Purpose: To increase your sense of clarity and improve the quality of your decisions through engagement with the creative process.

Definition: Creative Intelligence is a more subtle form of intelligence that moves beyond typical mental processing into an experience of emotional feeling and integrative clarity. It is that part of us that speaks not in verbal language, but in image and symbol. The result is a depth of feeling that informs our thoughts and decisions.

Description of the Process: These retreats offer a process of creative and imaginative exploration designed to heighten awareness, shift perspective and deepen each participant’s connection to their creative intelligence. Through a carefully designed series of activities, participants learn how to connect with and express from their own deep level of inner experience. These activities are similar to those used to help artist and writers overcome their creative blocks and open to new possibilities.

This work uses the vehicle of the imagination to teach new ways to connect with our visual and emotional language. Visual language simply means to see and feel in graphic form. Absolutely no artistic talent is needed. This is not about creating art, but about expressing in an artistic way.

Benefits/Outcomes: The following is just a partial listing of how participants will benefit from engaging in this process:

• Experience an integrative sense of clarity

• Gain a deeper understanding of your emotional intelligence

• Feel the power of your creative imagination

• Discern and balance the critical difference between the desires of the heart and those of the logical mind

• Increase your capacity for living a balanced life through reflective action

We have chosen the image of the Chambered Nautilus to graphically symbolize our approach to the conceptual process of organizational and leadership development. Throughout its life, the Nautilus continually grows, adding new chambers and new dimensions to its structure. It is adaptable, durable, and distinctive — qualities that we all need to survive and thrive in today’s complex business environment.

Achieve Targeted Benefits and Outcomes:

• Identify Organizational Needs with a Professional Assessment of Your Organization or Department

• Improve Performance with Targeted Interventions

• Build Strong Leadership Capacity at all Levels of Your Organization

• Adopt Effective Organizational Change Strategies and Methodologies

• Gain a Better Understanding of the Dynamics that Contribute to the Problems or Conflicts in your Organization

• Clarify and Strengthen your Organizational Culture

• Increase Employee Satisfaction and Engagement

• Gain the Support of Key staff for Future Growth and Development

Client Testimonials:

“Karla’s style builds trust and is constantly focusing on the dynamics at play. Through discussion and debate she will guide you to your own conclusions as to how your actions and reactions can and do affect outcomes. She guides in a very helpful, constructive and non judgmental fashion.

~Gary Schauer, Controller — Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics Division~

“We are a small, but growing company, without a lot of training resources. Karla was my savior. I knew that I did not have the time or the skill set to bring my young and talented leaders to the next level. Karla, blending proven personality and skill assessment tools, and her natural intuition was able to guide me and my team to a higher level of performance.”

~General Manager, Menasha Packaging Company~

“Thank you for so beautifully facilitating our land-use forum. You have extra-ordinary skill, combined with a gentleness that is so refreshing. Just what we need

~Sunward Co-housing Community~

“Based on my professional experience and the positive outcomes of the various and complex assignments with which I have worked with Ms. Vineyard, I enthusiastically recommend her for professional engagements in organizational and leadership development.”

~E. Frederick Fahrenbacher, CEO Community Hospital, Watervliet~

Enhancing Personal and Organizational Performance

In today’s complex and diverse world, professional and organizational development must include a strong focus on developing the competencies of Emotional Intelligence: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Self-Motivation, Empathy and Relationship Building.

Vineyard Associates custom designs individual and group programs to enhance emotional intelligence skills and abilities. These programs include using comprehensive assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence. The MSCEIT™ assessment offers a unique way of measuring emotional intelligence that measures capacity for emotional reasoning and understanding.

A variety of emotional intelligence skill-building activities are used to enhance individual and group capabilities. Understanding the impact and value of EI is a critical need for today’s leaders.

Client Comments:

As a financial team we are so immersed in numbers that we often fail to develop our emotional intelligence skills. These skills are invaluable when obtaining or sharing information in our daily interaction with others. Karla worked with both the team and each individual to strengthen our communication skills. The benefits we gained from both a professional and individual standpoint have been realized in greater job rewards and strengthening of all relationships.“

Gary Schauer, Controller
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics Division

Harvard Business Review Online

International Leadership Association

The Executive Coaching Forum

Society for Organizational Learning

Favorite Poetry Website

Vineyard Associates, the creator and facilitator of Communicating Effectively with Healthcare Professionals, a national workshop designed in concert with the National Family Caregivers Association, offers customized programs and consulting services to healthcare organizations.

Services include:

• Relationship Centered Care Programs
• Communicating Effectively Facilitator Training
• Caregiver Workshops & Retreats
• Leadership Coaching
• Small Group Facilitation
• Professional Consultation

As a financial team we are so immersed in numbers that we often fail to develop our emotional intelligence skills. These skills are invaluable when obtaining or sharing information in our daily interaction with others. Karla worked with both the team and each individual to strengthen our communication skills. The benefits we gained from both a professional and individual standpoint have been realized in greater job rewards and strengthening of all relationships.“

Gary Schauer, Controller
Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Diagnostics Division

“We are a small, but growing company, without a lot of training resources. Karla was my savior. I knew that I did not have the time or the skill set to bring my young and talented leaders to the next level. Karla, blending proven personality and skill assessment tools, and her natural intuition was able to guide me and my team to a higher level of performance.”

