New Mind Solutions LLC

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New Mind Solutions LLC

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05/24/2026

Thirty years ago, I started saying a sentence to every supervisor and every staff I ever served.

"I want to leave things better than I found them."

I didn't have fancy words for it back then. I just knew what better looked like, and I knew most of the people I worked alongside wanted the same thing.

This week I finally wrote down what I've been chasing all along. Nine pillars of a strong culture, drawn from three decades in K-12 leadership. The full article is on my LinkedIn, link in the comments.

If you've ever worked somewhere that felt right, or somewhere that didn't, you already know these pillars. You just may not have had the words for them yet.

Leave it better than you found it. That's still the work.

05/23/2026

Healthy organizational culture isn’t built through mission statements alone.

It’s reflected in:
✔ how people communicate
✔ how leaders respond
✔ whether employees feel psychologically safe
✔ how accountability is modeled
✔ whether growth and belonging are intentional

Strong cultures don’t happen accidentally.
They are cultivated consistently.

What elements of healthy culture do you believe organizations overlook most?

Read the article on LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/strong-culture-stronger-organization-nine-pillars-ive-matrell-qbpae

— New Mind Solutions LLC
Leading Change. Strengthening Culture

05/22/2026

Post 7 of 7- Policy as a Culture Signal

I've come to believe something after a long career in HR and school leadership.

An organization's policies tell you what leadership was afraid of when they wrote them.

I mean that carefully. Good policy matters. It protects people. I've written it, revised it, and helped organizations deal with what happens when there isn't enough of it.

But I've also walked into organizations where the policy manual read less like a guide and more like a warning. Thick. Punitive. Focused almost entirely on what employees cannot do.

And staff felt it. Every day.

Most leaders never stop to think about their policy language as a culture signal. But when everything leads with consequences, when the language assumes people will take advantage if given the chance that's not just paperwork.

That's a message about trust. Or the lack of it.

I ask every leadership team I work with to do one thing. Read your own policies as if you're a brand new hire seeing them for the first time. What do they say about how this organization views the people who work here?

Because staff feel the answer to that question. Whether anyone ever says it out loud or not.

This is the final post in the Yellow Flag Series. Thank you for following along. If something here gave you language for what you've already been sensing ,that was the whole point.

Ready to talk about what your organization's yellow flags might be telling you? Reach out. I'd love to connect.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

05/07/2026

Post 6 of 7 - Supervisor Behavior

We spend a lot of time developing leaders at the top.

And that matters. I've designed and delivered leadership programs for years. Executive development is real and necessary work.

But here's what three decades in schools and organizations has taught me.

The person who shapes the day-to-day culture experience for most of your staff? It's not the superintendent. It's not the executive director. It's the direct supervisor. The person your staff sees every single day.

The one who decides whether feedback feels safe or threatening. Whether a new idea gets a fair hearing. Whether people on that team feel seen or just tolerated.

And when there's a gap between what an organization says its culture is and what staff actually live? That gap almost always lives right there, at the supervisory level.

I've seen it more times than I can count. Districts investing in executive development while the mid-level supervisors , the people with the most direct daily contact with staff, were left to figure it out on their own.

The signals show up quietly. People who only communicate with their supervisor in writing because they've learned it's safer that way. Teams that go flat when the supervisor enters and come alive the moment they leave. Strong employees who ask for a transfer, not to leave the organization, but to get away from one person.

Those aren't personality issues. They're culture signals.

Post 6 of 7 in the Yellow Flag Series.
Share this with someone who oversees supervisors. They need this conversation.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

04/29/2026

Post 5 of 7- Onboarding Gaps

When I start working with an organization, one of the very first things I ask is simple.

"Walk me through your onboarding process."
..and I never get one answer. I get three or four. Everyone describes their piece of it ,and they describe it confidently, because from where they sit, it works.

But nobody can describe the whole thing.

Then I ask the follow-up. "Is it written down?"

The pause before the answer? Usually says everything.

An undocumented onboarding process is one of the most consistent yellow flags I see in my consulting work. Not because nobody's trying. But because nobody has ever sat down together and agreed on what a new person's experience should actually look like from their first day all the way through their first ninety.

When it lives only in people's heads, it's inconsistent by design and new hires feel that inconsistency before they ever say a word about it.

The first task I give every HR team I work with is this. Sit down together. Write the whole thing out. Every step, every handoff, every name. Not because the document is the solution — but because the conversation you have to create it will surface every gap you didn't know was there.

The document isn't the destination. Building it together is.

