Contact Kimberly at:

Wiefling Consulting
Phone 650.867.0847
Fax 650.365.4219
consulting@wiefling.com

"You rocked the house with your presentation this morning on effective communication styles! Because of your energetic yet sensible and practical approach, some very conservative people in the room showed a new side of themselves. This is a tribute to your energizing delivery about how to better communicate and more effectively lead. My hat is off to you!"


- Linda Holroyd, CEO Fountain Blue

Consulting Services

Stop lurching fitfully toward your goals. Move beyond hunch-based business management and the tyranny of the urgent!  

BUSINESS LEADERSHIP: Lead your business more effectively.   ·   

  • Strategic Planning & Goal Clarity
  • Scorecards and Dashboards of Success
  • Company-wide Goal Alignment
  • Effective Communication Strategies
  • Teamwork and Decision-making
  • Values-based Leadership

 

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Manage projects with greater ease.

  • Customer-centric Project Leadership
  • Crystal Clear Goals and Objectives
  • Roles and Responsibilities with Buy-in
  • Challenging, Achievable Plans & Schedules
  • Timeline Risk Analysis for Uncertain Times
  • Risk Assessment and Mitigation
  • Key Stakeholder Communication Strategies

 

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE: Develop products more predictably.

  • Sensible Product Development Lifecycle
  • Phases, Decision Points and Milestones
  • Cross-functional Deliverables Clarity
  • Core Team and Extended Team Roles
  • Executive Sponsorship & Oversight
  • Project Reviews that Move the Ball Forward
  • Portfolio Management to Optimize Results

 

Thinking Partner Sessions

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Thinking Partner Sessions Increase your professional effectiveness.

  • Executive Thinking Partner Sessions
  • Leadership Development Plans
  • Professional Effectiveness Coaching
  • Program/Project Management Mentoring
BREAKTHROUGH RESULTS: Facilitation Meetings CAN be Real Work!  
  • Strategic Planning
  • Project Kick Offs
  • Important Meetings
  • Events 

Workshops & Professional Speaking

Kimberly regularly teaches workshops on possibility, creativity, and breakthrough thinking to corporations and private clients. Her lively presentations include real life simulations, whereby, individuals experience the pressures and stresses from the real world, while learning how to effectively set goals, create plans, strategize, and assign roles and responsibilities in order to meet the needs of the organization. Employees also learn how to communicate effectively and set a measure for their success, while effortlessly increasing their productivity.

An engaging presenter, in addition to her workshops, Kimberly has been invited to speak on a wide variety topics for government agencies, universities, social organizations and corporations.


Workshop Topics

Project Leadership and Communication

Masterful leadership and effective communication skills are absolutely essential to breakthrough business results. In this workshop, you will complete leadership and communication style self-assessments, engage in rich experiential learning, and apply the concepts learned in your work to gain real-world experience in the techniques presented.

This workshop will enable you to:
  • Assess your individual leadership and communication styles
  • Explore the differences between leadership and management
  • Understand the phases of team development and the implications of these phases for effective leadership, and much more.
Highly recommended for anyone in a position of leadership, this workshop will improve your ability to lead people, manage resources, and communicate more effectively in order to achieve the outstanding results you desire. Topics covered include: critical thinking, problem solving, informal negotiations, decision making and conflict management.


Building Product Life Cycle (PLC) Excellence

Product development in today's fast-changing market can be a tremendous challenge. With cycle times shrinking, there is little room for trial and error, and the pressure to "get it right" the first time can be daunting. In this workshop, participants will learn about established practices, which have proven to deliver the best results.

Having a sensible PLC helps you reduce variability and increases the odds of a team bringing a successful product to market. Statistics on the challenge of the New Product Introduction (NPI) process will be introduced as the motivation for adopting a sensible and flexible product life cycle.

Focusing on project leadership, and effective communication strategies, this workshop will also examine the role of the project manager as the critical factor in creating a successful outcome for a product's life cycle.

Emphasis is placed on real-world applications in support of the Total Customer Satisfaction Program, as well as achieving the corporate goals of:
  • Product quality   
  • Corporate productivity   
  • Increased profit   
  • Increased customer responsiveness  
  • Increased competitiveness   
  • Clarity of organizational goals
Put an end to hunch-based product development and the tyranny of the urgent by implementing a sensible, flexible product lifecycle that optimizes business results.


Timeline Risk Analysis for Predictable Schedules and Repeatable Results

Do you want measurable results delivered on time? This course focuses on creating accurate and predictable schedules through the use of a proven timeline risk analysis method. This method, which has been proven more effective in generating buy-in from the team and improving the natural tension between stakeholders and the team around the basis of schedule estimates and commitments to milestone dates, creates project schedules that explicitly incorporate risk and uncertainty into the planning process.

