“We had a group of some of the most talented, educated individuals but did not know how to function effectively as a team. Your approach helped us to better understand ourselves and each other and provided avenues to benefit from our differences. We have come to value each other’s strengths more and more effectively support each other.

No one has the time for this BUT I believe that taking the time has made it easier to tackle the tough decisions in these turbulent financial times.  Learning to understand each other has led to increased trust.  At the end of the day it has been well worth the time. This would be ideal to do with a new team, before they have all the built up biases about each other.” 

Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simple drag and drop elements like text, images and links, or connect to data from your collection. Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simply drag and drop elements.

Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simple drag and drop elements like text, images and links, or connect to data from your collection. Tell people more about the services you offer. Use this repeating layout to display content. It's an easy way to keep your customers up to date with what's happening. Want to make this content your own? Simply drag and drop elements.

Carol is a pleasure to work with. She has an engaging style. She is knowledgeable, proactive and very thorough. Her deliverable is always on time and complete.

​

"I was probably more skeptical than most as to the value of this process at the outset. You provided such great insights into how best to handle situations that sometimes involved difficult conversations that need to take place, or political minefields and how best to navigate them.  Your style is one of engagement without judgment, allowing people to speak more openly.  This process helped us become more aware of and begin to deal with our team dysfunctions.  Within a very short amount of time, you appropriately and correctly sized up the situation and made constructive recommendations which helped us begin to interact more effectively.  I fully endorse your work and will be happy to provide a recommendation to potential clients."                                                                                         

"I highly recommend Carol Gausz of Blue Heron Associates, who collaborated with Evan Smith of MMC, to help us develop our strategic plan.  Early on in the planning process, it became clear to us that we could not move forward until we answered two basic but difficult questions: Who are we right now and who do we want to be in the future?

Through a process that included a deep assessment of our current operating environment, interviews and surveys with key stakeholders, customized planning meetings with clearly stated goals, a SWOT analysis, and exploration/ identification of our business model, we were able to identify strategies that leveraged our strengths, addressed our weaknesses and moved us from a survival mode to one of sustainability, growth and most importantly, impact.  Under Carol and Evan’s skillful guidance and facilitation (much needed because we were a group of strong minded, passionate and verbal people), we completed the process with full stakeholder support for our exciting plan and a deep understanding of our unique value proposition. As a result, we are a stronger, more united nonprofit, confident in our identity and armed with the knowledge of what it takes to make our vision a reality."

“The program has made a huge impact. Blue Heron clearly defined the objectives and offered us the necessary training to maximize our productivity and improve our customer service. It required participants to think out of the box and be innovative and open minded. I highly recommend Blue Heron's services to any company that is seeking to enhance their employees' overall potential.”