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Winners'
Circle
Team Building & Leadership Development
Workshops

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Offering Individual
Sessions
and
Group Workshops
Our workshops utilize
an experiential learning approach to facilitate lasting change. These
workshops are active, introspective, and specifically examine how your
group interacts to accomplish goals. We partner with you to custom
design a program that best fits your group's unique goals and
objectives.
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Is
this the right solution for you?
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Does your group
want a new approach to development - beyond role modeling and the
typical team building activities? |
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Are you looking to
better leverage your group’s unique communication, problem
solving, and leadership styles? |
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Do you need to
strengthen relationships and improve group dynamics? |
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Is it your goal to
ignite energy and excitement within your group? |
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The
Results
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Enhance leadership skills and
improve teamwork |
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Evaluate communication styles and
strengthen relationships for better collaboration |
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Examine cultural expectations and
how they impact results |
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Improve Creative Problem Solving
Skills |
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Ignite cultural change
through creating an environment that suspends judgment, increases integrity, and builds
confidence |
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This is the
perfect solution to empower with lasting
impact.
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If yes, then
this unique program is for you! |
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All of these improve
focus, productivity, and effectiveness. |

How do horses
teach us about teams and leadership?
So you are wondering what horses have in common with us and our
organizational cultures. Horses communicate within their herd
hierarchy, other
animals, and with people through their nonverbal language of Equus.
They have honed their ability to perceive their surroundings as a survival
skill for millions of years as a prey species. This ability is so
profound that horses can understand our personalities, behaviors,
thoughts, and feelings even before we think we have expressed them.
Just like humans, horses live within a hierarchy where
each horse has its own role and responsibilities. The herd leader
guides through confidence, compassion, and respect - finding the perfect
balance of acceptance and using discipline when it is absolutely
necessary. This enables the rest of the herd to trust in the
leadership and have a sense of security. The herd leader is always
working to watch over and protect the herd in times of need. Also,
the leader listens to the other herd members to create an environment of
acceptance, support, and growth. There is a tremendous amount we can
learn from the leadership and management style of a herd leader.
At Bella Terra, we find it is common for many to misinterpret
the behaviors of our herd leader, thinking he is distant, aloof, and less
accepting, when in fact he
is doing his job and taking it very seriously. Have you ever had the
same perception of a leader you have interacted with? At Bella Terra, our
compassionate and masterful herd leader at is
Peanut.
Horses differ from humans in that they don't see
socio-economic status and they don't care about our gender, race, size,
orientations and belief systems. They accept each person for exactly
who they are in terms of their honesty, confidence, congruency, level of trust,
assertiveness, and clarity in communication. Horses are totally
honest, incapable of hidden agendas, live in the present moment as well as
a place of discernment rather than judgment. Horses reflect back
their assessment of us and this creates the opportunity to learn how we
can develop our effectiveness. Again, there is a tremendous amount
we can learn from horses.
It is the relationship building
and bonding with these living creatures
that sets this development
experience apart from anything else available.
(A comment made by an
executive attending the Equine Adventure Program with his leadership team)
This Experience
Targets These Areas:
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Creative Problem Solving |
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Improving Self-awareness |
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Team Effectiveness |
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Communication & Interpersonal Styles |
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Organizational Cultural Change |
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Decision Making & Goal Setting |
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Gaining Confidence |
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Leadership Development |
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Having
Fun! |
Programs provided at any location with any horses - we
travel
nationally using a facility and horses in that location
Also providing other experiential
facilitation and team building, including a
pirate themed treasure hunt in downtown
Kalamazoo

Testimonial:
I valued "being challenged in such a different way
... unlike ever before."
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For Groups: Each half day, full day or
two day workshop is custom designed for your group's unique goals and
objectives. This is the workshop process:
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To ensure you receive the maximum benefit from this experience, a
pre-workshop assessment is conducted through an anonymous survey of
group members
and/or an interview with the group representative. This
identifies key focus areas for the workshop. |
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A program is designed by selecting the best activities that target the
group's goals and objectives. |
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During the workshop, strengths and an action items are identified for
the work environment based on outcomes during the activities. |
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Individuals can set goals they plan to
work on over the next 60 days based on what they learned during the
workshop. These goals are privately documented and are sent 60
days later as a reminder of the experience and an opportunity to reflect
upon individual progress. |
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An action plan is developed along with consolidated workshop
evaluation information. This is provided to the group leader
within a week after the workshop and a follow-up meeting is scheduled
to review progress after 30 or 60 days. |
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For Individuals:
If you are interested in working
individually, we provide a great experience to examine your leadership
style, how you
communicate, achieve goals, and assert yourself to get what you need.
This is a powerful, introspective experience to learn about yourself and
try new approaches.
Assessment Tools:
The workshop can be coupled with a personality type/behavioral style
assessment. These tools develop awareness of individual styles,
the business need for style diversity, and how to best interact with
individuals of different styles. The horse activities
demonstrate these styles and provide the perfect opportunity to put
style approach in action.
Cost:
Costs for each workshop are based upon
needs, such as workshop length, food options, location (rental for an
indoor arena, the extent of travel), and pre- and post-workshop
requirements. We offer discounts for non-profit organizations.
Please contact us for pricing information.
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The Hardest Person You Will Ever Have to Lead is Yourself
This was the topic of discussion in
the April 2007 issue of Fast Company "Open Debate"
column. The article highlighted:
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leaders need to be adaptable |
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great leaders are excellent teachers |
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leaders should focus on their authenticity and goals rather than ego and
power. |
Bill George, professor at Harvard Business School, said, "The key to growing as a leader is to narrow that gap (of how you
see yourself and how you want to be seen) by developing a deep
self-awareness that comes from straight feedback and honest exploration of
yourself, followed by a concerted effort to make changes." |
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Leadership and
Communication
Beyond Words: Communicate with
Actions and Attitude
The Center for Creative Leadership (www.ccl.org)
has a great
article on the power of nonverbal communication
adapted from the book
Building Character: Strengthening the Heart of Good Leadership by Gene
Klann (Jossey-Bass, 2006).
Article Recap:
Effective leaders
master the art and craft of language. But skilled leaders also know that
communication goes beyond words. Actions and attitudes send powerful
messages. |
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See Equine Experiential Programming In Action:
There is a program in Britain based on many of the same principles as our
program. Paul Hunting's HorseJoy and
The Centre for Natural Leadership has a wonderful
short and a
longer video that
clearly represent how equine experiential programming can be effectively
used with teams.
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The Equine Adventure program gives leaders the
opportunity develop self-awareness and to see their style reflected back
by a horse, without judgment or bias. This experience provides the
unique opportunity to learn what you are effectively and ineffectively
communicating. Equine Adventure offers leaders the opportunity to
develop self-awareness better than any other professional development
experience available.
"This kind of experiential
learning has a profound impact and creates lasting results."
"The horse is a mirror of our inner
thoughts, beliefs, behavior and limitations. They have a keen sense of
intuition and an uncanny ability to sense the unspoken. Our job is
to learn to lead them effectively through trust and consistency, their job
is to tell us when we are effective and when we need to look within.
This grounded, truly empathetic and somatic approach to working with another being
develops a new paradigm in how we view ourselves."
~ Anna Twinney,
Reach Out To Horses

"Don't tell people how to
do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their
results."
~ George S. Patton
"Visualize it and then you
can create it."
~
Maggie
Garbarini
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