About
Kaleidoscope is About Process.
We work with you to define the outcomes you desire and design a learning process to help you get there. Whether you identify your training as Team Building, Leadership Development, or Effective Communication your goal is sure to include helping people build capacity to be their best. The work and learning we do together with the horses is transferrable to “real-life” because our focus is on the relationship, regardless of the content of the conversation or interaction. We help by facilitating understanding and insight to the “how” of experiences, so the “what” is heard in healthy productive ways. Where there is a relationship, Kaleidoscope can make a positive difference by increasing awareness, identifying assumptions, and improving understanding.
Descartes Before the Horse … Philosopher Rene’ Descartes is known for the statement, “Cogito ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.” Our training programs go beyond “thinking” or cognitive reasoning to being mindful and experiential, engaging your whole self. Kaleidoscope programs are designed to help people shift from over-thinking and/or simply “doing” to “being”- being fully present in the moment. Our professional and faculty development workshops can help any group grow their emotional and social intelligence, develop creativity, enhance organizational systems, explore neuroleadership, understand diversity, and improve innovation. We believe in excellence and strive to exceed your expectations.
Experientially learning effective behavior enables people to proactively and intentionally identify words and actions conducive to collaborating, motivating, and resolving conflict. Partnering with horses offers humans a safe and supportive environment to reflect and investigate their choices. Horses live in a herd, a living system or community that looks out for each others’ safety, shares resources (and sometimes doesn’t), plays, and learns together. When humans become part of this environment, powerful insights about human behavior become clearer relating to effective communication, motivation, and decision-making.
Kaleidoscope is About Connections.
The Kaleidoscope “team” extends to a community of experts, collaborators, and partnerships that we purposefully nurture and develop. This includes a range of two- and four-legged facilitators, consultants, therapists, and life coaches. Our team offers you access to a variety of resources and services as well as other locations, such as Puerto Rico, North Carolina, and Arizona. Also, we are members of several industry organizations that allow us to collaborate throughout the world.
Kaleidoscope is About our Founder.
Dr. Tracy Weber created Kaleidoscope to combine her lifelong passion for horses with helping people and a growing fascination with learning. While earning her Master’s degree in Service Management from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) she discovered systems thinking, experiential learning, and existed (at some times only barely “surviving”) as part of a high performance team. From that competency-based and learner-centered program, she entered into Andrew’s University’s Leadership Ph.D. which allowed her to investigate the potential of partnering with horses to help humans. She took the leap to make her dreams a reality by building Kaleidoscope Learning Center in 2005 to provide clients and her horses with an ideal learning physical environment.
She is currently on the faculty of four colleges, providing a range of opportunities to practice her facilitation skills in other “playgrounds” around the world, with and without four-legged facilitators. For RIT she facilitates a Customer Relationship Marketing Course and has delivered this to adult Master’s students in the Dominican Republic, Rochester New York, and Dubai. Her Northwood courses are for adult’s earning their bachelor’s degree. The course, “A Culture of Leadership” is delivered at Kaleidoscope in partnership with horses. The Education department at Prescott College is what Tracy has called home in many different roles, from graduate assistant to faculty, with the Master’s & Post-Master’s Concentration in Equine-Assisted Learning. At Michigan State University she is part of the Bailey Scholars program in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department.
The Name Kaleidoscope . . .
The kaleidoscope, a mirrored tube invented in 1816 by Sir David Brewster, encourages you to dance with change at each turn. Each new image interweaves the old, each pattern beautiful in its balance – familiar, yet unexpected. Kaleidoscopes ask you to suspend rigid expectations of what you think you will see next, inviting you to be open to something new and different. The changing pictures of a kaleidoscope need energy to turn, mirrors for reflection, and light to see. By looking at change as if it were a kaleidoscope, you become aware and may learn to apply the right combination of energy, light, and reflection for profound and potentially beautiful transformation.
Learning . . .
Learning is a change in the way we feel, think, or behave. Neuroscience research is providing powerful insights into the way the human mind functions. At KLC we integrate this information (along with other knowledge) into our program design, resources, and conversation. We excel at creating learning opportunities and environment that are transferrable from the work with the horses to other aspects of life, leading to lasting wisdom for our clients.
Circle . . .
A circle is a powerful symbol of continuous learning, for there is no beginning or end. KLC is not simply one place, one group of people, or one organization. The vision of Kaleidoscope is to provide individuals with tools and learning experiences that they can integrate into their lives. These experiences are intended to provide the opportunity for continuous learning, without a beginning or end. We hope create a circle of learning that is like a moving river – one where you never step in the same spot twice.
Kaleidoscope is About You Getting What Serves You!
We incorporate a wide range of proven techniques to serve our clients, intentionally engaging all parts of the brain and reaching all personality and learning styles. Our organizational culture at Kaleidoscope models effective team behavior by being open, honest, vulnerable, and resourceful. We “walk our talk” whether we’re on two legs or four! Contact us today!