Change Starts Here

Trust is the foundation, or building block, of many key innovations. Without trust, new, creative ideas born from collaboration would not exist. Trust plays a key role in the evolution of companies and their technologies, but most importantly, their people. But how exactly can trust change the future?

On the latest episode of Change Starts Here, host Dustin Odham chats with Mark Murphy, Senior Consultant and Author at FranklinCovey about his journey with FranklinCovey and how to reframe hidden biases to create stronger visions for the future in the workplace and beyond.

The two discuss…

• How to better facilitate knowledge gathering for educational trainings
• A breakdown of Murphy’s co-authored book “The Leader's Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Tackle Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams”
• How to create a culture of learning, growing together, and being true to yourself within your life and workplace

“You know, diversity is not just a nice thing to have and perform. It’s a requisite if you want to be competitive, innovative, creative. There has to be multiple ways of looking at things, different ideas, different backgrounds…it’s only when there’s differences that…we create something different and better,” said Murphy.

Murphy is a graduate of Brigham Young University with a BS in Marketing, Business, and Management and a Master’s of Organizational Behavior. He has spent more than 30 years building customized solutions for clients around the world with FranklinCovey.

Did you know that mentoring youth helps to increase their likelihood of graduating from high school while also decreasing the likelihood that youth will initiate abusing illegal drugs and alcohol use? Well, it's true. But building student success goes behind just mentoring. It's about creating an environment that evokes passion and curiosity. In doing this, where should you start?

On this new episode of Change Starts Here, host Dustin Odham chats with a guest with many accomplishments as an Entrepreneur, CEO of Student Success Agency, Author, and Speaker. EJ Carrion discusses how to nurture success for students and what tools are out there to help support students’ journeys. Odham and Carrion talk over…

• How to create an environment and a concept that asks thought-provoking, curiosity-rekindling questions
• Why it is essential to reframe students' concepts of success in education
• Which methods help empower students to wake up with purpose and passion

"I think kids are more engaged in school when [that] agency is given to them to have the freedom to build. [When] their educators and school leaders are giving them the permission to lead the discussion of school for themselves, for the community, and even just where the world's going to go," said Carrion.

A first-generation college graduate, Carrion graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor's degree in Journalism. His passion for education and inspiring youth to pursue their dreams has led him to found his own companies as a motivational speaker and author and as the co-founder and CEO of Student Success Agency, a digital student support services platform founded in 2012.

Monday, October 24th, 2022, a school shooter killed a teacher and a student in St. Louis, Missouri. After the shooting, a letter was found in the gunman's car. A few lines stood out to podcast host Dustin Odham. The writing describes a lonely life.

Odham was impacted by the letter because it shows how the shooter had fallen through the cracks. This episode does not focus on the shooting itself but on what educators and individuals working with students can do to ensure care for the pupils in their charge—Odham shares inspiring and practical advice.

Odham, the host of the Change Starts Here podcast, discusses how he sets daily intentions every morning. He recommends that before your day begins, take a few moments and visualize who and how you’re going to interact with people. Further, he suggests, “Also, visualize what your attitude is going to be like when the people you’re not expecting come into your life that day. And how you’re going to love and serve them.”

• Odham describes how to track the people in your care and why that’s important for ensuring no one falls through the cracks.
• He discusses how people receive love differently and refers to the book and theory of the Five Love Languages.
• Odham reviews his mission statement. He urges others to create their own and reference it daily (more on building a mission statement in the episode about The Change Starts Here Origin Story).

Every morning, Odham suggested: “Set 2-3 minutes to turn off the sound, close your eyes, and visualize the people that you can see that you know you’re going to interact with every day to set your intentions on how you’re going to love and serve them.”

Dustin Odham is currently the Managing Director at Franklin Covey. He’s worked as a Turnaround Specialist at St. Louis public schools and still lives in St. Louis, Missouri area.

Life throws many curveballs and at times people will have to work with what they know and have to get by. For educators, it's another ball game, and public school educators today are facing a lot of challenges, from budget cuts, low or stagnant salaries, and a pandemic. That also means the stakes are even higher for leadership at these schools, and principals have to be committed and dedicated because their jobs are not exactly easy, per The 19th.

