Course Design & Delivery

At the core, everything I do involves teaching. For the last five years I’ve been lucky to work with some of the top graduate students and executive education clients in the world, both in the Ken Blanchard Executive MBA at Grand Canyon University and in several programs at the Thunderbird School of Global Management (ranked #1 in the world “International Full-time MBA” by US News and World Report 2011) My teaching method emphasizes interaction and personal application, producing proven results that participants put into action immediately.
From 2008 – 2010 I was director of the Ken Blanchard Executive MBA. During that time enrollment doubled, the program received ACBSP accreditation and the student retention rate was 93%.

Graduate level courses I have designed and taught for MBA students and executive education clients:

Leadership Communication – Final course in Master of Science in Leadership program focusing on skills leaders need to become effective communicators. Participants develop communication plans for organizations and apply course material to personal leadership.

Leadership Styles and Development – Explores the nature of business leadership models and theories, examines these models through a broad variety of insights and viewpoints, and provides a description and analysis of these approaches to leadership, giving special attention to how the models can improve leadership in real-world organization. (taught only)

Engaging Stakeholders – Introduces a continuum to promote and track stakeholder engagement and offers compelling means for leaders to move key people and groups to higher levels of engagement (uses case: IR at BP: Investor Relations and Information Reconnaissance)

Communicating Change – Explores the importance of understanding an audience when communicating change and offers practical discussion on communicating with Boomer, Gen-X and Millennial audiences (uses case: The Global Leadership of Carlos Ghosn at Nissan)

Managing the Media –  Examines how the media work and what reporters, editors and producers are really looking for – explaining how participants can use that knowledge to tell the stories they want told. Gives participants hands-on experience handling difficult questions about issues critical to them, including the challenges and opportunities in social media (participants are video-taped and course usually requires at least two sessions).

Framing a Message – Examines the powerful tool of  “framing” change message and uses video examples of a well-framed message. Students practice creating useful frames for important messages (case used: Pepsi: Repairing a Poisoned Reputation in India).

Communicating for Buy-in – Discusses the importance of communication – particularly communicating for buy-in – in any major change initiative. Examines the importance of communication throughout the change process (primary text: The Heart of Change Field Guide by Dan S. Cohen).

Reacting to Challenge – Looks at how multi-national organizations react to unexpected challenges. Introduces a process of self-inspection designed to diagnose and avert potential disasters (uses video cases from various social media, CBS and ABC).

Communication, Perception and the Bottom Line – Explores how perceptions influence the effectiveness of communication, and how understanding perceptions is critical to being a more effective communicator

Corporate Social Responsibility – Examines the pressure on organizations to exhibit socially responsibility and how leaders respond. Emphasizes the concept of social responsibility for competitive advantage (various cases used, including Timberland and Community Involvement, Telework at AT&T: Strategy and Systems Thinking and The Path to Corporate Responsibility).

Undergraduate level courses I have designed and taught for business and communication students.

Public Relations Case Studies – Capstone course for public relations majors which examines and analyzes classic public relations cases

Public Relations Campaigns – 400-level course in which students create and execute team-based public relations projects

Public Relations Principals – College of Business course on understanding the principals of effective public relations and internal and external communication

Newspaper Editing – Upper-level course offering hands-on experience in editing and managerial decision-making for newspapers, magazines and specialty publications

Print Journalism Writing – Explores writing techniques for newspapers, the Web and specialty publications

Broadcast Performance – Upper-level course focusing on improving on-camera presence and communication skills, featuring production of daily local newscasts

Electronic News Gathering – Writing and producing news and feature content for television and radio, with emphasis on clarity, focus and accuracy in writing and editing

News Operations – The day-to-day operation of the television and radio newsroom, with emphasis on roles and responsibilities, news judgment and content balance (co-designed and taught)

Sports Journalism – Writing and reporting sports content for print and broadcast media

Speech Communication – Basic course on understanding interpersonal communication and enhancing speaking skills (taught to the general student population)

Testimonials

Thank you for your efforts in education from all of our cohort.  I am sure that you saw from your reviews, but everyone in the cohort felt that you were the most engaging and helpful instructor in the program…and interesting in person.

End of Course Survey – MGT 642, Leading Organizations

Professor Carr is excellent. This was by far the best experience in communication for an online class I have had.  I appreciated the expectations section.

End of Course Survey – BUS 637, Serving Communities

Taylor was fully engaged with the students and enhanced the discussions by his active participation, questions and insights.

End of Course Survey – MGT 630, Leading Self

A wonderful teacher and personality.  Very helpful and has a genuine interest in the students willingness to learn!

End of Course Survey – MGT 642, Leading Organizations

Professor Carr’s class was the best of the program thus far!  His style of teaching and great attention to discussion board facilitation helped make our learning a very positive experience.

End of Course Survey – BUS 637, Serving Communities