Do you feel like your team isn’t rowing in the same direction?
Is your staff feeling stressed/cranky/overloaded?
I’m here to facilitate some unusual bonding activities that will pave the way for addressing deeper issues – and guide your team towards jointly discovered solutions. I’ll work with your staff/board to create healthy partnerships and strengthen collective impact.
Over the course of my three decade career, I became a skilled facilitator of meetings and gatherings of all kinds – from weekly staff meetings to conferences involving experts in multiple arenas. In short, bringing people together to meet, create and collaborate is an extremely well honed skill of mine. (It’s my secret sauce.)
Elise Bernhardt facilitated the opening workshop for the members of the Warsaw dance scene/community, launching the process that aims to establish the first-ever dance institution in Warsaw. She was the best facilitator we could imagine for the process: she was thorough yet ensured a very open-ended environment for all the participants, she managed to operate smoothly in a very diverse and divided group, and she continued supporting us with the debriefs and recommendations after the workshop. Her decision to include a flower-arranging session at the beginning of the workshop worked very effectively: it was a session often-recalled in participants’ evaluations and a wonderful way to de-escalate tensions within the group. It gave the participants a chance to work individually on a super rewarding project, and also to interact with others “on their own terms”, by providing spontaneous or structured feedback.
Dr. Olga Wysocka, Director W.O.K.
Elise facilitated our ‘Board Directors Leader Salon’ at Brooklyn Org. On a cold rainy day she really brought a lot of energy and sunshine into our Capacity Building training session for Board members. Elise combined education about floral arrangements with an engaging opportunity for Board members to dive deep into discussion about what their “gardens” (their boards) were missing. Much appreciated to Elise for facilitating this session for us.
Noel McKenzie, Brooklyn.org
Over the last 6 years, I have been leading extremely effective Team Building through Floral Design Workshops. I have worked with a variety of groups, from large tech and fashion companies, to university staff and non-profit organizations. I’m proud of my reviews. Here are some examples:
Elise facilitated a floral arrangement workshop as a part of my company’s Women’s History Month event. Elise came to our office with everything that would be needed for 20 people. The event itself was great: fun, energetic, engaging, and also relaxing! Our entire team had a great time from the beginning to the end. Elise really has a knack for engaging with people/a group while also teaching them a new skillset!
As the person who coordinated the event, I got to work closely with Elise. From the beginning of the planning process through the event itself everything was easy and seamless. I felt like Elise really listened during our initial conversation and was able to create a memorable bonding experience for us all!
Dana Graziel, Balmain
Our team continues to discuss how this event was the best team building experience we have done to date. If you are looking for a knowledgeable, entertaining, creatively stimulating event…reach out to Elise.
Sebastiani, UCSF
Here’s a fun piece about my work as a floral design teacher in The New Yorker.