The Innovation Forge Podcast

Inside the Funnel Pilot: Portal Polytechnic Fixes the ButtonBefore the season officially begins, we start with a preseason classic. Portal Polytechnic fixed the button. Good for them. The problem is that a fixed button is not the same thing as a fixed student experience. In this pilot episode of Inside the Funnel, we introduce the enrollment management sports desk format by following Portal Polyte...

My pace slows naturally. I take a longer inhale. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Let students breathe. Space builds trust. Silence allows decisions to form. Pressure short-circuits both. Today, remove one unnecessary nudge. Let your spark speak, and l...

My shoulders loosen as sunlight hits the street. I feel it across my back. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Clarity is kindness. Unclear processes create anxiety. Vague instructions cause delay. Being precise is a form of care. Today, clarify one confu...

A school bus rumbles past. The sound lingers in my chest for a second. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Timing beats volume. One message at the right moment outperforms ten sent blindly. I learned this watching a single, well-timed aid touchpoint outpe...

My eyes track a passerby for a moment before returning to the path. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Support is not surveillance. Tracking behavior is useful. Watching every move is not. Students feel when they are being monitored instead of helped. Bu...

Counting Behaviors, Flagging Behaviors, Score Bands, and DistanceThis episode of #TheInnovationForgePodcast is your starting point for transforming Slate behaviors into engineered insight.📊 Counting clicks.🚩 Flagging ghosters.🏷️ Grouping by vibes (okay, Score Bands).📍 Tracking who’s close enough to visit (and who’s Zoom-only forever).Because it’s not just about having data. It’s about telling t...

A leaf crunches under my heel. I notice how much louder it sounds than the rest of the sidewalk. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Do less. Do it better. Most teams are over extended. Too many campaigns. Too many projects. Too many priorities. Quality d...

My breath deepens as I climb a small incline. I feel it in my calves. Effort shows up even when you move slow. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Yield work is emotional labor. Students are making life decisions. Families are balancing finances, identity...

The sky is overcast and the light is flat enough to pull detail out of everything. My shoes pick up a little grit at the edge of the curb and I hear it scrape for a few steps before it falls away. A delivery van idles at the end of the block. Somewhere behind me a screen door slaps shut. My hands are warm, but my forearms still feel a little heavy from yesterday. You’re joining me on The Ember Wal...

My pace settles by the second block. The air is cool and dry. I pass the same bench I pass most mornings and stop looking at the bench long enough to read the small metal plaque bolted to the backrest. Name. Date. Four words. The paint on the wood is chipped and gone where people still sit. A car rolls by slowly and the tires crackle over grit near the curb. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, wh...

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I ignore it and keep walking. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Automation still carries your values. Every trigger reflects a belief. Every conditional branch reveals priorities. When you automate, you are not removing r...

My stride shortens as I approach a corner. I check traffic. Then I cross. Decision arrives when choices narrow. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. One next step beats five options. Every extra choice increases cognitive load. Every additional link splits...

Coffee and Coals, The Forge Bellows, and the Reveal of the Coach In this Coffee and Coals episode of The Innovation Forge Podcast, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a project that is growing and changing faster than I can comprehend - The Forge Bellows, a way for me to aggregate the world speeding past us to help teach Adaptive Enrollment Management and The Great Enrollpression Then, we cap it o...

My fingers curl inside my sleeves as a breeze cuts through. I adjust my coat just for it to fall back as it was. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Intervention is not control. Supporting students does not mean steering every move. It means removing fric...

Cold air slides down my collar and I pull it closer. A cyclist waits at the intersection beside me. We stand still together for a few seconds, then we move. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Stop solving the wrong moment. Teams love to fix outcomes. Low...

My shoe brushes against a loose pebble and it shoots across the pavement. I watch it roll, slow, then stop. The air feels still. I notice how my shoulders drop when I do not rush. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Fewer messages. Better timing. Most enr...

Visiting Artisan | Quick Strike Interviews from Slate Summit 2025 – Episode 2 🎙️ Presented by The Innovation Forge Back at the anvil for Round 2. In this second batch of Quick Strike Interviews from Slate Summit 2025, seven more practitioners share the systems, struggles, and smart moves shaping their Slate work today (okay, shaping their Slate work 10 months ago). Whether it’s governance, AI inte...

The sidewalk feels warmer than yesterday. My palms open and close once as I walk, like my hands remember work even when they are empty. A delivery truck idles nearby and then pulls away. I notice how sound lingers after motion stops. My breath steadies. This feels like the moment before a decision. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll...

The morning feels softer today. My feet land without effort. A patch of sunlight warms my hands and I hold them there for a second longer than usual. Something about this walk feels settled. Like a room after everyone has stopped talking. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the c...

My stride evens out as the street opens up. Sunlight hits one side of my face. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. The metal is always speaking. Through behavior. Through silence. Through return. Through delay. Your job is not to force it to answer. Your...

Fog hangs low over a lawn as I pass. It lifts slowly. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Clarity arrives quietly. It does not announce itself. It settles. If you chase it, you miss it. Today, notice what feels steady. Let your spark speak, and let us kno...

A loose stone shifts under my shoe and I adjust. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Read before you repair. Fixing feels productive. Understanding is harder. I have rebuilt workflows that did not need rebuilding. Now I ask why first. Today, pause before...

My footsteps echo under an overpass. The sound multiplies, then fades. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Students are not rows in a table. Every record holds context. Every metric sits on a human story. I forget this sometimes when I am deep in exports....

My shoulders rise as a gust hits, then they settle as logic wins over reaction. You’re joining me on The Ember Walk, where curiosity meets motion. I’m David Dysart. Together we’ll take a few minutes to step through one idea that shapes the craft of enrollment. Your instinct needs evidence. Experience matters. Gut matters. But unchecked instinct becomes bias. I have been wrong plenty of times while...

O.R.E. Report 003 | Communication Preferences of Prospective College StudentsWhat if the problem isn’t how much you communicate with prospective students but how you strike? In O.R.E. Report 003, we step into the furnace to examine how prospective college students actually want to hear from institutions—and where enrollment teams are misfiring. This episode breaks down the real signal beneath the...