General Manager, Menasha Packaging Company

“This experience is easily one of the most important in my life. Karla reminded me that success is really a journey, not a destination. She helped me to strengthen my relationships and find the courage inside to live my dream.”

Kimberly Mlinaz, Menasha Corporation

“Thank you for so beautifully facilitating our land-use forum. You have extraordinary skill - combined with a gentleness that is so refreshing. Just what we need!

Committee Member, Sunward Co-Housing Community

“Based on my professional experience and the positive outcomes of the various and complex assignments with which I have worked with Ms. Vineyard, I enthusiastically recommend her for professional engagements in organizational and leadership development.”

E. Frederick Fahrenbacher, CEO
Community Hospital, Watervliet

We tend to avoid conversations that we think will be difficult, yet they frequently prove to be the most productive and meaningful in terms of providing clarifying results or outcomes. In other words, they are exactly the conversations that we must have in order to gain the information and understanding needed to move ourselves and our organizations forward. These conversations are difficult because they strike at the core of who “we” and “they” are — and threaten our relationships.

Good communication honors and strengthens the relationship — by focusing on mutual goals and shared understandings — while also examining the difficulties, the disconnects and the impact of individual action. Our program involves learning a relationship-based communication strategy that employs a practical yet powerful approach to build mutual cooperation, gain understanding, maintain self-esteem, respond with empathy, and clarify expectations. These and other conceptual skills are incorporated into a step-by-step process that can be used as a practical guide for planning important conversations.

The focus is on developing and facilitating interpersonal communication strategies which integrate the basic skills, values, and beliefs necessary for effective communication practices. This innovative program to resolve conflict and encourage collaborative relationships also utilizes techniques based on the best selling book, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, by Stone, Patton & Heen (Viking/Penguin 1999):

Managers, colleagues, and direct reports in our fast-changing environment face difficult conversations every day. Based on ten years of work at the Harvard Negotiation Project, the Dealing with Difficult Conversations provides a framework for understanding why some of our most important conversations are so hard, examines the common mistakes we all make, and offers a step-by-step method for handling them with less anxiety and better results.

Executive Coaching is a powerful intervention that transforms leadership and allows critical shifts in organizational dynamics. Yet it is important to understand that this type of intervention also holds potential dangers for those who do not fully understand the need to integrate and strategically align coaching efforts with other organizational initiatives.

Research has identified four key disciplines as critical requirements for Coaching Excellence:

• Consulting - can quickly comprehend and address complex business problems from an external viewpoint

• Management - the business background and know-how to understand your job, and can related to the pressures and day-to-day realities of running a business

• Organizational Development - the ability to understand and link observed individual behaviors with the broader organizational culture

• Psychology - a deep understanding of human behavior, and the strategies that can be used to effect both individual and organizational change

Our expertise in Executive Coaching is deeply grounded in formal advanced degrees in Educational Leadership, Organizational Development, and Psychology. Over twenty years of hands-on practical experience coupled with a strong foundation in up-to-date research literature in the professional fields of organizational dynamics and leadership development, assures a high quality of service.

A valuable skill that sets us apart from other coaches is our demonstrated talent in helping clients to discover the inner depth and strength needed to become authentic leaders. For a clear understanding of the principles and professional guidelines that shape our approach see:

The Executive Coaching Forum

Leadership Coaching Leadership-Coaching_Vineyard.pdf

Discover Your Unique Style StepII_MBTI_Coaching.pdf

“We are a small, but growing company, without a lot of training resources. Karla was my savior. I knew that I did not have the time or the skill set to bring my young and talented leaders to the next level. Karla, blending proven personality and skill assessment tools, and her natural intuition was able to guide me and my team to a higher level of performance.”

General Manager, Menasha Packaging Company

Karla Vineyard

424 Little Lake Drive

Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103

269-823-8671

kvineyard@gmail.com

Vineyard Associates is a dynamic and innovative organizational development consulting practice specializing in custom designed organizational and leadership development initiatives. We have been serving local, state and national accounts for over 16 years.

Since 1992, Karla Vineyard has been president of her own consulting business, specializing in organizational needs assessment and creating programs to guide change and performance improvement. She is highly skilled in helping to create organizations that are personally satisfying and inspiring as well as productive and profitable. Her demonstrated talent involves helping clients to discover the inner depth and strength needed to become authentic leaders.

Karla has a solid theoretical and practical background in the dynamics of today’s business environment and is familiar with the challenges leaders and workers must face in order to succeed. Her focus has been on uniting the business needs of the organization, the personal needs of the individual, and the collective needs of our world community.

Over the years, she has worked with many organizations in a wide variety of industries including pharmaceutical, healthcare, education, office furniture, automotive, plastics, book publishing, state and local government, human services, and aerospace. This diverse experience allows her to quickly gain insight and understanding into the dynamic, unique needs of each client organization. Karla holds a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor or Arts in Psychology from the University of Texas.

* Client List: Vineyard Associates_Client List