Frequently Asked Questions
See below for answers to questions people have asked us, or simply click on the "Let's Chat!" button and send us your own questions. We'll respond at our earliest opportunity.
01 Co-Parenting Clients: "My ex is not parenting the same way I do and our son is not getting quality parenting when at their house. How can I get my ex to change their ways?"
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Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could magically change your ex? Unfortunately, magic wands and Pixie Dust do not exist in the realm of co-parenting. What does exist is the opportunity to gain clarity on what you can and cannot control in the other parents home. With co-parent coaching, we help you focus on becoming a transformational leader within your own home. We will also help you to gain traction with effective communication tools so that you can share your vision with your ex. You'll learn how to refocus your efforts into your own parenting, time management and relationship growth with your children and let go of the struggle of unwinnable control battles in the other home.
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02 Co-Parenting Clients: "We have been spending thousands of dollars in legal battles since our divorce and there is no resolution in sight. Do you have any suggestions on how we can finally reach some agreements without going bankrupt over our divorce and loosing respect with our kids?"
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Take control of your divorce by coming to the mediation table. The traditional process of divorce is designed to be an adversarial one. The longer the battle goes on, the greater to cost to your family. Money, time, energy, control . . . the broken trust inherent in divorce means that the cost will go up and the speed will go down. By contrast, mediation gives you the greatest opportunity for voice in the decisions that you and your ex will be living with each day. Mediation helps you come together on the key issues that impact your family; the mediator is a neutral party whose sole function is to help you find authentic agreements that will serve you both well into the future.
03 Co-Parenting Clients: "Our Attorney has recommended wo do a process called Domestic Conciliation. Can you explain what that entails?"
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Domestic Conciliation is an opportunity for parents to come to a neutral third party, the conciliator, to work towards authentic, accountable agreements, often in the areas of parenting time, custody disputes, vacation and holiday schedules as well as other co-parenting challenges. The conciliator starts by gaining insight into how you've come to the process, your background and your goals.
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Next, you and your ex will work with the conciliator to come to agreements. Believe it or not, there will be many areas where you and your ex can find middle ground; this is your chance to knock those out and move forward. In fact, many people are able to detail agreements that they can live within far better than when they sat across from each other in the courtroom.
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If there continue to be issues "on the table" the conciliator will move forward into the "investigation" portion of the process. This involves speaking to parties who can give insight into the dynamics with the children. It may include therapists, other family members, school teachers or others who have insight into the well-being of the children. The conciliator may also review court documents and filings, medical considerations or recommendations that have been previously given by third parties. The conciliator then takes that information into account in formulating a recommendation that is submitted to the court.
04 Co-Parenting Clients: "My ex and I have our parenting plan and schedules worked out and yet, we are still arguing all the time. We've been in court so often, we've been ordered into Parent Coordination. What is that? What can we expect?
Parent coordination comes into play when all of the decisions regarding parenting time, custody, schools and providers have been settled by the courts and, the parents are still in regular conflict in trying to live within their court orders. The parent coordinator provides support to the parent by offering parenting education support (for example, helping parents to handle the conflicts that arise with the children during their parenting time), co-parenting communication techniques to help parents form new, more effective means of working together and, if needed, as the moderator or decision maker when the parents have difficulty coming together on key issues for the children.
Parenting Coordination is a process which helps parents to work through the frequent and challenging issues of co-parenting without having to resort to additional filings and hearings within the courts.
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05 Business Clients: "Our team is not functioning at its best. Some team members feel others are not doing their part. How do we get everyone pulling on the same string?"
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In our experience, several critical elements exist in cohesive, productive work teams: 1. Team members have had a chance to build a good relationship with each other. 2. Team members know each other's strengths and weaknesses and have learned how to use the aggregate strength to fulfill its goals. 3. Clear expectations are either developed by the team themselves, or by their direct supervisor with input from the team. 4. Good team dynamics, built on solid relationships and accountability lead to healthy team expectations and a true whole team approach in which everyone is committed to delivering the agreed-on results. 5. There is an entrepreneurial spirit that helps the team feel appreciated and good when succeeding together. Some companies have tangible or intangible team rewards to support this experience.
