Willow Pond Ranch, Santa Cruz, Experiential Awareness Learning for Corporate Team Building and Leadership Training

This is not a leadership program, although you will learn how to lead better, this is not a team work program although you will learn how to work better together. What this is is an innovation program. You will experience the value of be Aware, have Impact, Innovate, Motivate and create Synergy: AIIMS. Learn to make more creative decisions, have better results and do more with less. Learn to be more effective, working outside you comfort zone.

Willow Pond offers half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshops and retreats for corporations, institutions, academic organizations, community organizations, and other groups. The horses bring us powerful experiential lessons in the areas of:

Trust

Respect

Values

Accountability

Communication

Empowerment

Alignment

Diversity

In our hands-on activities, participants involve themselves closely with one or multiple horses to experience first-hand the horse’s ability to show us our and our teams strengths, weaknesses, and behavior patterns, in a way that only a 1,000 pound teacher can.

Previous horse experience is not at all necessary. This is not Riding.

Awareness of our actions, having the ability to coolly multi-task, being assertive without being aggressive, standing our ground and having boundaries, knowing when to push and when to praise – these skills affect every other aspect of our lives, making us more effective leaders.

These abilities cannot be learned by reading how to do them, or even watching a demonstration – they must be experienced. With horses, you cannot “fake it”. They will expose disparities and inconsistencies, see through to a person’s true nature, as well as require both responsibility and integrity before they willingly acquiesce to leadership. Indeed, these are the qualities of an excellent supervisor or team player.

Horses teach authentic leadership, trust and adaptability to change within your organization. Leaders today are challenged by frequent change, pressured to be productive and produce results. They often feel disconnected from nature and from other people, crave authenticity and struggle with conflict. Yet they manage people who don't always follow through, have a hard time dealing with conflict and sometimes fail at leading themselves.

Going into another paneled meeting room to solve these problems generates little lasting change.

A paneled room generates good ideas but little framework for lasting change. Reconnecting with nature and animals connects people with themselves and their teammates in ways that access untapped creativity, initiative and leadership skills. The horses in Willow Pond’s Corporate Training provide an honest mirror to reveal your team's wisdom and leadership, and areas where your team could use improvement. Our coaches fuel your team's untapped potential into action.

We provide customized experiential horse guided programs which bring transformational change to team members and leaders. Through their natural way of being, horses teach people how to:

• Effectively lead themselves

• Lead from a place of service, not from ego

• Become more proactive and take initiative more often

• Gain clarity about their direction, gifts and strengths

• Become much more comfortable dealing with each other

• Grow Dedicated Teams that drive your companies success

We customize equine guided experiential training to meet your specific needs.

Leadership Training — find that elusive edge that will make you a more effective leader. Team Effectiveness — move your team to a higher performance level.

Communication Skills — 85% of what we communicate is non-verbal. The horses provide an honest mirror which helps you get to the heart of what you REALLY want to say. When you "walk your talk," trust and momentum naturally follow.

Change — Organizations are in constant change. Learning to adapt quickly and effectively are keys to organization health and success.

Soul — horses bring us to deep human authenticity as no other experiential learning can.

Willow Pond also holds clinics and seminars for all who are interested in developing or improving Equine Assisted Learning and Team Building skills, corporate image, program development, and delivery of excellence to corporate clients. Learn how to effectively utilize the EAGALA Approach in your corporate training sessions. Discover how horses can help your team to create positive, lasting change in corporate groups.