Scenic Hudson engaged Strategies for Change to assist in developing a strategic vision and implementing plan when I became the new CEO, following the 20-year tenure of my predecessor. The plan we adopted laid the groundwork for more than five years of action, tangible results, and a new, greater impact in the Hudson Valley, where we work. Anne helped us lay a strong visionary foundation for the future that has withstood more than a doubling of the organization’s operating capacity, budget and impacts. She brought a thoughtful professional approach, patience and sensitivity. Anne draws people out, frames issues, and facilitates good decision making. We gained clarity about where we wanted to go together and became a team, striving together to achieve our shared vision.

Anne Gardon is able to solicit and weave together diverse viewpoints and objectives in a non-threatening and ultimately very productive way. Our organization has used Anne at both the board and the senior staff levels. In both cases, we emerged the richer from our work with her. In particular, she helped us to develop and incorporate lasting principles for organizational development and change.

One of our reasons for working with Strategies for Change is their ability to work across cultural boundaries. Anne easily moves among diverse constituencies and helps to bring people together. . . She always starts with listening. She hears our concerns, our frustrations, our hopes and our goals. In turn, she asks probing and thoughtful questions, and then she listens again. Throughout the years of working with Strategies for Change we have felt them to be partners.

As the CEO of a business organization with over 100 not-for-profit members, I can attest to the fact the Anne Gardon’s expertise in the area of organizational, executive and board development has helped dozens of organizations to achieve results that led to significant growth.

Anne is a great listener, flexible, professional, smart, responsible, honorable, user-friendly. She raises questions about substance as well as process, and brings innovative ideas to the table.  … She really cares about the client and the product. What more could you ask for in a consultant? She’s terrific! …five stars out of a possible five!

So many times a strategic planning process is just an exercise, one where a document gets written and then sits at the bottom of a stack of papers. Our experience with Strategies for Change was the total opposite of that...With their expert help, we created a flexible roadmap for our future that continues to guide us and assures the delivery of quality services to the people of our county.

Anne is a gifted coach, very astute, clear, directive, and gentle.
Anne’s patience, listening skills, and coaching style taught me even more than her feedback in the discussion. I hope to emulate what I have learned from her way of coaching in working with my staff.

Anne has helped our board transform itself from a risk-averse, change-resistant, hands-on management style to a forward-looking board focused on governance. Her rare gift of listening to a group discussion and finding the unified message has helped us refine our vision and focus on our strategic direction.

We created new networks between people who work in the field. I believe that the methodology [used by Strategies for Change] allowed us to identify common ground and to create consensus as we looked towards the future and developed a plan and guidelines for working together.

Anne helped us successfully negotiate three dramatic years of executive transition and tremendous expansion of our programs and services. At each stage of the process she took the time to understand what is unique about our organization and worth holding on to. She helped us to confront the difficult questions and talk about them so that we could find ways to more forward. Anne’s coaching also helped me to think through my options and develop strategies to lead effectively.

Anne facilitated a year long Board-Staff Strategic Planning effort that resulted in a comprehensive plan for our organization. While Open Door had done this twice before in my tenure, Anne’s approach was stimulating and thorough; it allowed the stakeholders to address the key challenges head on, working through them productively and carefully. I think this added tremendous value to our plan, which provides an important framework for everything we do here.