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06 Business Clients: "Our Annual Strategic Planning pretty much consists of creating a new budget based on anticipated market trends and then pushing to accomplish it. Our sales has dwindled significantly during the COVID months. How can we reinvigorate things?"
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New market conditions require new approaches! What may have worked in the past may no longer work the same way with changed circumstances.
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We believe that the attitude of a team will shape its collective behavior and with that the perception of those who interact with the business. If you have never read or watched "The Fish! Philosophy" material created after a true story of a transformed fish market in Seattle, Washington, you should google it. That fish market business was faced with extinction, yet achieve greatness and success beyond expectations. Your business may need to undergo a similar internal transformation to achieve noteworthy external results.
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07 Business Clients: "I am interested in Leadership Coaching. What is the process and how would we start?"
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Leadership Coaching is focused on helping you become a better leader of leaders. You may ask how that can be? Good leaders help others become good leaders. They do so by investing time to develop leadership skills in those they lead and equip them with the tools and decision making capabilities to foster strengths in action and goal guided independence that leads to unity in action.
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Our leadership coaching starts with a needs assessment and strategy development that will lead to a customized plan for you. The coaching plan's goal is empower you to the degree that we work ourselves out of the coaching job by helping you become the coach for your team.
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There are some customers who check in with us annually or semi-annually after the initial coaching plan is completed to brush up on skills or to simply run a few things by us and verify that they are on track.
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08 Business Clients: "How do we get buy-in when making tough decisions?"
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By including those affected by the decisions that impact their lives upfront. It may initially seem that you are spending a bit more time in the beginning, yet you will save that times ten in the aftermath as you won't have to justify and apologize, or worse, look like a tyrant.
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09 Business Clients: "We have bottlenecks in our work processes that hold up productivity and delay our delivery. How do we go about streamlining our processes to ensure we are operating at optimal speed?"
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A systems process analysis may be needed to see where and how the bottlenecks have developed. We would recommend pulling your manufacturing crew together and having a process conversation that will allow each member to speak. Be careful to include those people who are not usually speaking loudly. They may have the most insight in the matter. Consider using a Learning Circle format or Open Space Technology to takle the conversation(s).
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10 Business Clients: "We are a small business with 35 employees total. I (owner) am getting older and am considering selling our business. We have worked really hard over the years to build a great product line and have dedicated, good people who I care about. How can I assure my team that they are not just going to be let go in the transition to new owners and how do I ensure that the transition will go smooth?"
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We recommend a process of transparency and inclusion that will assure those whom you have worked with for years, while assuring their buy-in and continued contribution. Are you selling your business to an external party? Or, are you considering selling your business to one of the current employees? Many businesses have continued under new ownership without loosing a single team member. Some of those businesses have even experienced permanently better performance due to the process they underwent voluntarily while transitioning to the new ownership.
Start the process as early as you can and include key people from your team. Not only will they be extremely helpful in selling your business to the new owners (if you are selling externally), their buy-in will help you and the new owners carry the business over the bridge of transition.
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11 What is your privacy policy?:
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We receive, collect and store any information you enter on our website or provide us in any other way. In addition, we collect the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail address; password; computer and connection information and purchase history. We may use software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information, and methods used to browse away from the page. We also collect personally identifiable information (including name, email, password, communications); payment details (including credit card information), comments, feedback, product reviews, recommendations, and personal profile.
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When you conduct a transaction on our website, as part of the process, we collect personal information you give us such as your name, address and email address. Your personal information will be used for the specific reasons stated above only.
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We collect such Non-personal and Personal Information for the following purposes:
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To provide and operate the Services;
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To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support;
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To be able to contact our Visitors and Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages;
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To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred Non-personal Information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services;
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To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.
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