It’s the Only One!
How Professional Development with Horses Came fullCIRCLE to Iowa
Imagine this: Your team is spending time together outside, in nature, the very place where research shows we can improve our mental wellbeing. You experience more than just team building. You experience meaningful moments that enhance your team’s personal and professional lives. Relationships are prioritized. Your team bonds, better understands each other, and learns how to work together to overcome potential obstacles.
The fullCIRCLE story began in 2007 with the vision to develop leaders through experiential learning alongside horses. God created us for relationships and with the capacity to learn from experiences. Growing people along with a love for horses and the outdoors contributed to the vision. Owning one horse and living in suburban Des Moines left me feeling that not much appeared in my favor.
Having no idea if companies would invest in off-site professional development experiences, a trial run of the vision was held with one well-respected, servant-hearted executive and an animal behavioralist. Step by step, over the course of eight years, I showed up, stepped in and committed to the possibilities.
Today, fullCIRCLE is the only business in Iowa that provides life-changing, off-site, guided leadership experiences for domestic and international corporate teams. And, it’s located just 25 minutes west of Des Moines.
What does that mean for you? You have a trusted partner with an ideal blend of business experience, training and coaching that empowers you to run a thriving professional development program. You will get results, serve your people and have confidence in the future of your company’s teams.
As our quantitative and qualitative research illustrates, companies investing in their employees are watching people and teams transform. When your team works with our trained horses and each other, trust builds, collaboration improves, and life-changing development occurs. The result is growth for your people and your company.
I’m humbled by and grateful for the guidance provided by Carol Heaverlo, Ph.D., and Wright Service Corp. LEAD Program participants who made our research possible. The study demonstrates there is a clear and powerful value to Infusing kinesthetic (tactile) learning that involves physical activity and multisensory learning that integrates the five senses (how humans understand and perceive the world).
According to the research, when teams intentionally slow down for a kinesthetic and multisensory professional development experience:
1. Your team will gain clarity about how it thinks and works
2. Your company will discover a long-term benefit from its investment
3. Best of all – everyone is pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the experience is
The name fullCIRCLE has a significance that we thought would be fitting to share with you. One summer evening a handful of close friends gathered around a table in a screened-in porch enveloped by the humid evening air. The objective was to rename and rebrand the existing business – a public relations consultancy.
The goal was to better align the business name with the direction we believed the business was going: First to leadership coaching then to experiential leadership coaching. Two words repeatedly surfaced that evening, two words that resonated deeply and delivered a sense of peace and hope: full and circle.
The story is simply part of His overall plan and purpose. Who could’ve imagined all those years ago after working and living in various areas, that God would return to the very place the vision was first tested?
Although it was unclear the night the name fullCIRCLE was chosen, God is the true author of our story. With Him at the helm of life, I’m confident that all He starts in our lives will be brought to completion.