Is your team stuck in circular conversations? Are decisions unclear? Is collaboration harder than it should be even though your people are very capable? If so, the problem may not be what you’re working on, but how you’re working together.
Group Process Consultation (GPC) is a way of helping teams and leadership groups improve the way they work together. It works not by offering solutions, but by making your group aware of its own dynamics and process: how people interact, communicate, make decisions, solve problems, and involve each other.
Research consistently shows that effectiveness in these group processes give better outcomes, decisions and productivity. Professor J. Richard Hackman’s work on team effectiveness highlights that beyond individual skills, the quality of a team’s processes determines long-term performance. Similarly, Amy Edmondson’s research into psychological safety shows that teams perform better when people feel safe to speak up, challenge thinking, and contribute openly, something that depends entirely on group dynamics. At MIT, researchers studying collective intelligence found that the most successful teams weren’t the ones with the highest individual IQs, but those where people participated evenly in discussions and showed awareness of others’ perspectives.
Based on Edgar Schein’s influential work, GPC is a method that focuses not on giving solutions, but on helping your group see and understand its own working patterns. By improving how your team communicates, decides, and collaborates, GPC supports better outcomes, better decisions, and a more productive team overall.
Leaders usually bring me in when progress is slower than it should be, conversations stay surface-level, and the “people side” is holding back delivery. You’ve likely tried other interventions that haven’t shifted things.
Using GPC skills when facilitating groups is a way of working that focuses not just on what the group are doing, but how they are working together. It helps teams see themselves more clearly, work through stuck dynamics, build real participation and shared ownership, make better, clearer decisions and strengthen collaboration for the long term. The work helps teams see and improve how they think as a system.
What happens during a GPC Workshop?
Instead of giving solutions or directing outcomes, the consultant supports the group to understand its own dynamics and solve its work-based problems more effectively.
The consultant observes the group as it works, noticing patterns such as who participates and who does not, how decisions are made, and how conflict or uncertainty are handled.
These observations are shared back with the group in a constructive and non-judgmental way to raise awareness of behaviours and patterns.
By highlighting these dynamics, the consultant helps the group reflect, discuss, and decide how to work together differently. This might mean creating space for more inclusive participation, clearer decision-making, or better ways to handle disagreements.
The goal is not simply to fix a single meeting or workshop, but to help the group build the skills to manage its own process. Over time, the group becomes more effective without external support.
Why it is useful
Supports inclusive decision-making so all voices are heard, not just the dominant few.
Because the group works on its own dynamics, any changes are more likely to stick.
The group learns how to self-correct and improve together, leading to sustainable change.
Unlike traditional consulting that often tells people what to do, process consultation helps people find their own way forward. This builds capacity instead of dependency.
It’s a method that can be useful in pretty much all organisation development work including cultural change, exec coaching and team building
When Should I be Using Group Process Consultation?
Organisations typically reach out when they are facing a challenge like this:
“We know we need to work better together but something about how we are working isn’t helping. We cannot quite put our finger on it.”
You might recognise your situation in one of these scenarios:
Conversations feel stuck or surface-level. Key issues stay unspoken.
Decisions are hard to make or difficult to implement. You leave meetings unclear about what has actually been agreed, and follow-through is patchy.
Tensions exist but are not spoken about. Conflict is avoided or mishandled, leading to silos, low trust, or slow progress.
You have tried telling people what needs to change, but it hasn’t worked. Resistance shows up, sometimes subtly, sometimes directly.
You are facing a complex challenge without clear answers and need collective thinking, but the group is not working as one.
Leaders are capable individually but not operating effectively together. The team is not functioning as a team.
When you work with me using Group Process Consultation you will notice I help your team to see how they are working, not just what they are working on. We notice less helpful patterns and shift them in real time through observation, sense making, discussion and idea generation in co creation. We build inclusive dialogue where all voices can be heard. Decisions are made with clarity and shared ownership. The group handle tensions and differences constructively. And the group builds reflective skills and capacity for lasting collaboration.
I do not “take the problem away” or deliver a pre-packaged solution.
I create a space where your group can see itself more clearly.
Together we improve how you think, decide, and act as a group.
Solutions become more robust because they are co-created in a healthier group dynamic.
You do not need to wait for a crisis to get in touch. Leaders often engage me when progress is slower than it should be, or you know the “people side” is holding back the work but are not sure why. Perhaps you want to strengthen your team’s collaborative capacity and not just deliver a short-term outcome.
If you feel the strain of working in complexity and think the way your people work together could be the key to unlocking progress, that is the right time to reach out. If you’re feeling the strain of complexity and want to unlock progress, get in touch. Very happy to talk.