Bill Martin

Bill Martin is a warm, charismatic and inspiring speaker who focuses on organisational learning, the creation of leadership capacity, innovation, effective change and the direct teaching of systems thinking skills and thinking dispositions.

Having taught in Primary Schools, Bill took a series of headships in his 20 years as a leader in High Schools throughout America. On two occasions he led large schools in low socio-economic, culturally diverse communities to win State and National awards for organisational excellence. These awards are given to only 300 U.S. high schools annually from over 36,000 schools in the country.

Bill’s journey has earned him several personal accolades. In 1993 he became one of six finalists from across the country in the nation’s first National Principal of the Year competition. That same year the National School Safety Centre recognised Bill as one of ten Principals of Leadership in the U.S

The five-year school-wide thinking skills programme developed by the Bleyl Junior High School community in Houston, Texas under Bill’s leadership, became an international model for other schools. The seven-year long-term improvement plan, Trojan 2000, at Monroe High School in Monroe, Michigan, earned that community a $500,000 Department of Education Small Learning Community grant in September of 2000. The impressive positive effects on staff, students, parents and the local communities have been well documented and internationally recognised.

Having retired from Headship, Bill is now a sought after consultant and presenter in both education and business. He has worked in nine countries across a range of sectors, including education, health, financial analysis, juvenile justice, non-profit organisations and elite sport. He has presented invited addresses at International Conferences on Thinking in New Zealand, the U.K., USA and Australia and was keynote presenter at the recent International Conference on Ignorance.

Besides his widely respected work on shared visioning, Bill works with organisations in a range of areas, including:

• creating a culture of leadership
• overcoming the “busy-ness” trap
• the leadership of organisational learning
• the creative management of change
• alternative scheduling
• applying systems thinking to schools
• authentic assessment
• schools-within-schools
• essential learning
• processes to develop alignment and commitment, even from resistant staff
• the development of effective thinking dispositions

Bill’s processes are in use internationally, and he completes regular tours of the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Europe. One of his major current projects is the establishment of an international network of innovative schools spread across seven countries (www.community-designed-education.com)

"Your insight into current issues is remarkable and the behaviour stuff was a stroke of genius as it:
a) hit at a very hot issue and made the whole process seem incredibly relevant
b) clarified the reasons we were in conflict re behaviour management
c) gave us a way forward, taking responsibility for decisions and actions"  (Joyce Jenkins, Head of Amble First School)

Also see: Community Designed Education     Bill's Leadership Blog

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