Using case studies and engaging exercises, participants will explore vital aspects of project leadership such as the use of:
  • Participatory management to build commitment
  • Leadership styles
  • The influence of organizational cultures and configurations
  • Relevant interpersonal skill development
  • Project staffing
  • The impact of working with distance-separated teams.
Participants will learn valuable skills to:
  • Establish clear project goals
  • Create challenging, yet achievable, schedules
  • Manage risk
  • Overcome communication problems
  • Report on status
  • Manage conflict and agreement.
You don't have to settle for unrealistic schedules and consistent slips. There is a better way. Explicitly including risk and uncertainty in your schedules makes it possible to anticipate and avoid the most common causes of predictable, yet unanticipated, schedule slips.


Accelerated Team Development for Breakthrough Results

Discovering the secret to team success can be a perplexing process. How well your team works together to solve business challenges on a daily basis determines the difference between profits and losses, success and failure. Especially in today's high-pressure, competitive business environment, there is nothing more important than figuring out how to work as a TEAM. The question is: just how, exactly, do we transform our groups into productive, high-performance teams that communicate successfully and work together effectively?

In this highly experiential workshop, we will help you discover some of the keys to building effective teamwork. Instead of sitting around and 'just talking about it', we'll send your team off on a challenging 'treasure hunt' where you will put the lessons learned into action and try out new tools and knowledge before deciding how to apply them back in the workplace. Team members will walk away with agreements on how to continue the open and honest communication they have developed, forming the foundation for effective teamwork. If just knowing 'How To' were enough, we'd all be rich and thin. In this session, we'll bring the learning alive and guide you towards putting it into action!


Negotiation Would be Easy If We Only Realized We Were Doing It

In their book, "Getting to Yes," Roger Fisher and William Ury of the Harvard Business School Negotiation Project describe negotiation as nothing more than "communicating back and forth for the purpose of reaching a shared decision." Without communication, there is no negotiation.

The result of a successful negotiation is a wise outcome arrived at efficiently and amicably.

Highlights include the 4 skills of highly effective negotiators:
  • Separate the People from the Problem
  • Focus on Interests not Positions
  • Generate Options for Mutual Gain before Choosing
  • Choose Based on Objective Criteria

The 3 biggest mistakes people make in generating options
  • Searching for a single best solution   
  • Assuming a fixed pie   
  • Thinking that solving the other person's problem is THEIR problem
The down-to-earth negotiating wisdom that you will learn in this workshop will significantly increase your chances of getting what you want.


How to Build the Right Product - Faster, Better, with Fewer Resources

Don't wait until you're almost done with development to include real customers in your test process. In this workshop, you will learn how to collaborate with customers inexpensively and easily throughout the product lifecycle through the use of automated, web-based, feedback management systems.

You'll discover how to:
  • Turn your customers into part of your virtual development team   
  • Free up development resources   
  • Reduce the risk of product failure early in the development process
Replace endless debate about customer opinion with fact-based decisions based on real-world customer feedback. About 50% of products launched fail to meet customers' expectations, and fully 30% of new product ideas come from customers. Adopting a customer-centric product lifecycles significantly increases your chances of launching a successful product, and can generate a wealth of ideas for the next generation of products.


Nobody Ever Told Me I'd Have to Be a Sales Person, Too!

Are you an entrepreneur or small business owner who avoids the selling part of your business? Is your sales process failing to produce the results you must achieve? Are you committed to improving your bottom line, but you find yourself...
  • Struggling with getting people to return your calls no matter what you try?
  • Frustrated with the amount of polished presentations that result in the prospect wanting to "think it over?"
  • Wasting time and money providing "free consulting," i.e. demos, quotations, samples, and presentations that fail to generate revenue?
  • Losing credibility over forecasts that fail to materialize?
You are not alone. And yes, there is a better, more successful and effective way to sell. This workshop will enable you to overcome your resistance to the selling process, and attract and close more clients with less work. In fact, once you come to understand that the true nature of selling is in helping others solve problems, you will find yourself actually enjoying sales, and having much, much more fun than you ever thought possible!

This workshop is a "must" for entrepreneurs and small business owners who desire success!


The Possibilities Toolbox


What do you believe is truly possible for your life? Whether you are facing a career change, relationship challenge, or just feel stuck, the "Possibilities Toolbox" will give you access to prospects for your life you may not have dreamed possible.
The "Possibilities Toolbox" is a set of 7 easy-to-learn techniques that will enable you to increase your personal effectiveness in order to achieve your goals. You will discover how to remove any self-imposed roadblocks to success, overcome self-limiting assumptions and beliefs, and exceed your own past expectations for themselves.