Post 5 of 7 in the Yellow Flag Series. If this resonates, share it with someone in HR or school leadership.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

04/14/2026

Post 4 of 7 - Engagement Drops

Let me describe someone you might already know.

They show up. Every day. They meet their deadlines, they do their work, and they do it well. Nothing looks wrong from the outside.

But something's shifted. The spark is gone. The initiative is gone. What's left is someone going through the motions — reliably, competently, and without a whole lot of investment in any of it.

We leave people like this alone because they're not causing problems.

That's usually when they become one.

There's a difference between someone who's engaged and someone who just hasn't left yet. And the leaders who can't see that difference are almost always the ones who end up shocked when their most dependable person walks out the door.

I've learned to ask a different question. Not just who's struggling — but who's coasting? And why?

Effort without investment isn't sustainable. It's a quiet countdown.

Who on your team is doing everything right and feeling nothing? That conversation is overdue.

Post 4 of 7 in the Yellow Flag Series.
Follow this page and share with a leader who needs to read this today.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

04/07/2026

This graphic stopped me mid-scroll because it puts a name to something I’ve watched happen in school districts for over 30 years.
We lose good people and then wonder why. We conduct exit interviews and act surprised by the answers. But the reasons are rarely a mystery.

Paid well. Mentored. Challenged. Promoted. Appreciated. Involved. Trusted. Empowered. Valued.

Nine words. And every single one of them is a culture decision before it’s ever a leadership decision.

Culture is not the mission statement on the wall or the employee appreciation luncheon in November. Culture is what happens on an ordinary Tuesday when someone has a new idea and wonders if it’s safe to say it out loud. It’s whether a new hire feels seen in their first 90 days. It’s whether a veteran employee still feels like they have somewhere to grow.

In K-12, we pour so much energy into student culture and not nearly enough into the culture that keeps the adults in the building. The two are not separate. You cannot build a thriving learning environment on top of a workforce that feels invisible.

When organizations get these nine things right, retention takes care of itself. When they get them wrong, no bonus or benefits package will fill the gap.

Credit to Dr. Miro Bada at PeakProtocol.co for putting it this clearly.

Which one of these nine does your organization struggle with most?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

04/07/2026

Post 3 of 7- Attrition Patterns

I watched a district lose some of its strongest people early in my career and leadership called it normal turnover.

But nobody was asking the right questions. Not just how many people left — but who. And when. And from which teams.

Because the number tells you one story. The pattern tells you a completely different one.

In education we've gotten really good at normalizing attrition in ways that keep us from asking harder questions. We blame the job market. We point to pay. And sometimes those things are real. But they're rarely the whole story.

What I've seen consistently is this. The people who leave the quietest — no drama, no grievance filed, no exit interview that says anything real — are usually the ones who cared the most. They just stopped believing it was safe or worth it to say so.

That's not a pay problem. That's a culture problem.

Before you lose another person you didn't see coming, look at who left. What did they have in common? And — honestly — what story are you telling yourself about why they walked out the door?

Post 3 of 7 in the Yellow Flag Series.
Share this with someone who needs to ask different questions about who's leaving their organization.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

04/01/2026

Post 2 of 7- Language Shifts

Here's something I started doing differently after years in HR and school leadership.

I stopped listening so hard in the formal meetings and I started paying a lot more attention to the hallway...the break room... the offhand comment someone made on the way to the parking lot.

Because that's where the real culture lives.

There are phrases I've learned to flag immediately. You've probably heard them too.

"That's just how things work around here."
"I don't want to rock the boat."
"I'll just do what I'm told."

None of them sound like a crisis. But when you're hearing them from multiple people, on multiple teams, in multiple conversations — they're telling you something important. Something your next survey won't pick up for months.

Watch for when people shift from saying "we" to saying "they" when they talk about leadership. Watch for the humor that gets a little too cynical at the edges. Watch for the person who used to bring ideas to every meeting and now just brings themselves.

By the time the words change, the feeling already has.

Post 2 of 7 in the Yellow Flag Series.

What phrases have you heard that made you stop and think? Share in the comments.

For the full professional series, find me on LinkedIn. Link in bio.

04/01/2026

When a team knows who they are before they plan where they’re going, the planning means something different.

Tonight I had the privilege of facilitating a joint team building and comprehensive planning kickoff for Florence County First Steps and Marion County First Steps. Great energy, great people, and a room ready to do the work.

Grateful for the opportunity to serve organizations committed to excellence for the families in our community.

Address

125 N Boundary St
Manning, SC
29102

Website

http://newmindconsulting.com/, http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreamsturkey

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