Category: Excellence

Enjoy Ron Culberson's insights on a variety of topics

Quality Education

As my daughter enters her third year at the University of Virginia and my son enters his senior year of high school, we are very aware of the quality of education. Next week I’ll speak to 1000 teachers about the difference between being serious and being good.  Hopefully, I’ll challenge them to think about the […]

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Loudoun County Public Schools Does Orientation Well

For the past eight years, one of my favorite speaking engagements is for the Loudoun County Public Schools New Teacher Orientation.  The reason it’s such a treat for me is that they do a great job of making the new teachers feel welcome to the system. The day begins with a high school band and […]

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National Speakers Association

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I just returned from the National Speakers Association Convention where I spent 8 days with 1300 professional speakers, trainers, authors, and consultants.  These are my people and I had a wonderful time learning from some of the best in the business.  I thought I’d share some of the best insights I got: “Take a stand. […]

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Yankee Does the Right Thing

I love stories that show people doing the right thing – especially when it’s the opposite of what we all expect.  When Christian Lopez caught Derk Jeter’s 3,000th hit, we all probably fantasized about the potential revenue the ball could have generated for Lopez on eBay or Craig’s List. But he had a different fantasy. […]

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It's Never Too Late to Get Better

A 79 year-old great-grandmother, Tomasa Herrera, was helping her great-grandson with his homework but was struggling with some of the material (probably the same physics problems my son brought to me).  Her great-grandson said, “You need to go back to school, Grandma.” Thankfully, she didn’t whack him up side the head or send him to […]

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It Takes More Effort To Cheat Than to Do it Well

A Washington Post article reported that 140 teachers and 38 principals were involved in an organized cheating scandal to help students, schools, and districts meet targets required by standardized testing.  Here’s the full article:  Atlanta Public Schools Embroiled in Cheating Scandal I may be missing something here but wouldn’t it be better to put the […]

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Compton High School Student Learns to Do it Well at a Young Age

I heard a wonderful story on Headline News recently about Compton (CA) High School senior Allan Guei.  As a standout on the varsity basketball team, Allan entered a free-throw shooting contest sponsored by a marketing agency that wanted to produce a documentary to dispel negative beliefs about the Compton community. Guei won the competition and […]

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Netflix Doesn't Care About Customers…Do They?

Netflix announced that on September 1, they will change their subscription service by separating the cost of instant downloads from the cost of mailed DVD’s.  For my family, that change will result in a 33% increase in our cost.  I can’t understand why they would stick it to their customers like this.  Don’t they realize […]

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Doing it Well Means Doing The Work…Even When It's Fun

Sometimes we look at famous comedians and assume they were just born funny and that they don’t have to work at it.  In the movie Comedian, Jerry Seinfeld works his material over and over and over.  Similarly, I spoke with author and columnist Dave Barry and he admitted that writing humor was terribly difficult and […]

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Hospice Article

Here’s an article I wrote for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization on managing processes: Do it Well and Make it Fun:  Creating Excellence in All Processes

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