, I created a model that became known as Open-Source Learning. Students and community members created interdisciplinary, multimedia explorations that they curated online. They recruited expert mentors and communities of support and critique all over the world. They demonstrated mental, physical, civic, spiritual, and technological fitness, and – perhaps most importantly – they achieved goals that were previously considered impossible.

Today I work with organizations to improve their capacity for sharing information and achieving goals using Open-Source Learning. Recent clients have established communities of employees and customers to raise awareness, improve performance, and restore the passionate curiosity that helps us all identify opportunities and solve problems.