Testimonials:

Thank you for your wonderful services in leading our strategic planning retreat. It was an incredibly valuable experience in so many ways.  I continue to hear praise for your role in the process from many of the Willow House Board members and volunteers who participated.  I was especially impressed by your skills in empowering each of us to personally own and engage in this critical process.  The results are apparent in the new and renewed activities and overall enthusiasm of the Willow House team.  Many Thanks!

Thanks for everything Joyce in facilitating a full day community-wide planning event around Community Policing in Chicago.  You were terrific in involving 135 community leaders and helped us get through something that could have been very sticky.  Your experience and skills showed.  One of our most difficult people said to me – “who is the facilitator?  She really knows what she’s doing.”  Believe me – this is a rare compliment.

Thank you for your assistance in facilitating the Executive Training Program for the Public Defender’s Office in Cook County in Chicago.  You have an excellent grasp of the mechanics of management.  You are to be commended for your ability to get the best of out of people.

Thank you for your great work to prepare a proposal to establish a world class university in Kuito, the capital of Bie province of Angola Africa.  I am sure I could not have found a better strategic thinker and a detail oriented, but yet patient and kind leader than you to work hand in hand with me on the University Project.  Thanks to your hard work, the impossible dream of my country fellows to pursue higher education will soon become a reality.  I am looking forward to our continued team work.  I value your contributions to the project and it is an honor to work with you.

As Director for Research and Development at the City of Chicago Department of Housing, I oversaw an initiative called the Chicago Forum for Housing Solutions which engaged over 200 people organized into six different task forces to address systemic problems.  Overall, you helped the Department of Housing create a positive and inclusive process that exceeded its goals.  Your process serves as a model for other agencies seeking to involve multiple stakeholders in the development of strategic directions for public agencies.

The Chicago region would not be where we are today without your invaluable assistance in facilitating the process of merging our land use and transportation planning agencies into one organization that will set the vision for all future regional planning efforts.   Your facilitation of strategic planning activities and input sessions with all the key stakeholders across the region was perfectly suited to the task and led to legislation that created the Regional Planning Board and eventually the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.  We highly recommend you to any organization thinking of engaging your firm.  Please feel free to call upon the Mayors Caucus as a reference in the future.  We would be happy to discuss your qualifications and the quality of your work product with any prospective clients!

Thank you for a terrific job in directing the immunization planning session.  I think the session was a terrific success due primarily to your clear and effective guidance.  All three exercises (vision, barriers, and strategic directions) were very useful.  This planning process will have many lasting results for children in our community.  Your help in assisting government agencies to collaborate with community groups and advocacy organizations is invaluable.

Joyce brings a wealth of experience to the strategic planning experience.  She is thorough and always meets deadlines.  She is an energetic facilitator and is excellent at thinking on her feet.  She knows how to bring clarity out of confusion. Having worked with many “planning consultants” in the past, she is the best at what she does.  After working closely with Joyce for more than two years, I can state that we absolutely made the right decision.

Joyce’s presentation to our search committee was so well received that it led directly to a long-term engagement.  It was not easy to build consensus given such diversity and wide-ranging opinions in our international organization. To Joyce’s credit, she was always able to include everyone in the process, validate their opinions, build consensus, accommodate changes and differences of opinion as appropriate, and keep the process moving forward in a positive, constructive manner.  Joyce communicates easily and effectively with people from all levels of the organization and is always extremely well organized at every stage of the process – from development of the plan through to the implementation phase.  Joyce demonstrated beyond any question that she had no gaps in knowledge or skills when it came to facilitating a high level strategic plan for a complex, multi-national organization.

I cannot thank you enough for leading the Foundation’s Board and Staff through our recent strategic planning session.  The thought and ideas generated at the session resonated throughout the rest of the two day board meeting with all comments being positive.  Again, thank you Joyce for a job well done!