Whispering For Success - Corporate Learning and Development with a Difference

Working alongside a closely knit team of experienced professionals, Laira Gold offers a variety of workshops including Horse Whispering Experience days and Equine Guided Learning and Development. Carefully designed activities with the horses can be tailored to suit the needs of each client. 

Because the learning is experiential, the issues are being played out right there and then. Instead of talking about what the client thinks is happening, the horses require us to be in the moment, therefore immediately getting right to the heart of the issue. With the right facilitation, interacting with these magnificent creatures can be catalytic to a meaningful and longer lasting change. The horse offers exciting teaching opportunities in the following areas: 

• Hierarchy - We are all equal in the round pen. Although horses will establish a natural hierarchy within their herd, they do not care about our rank or our profession. They will respond to what we do, not our status in life;
• Clear intent - Through carefully designed team exercises, the horses are quick to respond when the team whole heartedly agrees on their goal;
  
• Communication - Horses will demonstrate the importance of clear intent when we communicate. Effective communication requires open sensory channels, discipline and self-awareness;
• Active listening - By responding to what the horse is communicating we learn how to hone our listening skills;
• Congruence - Horse's cannot lie. If we can truly match our verbal communication with our non verbal communication, our message is much more likely to be effective. Horses will teach us when we are congruent and when we are not;
• Respect and Trust - To have trust, we first need to have respect and this is earned through consistent open communication. With trust, performance will follow;
• Presence - Master the art of presence through working with horses energetically.

Three areas we can help with are: 

1. Building Rapport and Maintaining Relationships

For any professional providing a service, dealing with the complex world of human emotion can be a tricky business. Learning how to artfully build rapport and trust with even in the most challenging of situations will increase your confidence and help you attract and retain more clients partners in your future business.  

"The most effective way to achieve right relations with any living thing is to look for the best in it, and then help that best into the fullest expression."
Allen J. Boone

  How Will This Course Benefit Me?

• Understand what the building blocks of rapport are and how to recognise when you have them
• Learn the skills of developing respect and trust 
• Feel greater confidence when interacting with people from a wide range of backgrounds
• Gain insight into how to advise clients more elegantly when in challenging situations
• Deepen your understanding of the nature of horses and how to communicate with them in their own language 

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2. Change Management

Difficult economic times mean that a number of tough decisions are being made. Providing your workforce with the skills and the tools it needs to rebuild teams and increase efficiency is an investment that must pay off.  

"Insanity is doing the sane thing over and over and expecting different results", Einstein

Horses do not dwell on the past nor do they think about their future. They are always in the present moment. For this reason, they offer wonderful a learning opportunity for us to begin responding to our working environment authentically, dynamically and in the moment.  

In this programme, the horse becomes a metaphor for the specific task(s) your workforce is facing. Participants learn experientially and have the chance to work with a wide variety of horses. Each horse will teach participants something new about how to adapt to what is presented. 

How will this course benefit participants?

• Creating change and leading others - creating a culture committed to and inspired by change 
• The power of clear intent
• Influence not control - engaging the stakeholders
  
• Resistance to change - how to work with it
• Monitoring progress
• Disciplined communication
• Evaluating success
• Working with 'what is'
• Earning respect and trust

The programme includes 

• Foundation in equine body language - experiential
  
• Meeting and observing the horses in their natural environment 
• Clear intent horse exercise for each participant
• Change management demonstration by Monty Roberts Certified Instructor, Laira Gold - through the eyes of the horse 
• Group exercise with horses 
• Processing and de-briefing
  

"It's great to have a plan, but foolish to fall in love with it", Monty Roberts

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3. Leadership Programmes

The round pen becomes the board room on this experiential leadership programme, where the horses and their herd dynamics offer a powerful insight into the many ways of leading and structuring a team. 

Horses are always asking "who is leading now?". 60 million years on this planet has depended on that single question. For some horses, just a look is enough to let herd members know who is boss. Effective leadership in the human world involves many skills, including pacing and leading and clear intent. The art of Join-Up, the world famous method developed by horse whisperer, Monty Roberts, will teach each participant how rewarding the role of leader can be, when we truly master these core skills. 

"A leader is best when people barely knows he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: We did it ourselves", Lao Tzu


How will this course benefit participants?

• Gain a true understanding of the difference between management and leadership
• Enhance your awareness of emotions - key to effective leadership
• Understanding the people you lead and motivating their behaviour
• Become aware of your own style of leadership
• Recognise and utilize different styles
• Empower and develop team members
• Influence not control - engaging the stakeholders
• Build confidence and self belief in those you lead
• How to coach others in excellence
• Learn how to use and deliver assertive language
• Balancing your needs with others

The programme includes 

• Foundation in equine body language - experiential
  
• Meeting and observing the horses in their natural environment 
• Investigating your natural leadership style through activities on the ground with horse, learning pacing and leading skills and setting clear intent
• Horsemanship demonstration by Monty Roberts Certified Instructor, Laira Gold, on leadership
• Leading the horse through unfamiliar obstacles - exercise for all participants
• Processing and de-briefing

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Location and Logistics

Programmes are held across Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Nottinghamshire. Meeting the horses in their natural environment and beginning on the hands-on work with the horses starts before lunch. In the afternoon, Laira provides a Join-Up demonstration and participants have the chance to experience a guided Join-Up with a horse of their own.

Laira also travels and hires facilities across the UK to meet different client needs. If you have a request, get in touch using the below form, via the telephone or email. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Curious?

If you are curious about how horses can enhance our relationships and self-development skills as human beings, we offer bespoke Taster sessions depending on your needs. These Taster sessions are an excellent way to see for yourself the power of the horse as a catalyst for positive change. No previous horse experience necessary. The sessions take place at 2 Steane Grounds, Steane, Brackley, Northants, NN13 5LG. If you are interested in attending, please contact us on:  01280 403 096 / 07801 538 088 / [email protected]. Please also visit www.humanthroughhorses.com and www.lairagoldpsychotherapist.com