Principals have to make strong commitments in order to find success in their jobs and knowing their purpose to achieve that comes with a lot of knowledge of self. But where does the will to do it come from?

In the latest episode of “Change Starts Here” podcast, Dustin Odham talked with Linda Cliatt-Wayman, a former principal of the Philadelphia public school system and author, about her own journey in the education field, becoming a principal, and the plans she had to execute to get there.

The pair also discussed …

• Wayman's path in education, from poverty, being a Special Ed teacher, to becoming principal
• How Wayman ensured her teachers met her expectations as principal
• The relationship the principal should have with their teachers and students

“I had to decide to make sure that I focused on making kids' dreams come true; that every child has a dream, and every child should dream,” Wayman said.

Linda Cliatt-Wayman is an author, educator, and former principal in the Philadelphia public school system. She is also a speaker and a mentor.

Do you ever think about all the minute twists and turns that led you to the exact position you sit in life? For some, that journey has more twists and turns than it does for others. Joshua Stamper, Author, Podcaster, and Assistant Principal, joined Host Dustin Odham to describe how he went from graphic design to administration in the education realm.

Stamper started as graphic designer, but when the industry crashed, after some self-reflection and encouragement from his wife, he found that he loved art and soccer and combined these interests to become a paraprofessional for special education. Stamper then became an art teacher for six years and started coaching until his coworker suggested he become a building leader. Thus, this is where Stamper’s administrative journey began, serving in various positions, one of which was the Dean of Students. Stamper has since discovered that trauma-informed care is his passion, and he has mixed in some traveling and speaking to his journey while writing the book Aspire to Lead.

“As a person, as an educator, and to go from being viewed as this new, elective art teacher who is creative, who is just kind of in his own corner, to then suddenly being with an admin team, being in all these meetings, viewed as ‘you’re going to the dark side.’ A lot of my relationships with my peers shifted dramatically,” Stamper explained. “Are they seeing me as an administrator, are they seeing me as a friend, are they seeing me as a peer, and there’s this weird dynamic of ‘Am I on the admin team, am I a teacher?’ All of a sudden, I’m a leader but I don’t have a title,” he stated of his switch to an administrative role.

Stamper discussed that being in an administrative role meant he had to provide feedback and often be in uncomfortable positions. He often told himself: “This is going to make me a better educator than before.” Stamper soon figured out he needed to partner with teachers and establish that he was on the same team as them. He accomplished this with brief classroom walkthroughs where he would take videos on phone. Stamper would ask teachers for permission to be in the classroom and explain that he was taking data, then ask if they wanted feedback. This ensured a partnership approach.

Another challenge Stamper faced in his educational administration roles is working with de-escalation. He advises adults to handle these situations with a unique lens. “I ask them to be a window instead of a mirror, meaning you need to let that negative behavior go through you instead of replicating that to the child and only escalating the emotions because a lot of our kids don’t know how to regulate their emotions,” Stamper stated. Outline the consequences, allow for expression of how the child is feeling, and then provide strategies to walk away and calm down. “As an adult, they have these skills so that when it is time to have that conversation with boss or someone else of authority, they aren’t making the same mistakes as they were as an 11-year -old, as a 12-year-old, as a 14-year-old,” said Stamper.

For more on Stamper’s journey transforming to the educational leadership industry, visit Spotify, Apple iTunes, or www.marketscale.com.

Evolution is gradual, but revolution is about changing things quickly. Change is what Amen Rahh, the Revolutionary Principal and author, aims to do within his school and ultimately, the world. Change Starts Here host Dustin Odham chatted with Rahh about his background and his goals to inspire revolution across educational culture.

Rahh was straight forward, “I’m happy to…talk about how we are going to revolutionize education and ultimately the world.” As the youngest of six, a father, husband, friend, and social advocate, Rahh has a lot on his plate, but he wasn’t always headed on the path to education. In fact, Rahh wanted to be a rapper and a professional football player and didn’t see the relevance of school despite his father being a professor.

