TESTIMONIALS

Joyce Hollingsworth comes with my highest recommendation for her knowledge and skill in facilitating collaborative work with groups of every type. Over the past five years I have experienced Joyce’s skillful work in helping groups of both strangers and colleagues use their planning time most effectively.  I have worked with Joyce with her facilitating planning of a small group of a dozen people to her facilitation of 1,000+ participants in Common Ground meetings across the region.  Joyce is especially skillful in organizing complex topics into clear, direct agendas and related activities that facilitates maximum participation from all.  I use “all” with its full meaning to include working with people of all ages (including youth), to diverse urban and rural populations representing the type of ethnic, cultural and social diversity found in a metropolitan region such as Chicago’s. Anyone seeking help with working with groups of any type, from within and outside your organization and addressing topics of simple organizational activities to complex and charged public policy issues, will find Joyce an invaluable key to your success. Please do not hesitate contacting me for more information.

I wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how much I appreciate your approach in facilitating our board retreat.  You have provided the Springfield Park District with a good initial roadmap and action plan to address major initiatives.  I have already begun to coordinate meetings and discussions on matters related to the internal communications team, processes, technological review team, program and recreation team, partnership team, marketing team and more.  Thank you for providing us with much needed direction and motivation to proceed.

Joyce’s leadership role in creating a new field of sustained change in government culture and service delivery is her most remarkable achievement. In her work with the Government Assistance Program, [prior to her moving into full-time consulting] she took a well-developed body of knowledge and practices in the private sector (Total Quality Management) and made it applicable and accessible to units and levels of government in Chicago that many had thought beyond hope.  She has also enabled them to take what they had learned and spread the practices wider and wider. I know of no other work of its kind in nature or scope in the country.  It is a national model, which I know, has been studied and I believe will be replicated on other more traditionally political cities in our country.  Her professional skills are of record in the many seminars and presentation she has made in public bodies and national symposia.

On behalf of the board of directors I’d like to thank you for the extraordinary planning retreat, which you led.  It testifies to your great skill that some skeptics who doubted the utility of this exercise were converted.  By the end of the afternoon the most profound curmudgeon had openly confessed his error and acknowledged how useful the day had been. Your success is entirely due to the intelligence with which you organized the day and the energy and sensitivity with which you led us.  People felt that they were at all times in competent hands, and therefore gave you their full cooperation.  The personalities that often take over discourse dropped away, and all ideas were given equal attention.  Everyone felt an equal part of the enterprise and everyone’s ideas were heard.  No one had a chance to dominate.  The synthesis of ideas, thus, was a real group product. Many members of the Board thought that we could do it ourselves.  You demonstrated the value of a professional.  I suspect we will turn to you again for leadership, sooner rather than later.  Thanks again.

Thank you, Joyce, for a job well done!  The work of the Association Forum of Chicagoland has been advanced because of your facilitation of our board and staff retreat.  The Forum’s Board and staff have over 300 years of collective experience in association management.  They are very successful association of CEO’s and senior staff members.  Keeping such a group on task and focused onward is a challenge for any facilitator.  You rose to that challenge with careful guidance and a well-designed process.  Your professionalism was appreciated by all participants.  Thank you for helping us to accomplish our retreat goals!  Please feel free to refer anyone to me or the Forum for an enthusiastic endorsement of your professional capabilities and performance as a facilitator and consultant.

We were blessed to have you work with us at this important stage in our organizational development.  From your focus group conducted with members thru to the final written report, your efforts were exemplary.  All those involved found the process to be well organized, engaging, enlightening, inclusive and creative.  The ultimate product has served us well as we faced a change in Executive Director along with a move to a new location.  Fortunately, you were there to lay the solid groundwork needed as our organization faced a variety of changes and challenges.   The written report you drafted has also helped to elicit increased confidence from our major funders.

Your ability to work with a diverse group of managers from our headquarters and field operations played a critical role at a time of significant organizational change for the Association.  Your facilitation skills kept us focused on the issues and developed a strong sense of teamwork among the group.  In addition, your strong base of knowledge about the non-profit sector was invaluable as you worked with my senior management team and insured we stayed the course. Your demeanor and personality is very professional and sensitive to the differences we all brought to the table.  You were always well prepared and provided us with excellent documentation of what we had covered.  It is a testimony to your efforts that the Association’s Senior Management Team continues to provide ongoing leadership to the organization. I am a great fan of yours and believe you provide “value added” to whatever assignment you undertake.

Joyce has a gift for helping organizations think creatively about their future directions and devise plans to implement their visions. She thrives on and has a gift for seeing organizations, their leaders, and their staff achieve outcomes.  She conveys deep respect for every voice and style, making everyone feel a part of the process, and skillfully finds the common threads that help everyone commit to the outcome.  She also is extremely skilled in helping organizations understand the follow-up steps they need to take to achieve their desired outcomes and can work with teams at any level of the organization from the board to the support staff to gain organization alignment or can coach the leadership in the organization to do so.  Her pragmatic, intelligent, knowledgeable and friendly style makes her extremely easy to work with.

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.