Group Effectiveness Model: GEM

Soluna Hawaii provides consultation and training services to schools, businesses, and community groups using the Group Effectiveness Model, or GEM for short. This model is our adaptation of the Skilled Facilitator work done by Roger Schwarz, with additional influences from mediation, Talking Circle, and personal communications work.

GEM is an extension of the skills and principles of mediation and Talking Circle adapted to the needs of groups in a formal context. The purpose of GEM is to develop and utilize a set of practices that meet the individual needs of group members, support the accomplishment of the collective purpose(s) of the group, and embody a collaborative rather than adversarial way of working with conflict.

The entire scope of GEM consultation work involves observation and feedback, self-assessment instruments, group effectiveness assessments, process design, meeting facilitation, conflict resolution practices, decision-making processes, standards-based assessment practices, support for accreditation where appropriate, facilitator training, and a periodic cycle of re-assessment and renewal.

We will help you identify and encourage your team's existing strengths as well as improve the processes used to communicate among team members, make decisions, follow through on assignments, and work with other teams or managers within the organization.

We can provide subsets of the GEM services to meet the needs of schools, community groups, and small companies, and we can assist in the creating of facilitation teams within large companies to make this work part of the structure of any organization.

Please contact us with any questions. We would love to discuss how GEM consulting services can serve your organization.