I work with clients to create
environments for learning.
I can help you deploy Open-Source Learning to improve your performance, build your community, and create real-time value online and in real life.
“This was an unforgettable learning experience and I will definitely take the tools that I learned with me on my own journey.” -Vanessa Padilla
Are you guiding an organization, academic program, or community? Building a hands-on team? Or developing your own capacity for growth? Our program will create value and show results – guaranteed.
Client Advisory Services
Learning begins with you. The skills you develop and the concepts you master create value throughout your life and work.
We can meet privately or in a small group (great for teams and startups!) to help you identify and develop the areas you want to strengthen and improve.
Then we’ll design an Open-Source Learning journey to fit your schedule, budget, and goals so you can get where you want to go.
Along the way, you’ll benchmark and improve your Mental, Physical, Civic, Spiritual, and Technological fitness, and you’ll create real-time value for yourself and others in your network.
Facilitation and Training
Most training and professional development events suck. They suck time, they suck energy, and they suck money, because they treat participants as passive students and not active learners.
David leads you through a different approach using Open-Source Learning. He designs, delivers, and supports training events that are guaranteed to help you achieve your individual and organizational goals. Whether you need original content, or if you already have a curriculum in mind, David will personally ensure that your people get the information and inspiration they need to transform their perspective and document their improvement.
David can also facilitate your next retreat or meeting. Again, you’ll see results as soon as you take the first step.
During the discovery and agenda-setting processes, David immediately establishes understanding and rapport that elicits every participant’s enthusiastic engagement and most productive performance. Imagine your most resistant team member walking out of the meeting, smiling at you, and saying, “OK I admit it. You were right – this is exactly what we all needed. It wasn’t just productive, it was actually 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 planning, skill, hard work, and success. Ask yourself: Have you ever seen a sports team mope in the locker room after winning a championship? A: No, you have not, and neither has anyone else, because it has never happened. Winning is fun.
Too Many Cooks
Building a successful team is an art. Growing up as a student-athlete, David was fortunate to learn from some of the best coaches in the profession.
David never made it to the NBA, but his work ethic and people skills made an impression. Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once wrote, “David is a very hard-working and conscientious person and is very concerned in regard to the welfare of others.”
David combined what he learned in sports with his later research in cognition, memory, teambuilding, conflict, communication, and neurology to build a program that creates championship teams who savor success (and occasionally learn bitter lessons) in the 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 an 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.
David Helps Clients Solve Their Problems
“Thank you for your thorough analysis and insightful definition of the challenges facing our group in this time of executive transition at FOX/Liberty Networks. Your facilitation skills were impressive… the comfort level you created in a very short time frame led field managers to be candid, and that openness was the foundation of the results that we achieved. I look forward to working with your company in the future.”
“Dr. Preston developed an instructional framework that became known as Open-Source Learning (OSL). OSL helped students understand the online environment and achieve extraordinary results. Dr. Preston is an asset as a consultant in the areas of technology, instruction, and learning community development.”
“I want to express my sincere gratitude to you for facilitating ECF’s first Board retreat in over six years. I now have a clear understanding why you came so highly recommended to me by prestigious leaders in our community. Thanks to your professionalism and focused efforts, ECF has a board-approved operational plan for the next three years. As President and CEO of this fine organization, I am most thankful for your help and hope we have the opportunity to work together again in the near future.”
“David is a role model for educators and business leaders who want to improve performance within their organizations, and together improve cooperation and corporate citizenship as a society.”