After his father was incarcerated while he was in high school, Rahh wasn’t sure what he was going to do. At 20, he started working as a teacher’s aide, where he realized a few things were amiss. “That was when I got into education and I started to see the inequities that exist in education and that’s what really motivated me to become a principal man,” he told Odham.

When one of his first classes given to him was full of all the so-called troubled kids that “didn’t have a relationship with the principal,” Rahh realized he could do more, so he went out and did just that, as a principal in his community. For Rahh, he said, “So, revolution is making a positive and meaningful impact on yourself, your school, your community and ultimately the world.” This could mean building relationships with kids and knowing their names, or it could be invigorating the curriculum with more practical applications. Either way, “Revolutionary school culture is how you build an aspirational environment that motivates kids to want to be there more than any other place in the world,” said Rahh.

Kids should want to come to school, but the environment should also be a place where adults want to come and thrive too. Rahh asked, “One of the key things was, ‘How do you build an organizational culture for your staff to want to be there?’” For Rahh, it’s revolution by revolution.

In the latest episode of “Change Starts Here,” podcast host Dustin Odham discussed being in a leadership position in the field of education with educator and author Jill Siler. The two talked about the profession of a superintendent, and all that it entails in being one, including successes and failures.

Siler is the author of “Thrive through the Five,” a book she wrote about the challenges that can come with leadership. Prior to becoming an author, Siler worked in public education for 25 years, first as a paraprofessional, then a teacher, and even a campus leader before transitioning into the superintendent position. She held onto that role for a decade but now supports educational leaders in Texas. She stated, “I love the impact that we all get to have on kids in my profession of education and specifically as a leader getting to support other leaders in their field as they’re trying to do their very best”.

Interestingly, the current passion Siler has for education was almost a missed opportunity. After changing her college major several times, Siler eventually stuck with majoring in politics and philosophy, which she said greatly benefited her superintendent role because it gave her the “ability to think critically about something, and just being savvy about the decisions and the implications and the climate in which you're working in.”

Siler was thrust into the teaching field after a great experience teaching a summer camp and quickly realized her summer job could be turned into a career. Today, she is the Director for Professional Learning for the Texas Association of School Administrators, or TASA, where she helps aspiring superintendents on their journey into the same leadership role she held for a decade.

Being a superintendent is a challenging role and comes with a lot of responsibility. Those duties can be hard on someone and can affect every aspect of their life. However, Siler noted that with good direction, manageability is possible. She added, “When I’m talking to my aspiring leaders…we’re trying to teach about the basics in terms of how to get the job and how to be successful in the job, but we also want to make sure that they're really clear about what they're about to walk into and what that impact is going be on them personally, their family — to make sure that they are ready as a whole person to step in this role.”

Great things can happen under the direction of great leadership. But how does one become a great leader? Host Dustin Odham chatted with Dr. Mathew Ohlson, the Director of the Taylor Leadership Institute at the University of North Florida, about the habits of a great leader and how to jumpstart that career pathway.

When Dr. Ohlson first started, he was sure he would get his PhD and go back into K-12 education. However, after completing his seven-habits training, he realized there was a need at universities to have someone teach student-athletes and others leadership skills for employability.

He said, “It really started with the Covey resources and the Covey habits…It was absolutely startling in some ways to see the almost immediate impact.” Rather than building a content-heavy class, Dr. Ohlson constructed a class focused on students learning about themselves, which works for a range of people and career fields, including elementary school principals, Olympic athletes, or even CEO’s. Dr. Ohlson reflected, “It’s pretty amazing to see that the recipe for success worked every time regardless of that setting.” Dr. Ohlson’s vision grew throughout the COVID-19 shutdown, as more and more students signed up for the course and there was an increased need for students to have lessons directly from mentors they could relate to.

Through leadership design and practice, Dr. Ohlson helps people uncover the greatness they have in themselves to “do great things.” Some components for great leadership, he said, are celebrating what your strengths and talents are, encouraging and motivating others, and practicing these habits consistently. As he put it, “Leadership is an everyday practice.” By focusing on the positive impact you can have on others and listening to their needs, leadership becomes a valuable, influential, and directive ability to steer success into the future.