Client Testimonials

ATK/RCBS

“It has been a great pleasure and I have been extremely impressed with the quality and professionalism of Kelly Graves and his associates. Their knowledge, thoroughness, creativity, recommendations, and follow up are critical components to their service. Over the course of the last six months, it has been a delight working with Kelly in leadership and employee development.”

Beverly Johnson
Director of Human Resources
ATK / RCBS

Sutherland Landscape Center

“We hired Kelly Graves during a period in our business where we were experiencing serious difficulties in employee relations. We had poor communication, territorial issues, and outright hostility. Kelly came in and was able to clearly pinpoint the key issues and helped us as a mediator to talk through the problems and keep up on task to find solutions even when emotions ran high. With his help, we worked through many problems and he helped us create a better team atmosphere. His tools for identifying personality traits were particularly insightful when analyzing employee reactions to various stimuli.”

“We are very grateful for Kelly’s expertise and we would highly recommend Internal Business Solutions, Inc. for conflict resolution, team building and overall business planning.”

Bruce L. Whitegiver
President
Sutherland Landscape Center

California State University, Chico

“Kelly did a great job on the board for the Parade of Lights. His input and organizational skills kept us on track toward our goals. He helped us to have more efficient meetings in a shorter period of time and has a great style of communicating, too. He’s strong and decisive without ruffling feathers. Thanks, Kelly. You are an excellent communicator and team player and I look forward to working with you more.”

Marcie Tevis
Administrative Contacts Coordinator, Academic Technologies
California State University, Chico

Butte County Office of Education

Administrative Services

“We had some early signs of conflict in our office. We assumed that our managers would be able to ‘ride them out.’ Instead, the conflicts took on a life of their own and we needed help. With Kelly’s assistance, we were able to identify the professional-development steps needed to rectify the situation.

I just wish we had called him sooner.”

Steven Rudy
Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services
Butte County Office of Education

Customer Service

“Eighteen months ago, I was frustrated with the lack of communication at work. After 15 years of employment, I was at the point of looking for another position. Our organization hired Kelly to come in and work with our staff in both individual and team settings. Over the course of about one year, I worked with Kelly on several different conflict resolution methods, as well as on developing my personal-communication skills. As a result of Kelly’s training, my job is much less stressful and the communication at work has been greatly improved. Our entire staff is now working as a team.”

Teresa Lightle
Customer Service Manager
Butte County Officer of Education

Chico Unified School District

Facilities Planning

“It’s always easiest to get a loan when you don’t need the money.

The same thing applies to organizational development — it’s always easier to make organizational changes when you don’t need to. In the real world, organizational fine-tuning usually occurs at the worst of times. It is usually driven by problems within the organization itself or a turbulent operating environment. The changes require creating a space and the time within this environment to take stock of an organization’s strengths and weaknesses, to clear up any communication issues and to refocus everyone on the issues that need to be tackled immediately.

By approaching this process in a well-thought-out manner, the organization not only meets the immediate crisis but comes out much stronger and operating like a finely-tuned machine. Unfortunately, this process is very difficult to tackle while the organization is in a firefighting mode. It often requires an outside guide to walk through the steps required without the blinders which restrict the vision of those who feel like they are under fire.

Internal Business Solutions provided just this service to the Facilities and Maintenance Departments of the Chico Unified School District, at a time when the challenges were great and the available resources were very thin. Kelly’s guidance helped build the sense of being a team, eliminate communication issues, and facilitate planning for one of the biggest structural changes CUSD has undertaken — the closure of two of its elementary campuses. The end result is that we are working together far more efficiently and effectively.”

Michael Weissenborn
Facilities Planning/Construction Manager
Chico Unified School District

Information Service

“I heard about Kelly Graves through our County Office of Education. In my department, Information Services, Chico Unified School District, I felt that we needed better teamwork, improved communication skills, and more effective customer-service skills. We hired Kelly Graves to help us in these areas. He and I planned this professional development to take place over a four-to-five month period, but within just a few sessions, I saw amazing results. Our technicians were working and communicating better. There was less territorialism. And, our staff meetings became much more professional and productive.

Kelly has a way of breaking down the barriers of poor communication. He helped us learn how to tackle our problems head-on. He also taught me highly-successful facilitator skills, so that I could sit in on other departmental meetings to help them deal with the same problem areas, using his methods. I admit, at first, I was a bit skeptical of the process, but I quickly changed my mind. Now, I believe that we should utilize Kelly on a routine basis with regard to goal setting, employee conflict resolution, and other personnel issues. I cannot speak highly enough of his skills and methods.”

Vikki Gillet
Director of Information Technology
Chico United School District

Maintenance/Operations/Transportation

“I have a department that has been through major reorganization and changes over the past several years. These changes were for the good of the department; however, the majority of the department staff members were not on board. Continual personnel problems, infighting between staff members, etc., were taking place.

I began working with Kelly Graves in December 2004 to address these issues. In a short period of time, Kelly successfully worked with the core department team to strengthen the group. He then worked with subordinate members of the department to enact change. The department staffs and I are excited about the results we have had working with Kelly. Because of all the changes and the struggles we faced, we had not felt hopeful for a long, long time. Now, we like how we are all working together toward common goals. Thanks to Kelly’s professionalism and attention to our unique situation, he helped us get over our hurdles and get back on track. We look forward to a positive future.”

Mary K. Leary
Director of Maintenance/Operation/Transportation
Chico Unified School District