Critical to one's success is the ability to make distinctions in language that lead to a more skillful use of speaking and listening when dealing with others. In this workshop, you will learn how to distinguish between:
  • Interpretation vs. Fact
  • What vs. How in Problem Solving
  • Inquiry vs. Advocacy in Listening
  • Managing Conversations using Future vs. Past Distinctions
  • Intention vs. Desire in Goal Setting
  • Behavior/Language/Thought Cycle and Action vs. Feeling
  • Commitment vs. Confidence
This workshop will allow you to learn tools that will help you explore the power you have to create extraordinary outcomes in your life with greater ease and grace than you've ever imagined.


Creating Your Entrepreneurial Vision

What do you love to do so much that you would pay someone else to let you do it? If you knew that tomorrow you could not fail, what would you put on your drawing board today?

As a solo entrepreneur, your business' competitive advantage can usually be found by determining where your personal passions intersect with the type of work you enjoy. This class will help you to explore how your personal passions tie into your current business ideas, as well as how your passions might evolve into entirely new ideas to expand your view of what's possible.

Vision is a powerful force which catalyzes individuals and teams to achieve outcomes that originally seemed daunting or beyond reach. In addition to creating a vivid image of your vision in this workshop, you will experience what it would be like to have achieved that future outcome, explore possible ways of creating that future, and design a written plan to guide you in accomplishing your goal.

Participants will engage in:

  • Scenario planning
  • Creative visualization
  • Goal setting
  • Action planning
  • Making commitments
  • Distinguishing interpretations from facts
Ideally suited for solo entrepreneurs, as well as those who are building a shared team vision, you will leave this workshop filled with new possibilities, and the energy, courage and support you need to act on your vision and create extraordinary outcomes.


The Art of Conversation - 7 Simple Ways to Start a Conversation with Anyone

Have you ever wanted to strike up a conversation but felt at a loss for a simple opening phrase? Or have you ever admired the seemingly, easy way certain people engage others in conversation and wished you could do the same?

Conversing with others does not have to be frightening, difficult, awkward, or painful! In this workshop, you will learn and practice 7 simple ways to open a conversation, and enjoy the experience of a simple, pleasant exchange in a variety of situations.

Whether you want to expand your networking skills, find your next client or career opportunity, glow at your next job interview, or enlarge your sphere of contact, in this workshop, you will discover how to elegantly invite casual conversation - with NO SWEAT!!


How to Get Out of Your Own Way: Optimism as a Strategy

Are you in career transition? Stop sabotaging yourself with negativity - discover 'optimism as a strategy!' If you are ready to move forward, rather than stay stuck, this workshop will show you how to attract your next opportunity by re-interpreting the story of your career transition in ways that will energize you and inspire others.
This energizing workshop is based on well-documented concepts of behavioral modification called, 'acting as if.' In exercises designed to move you beyond anger, blame and grief, you will open to the possibility of accepting, and even embracing, those changes that are not of your own choosing.

You'll leave this workshop with practical tools you can start using TODAY to:
  • Let go of negativity and self-limiting beliefs
  • Communicate more effectively
  • Get unstuck
  • Feel recharged
  • Take action!
This lighthearted workshop is for individuals who are ready to create their new opportunity now!

 

 

 


Kimberly's new book is available!
Buy Kimberly's New Book!

About The Scrappy Guides

 

Client Testimonials

"I really liked your workshop and see great possibilities for using "breakthrough thinking" in other settings in both the corporate and educational worlds." - Andrea S., Live Oak Elementary School District

"For Believing in us, showing up, and helping us realize our dreams - we thank you." Mindy & Ray, TOCWM

"Thank you so much for the insightful, inspiring, and useful talk this morning. You have a real talent!" - A.S.

"I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your seminar. Last night was a breakthrough for me. All of my negativity is gone, and I have been able to plow through so much stuff today. I am a dynamo!" S.H.

"You provided me so many gifts yesterday. I feel like a large weight has fallen from my back. I'm smiling and feel better about having some direction, thank to you!" - P.R.

"Thank you for inspiring me to be the leader I aspire to be. You are a great model of the courageous leadership philosophy in action." J.R.

"You were so helpful in giving us food for thought with the many processes we need to put in place. Thanks!" - Carol Holmes

Wiefling Consulting
Redwood City, CA 94062-2946 USA  ::  Phone 650-867-0847  ::  Fax 650-365-4219  ::  consulting@wiefling.com
Copyright 2007 - Wiefling Consulting - All Rights Reserved