Continuing and Professional Education

Consulting can happen at every level across an organization. “One of our first icebreaker questions is to remember a time in the last month that someone asked you at work for help,” Celia O'Hallahan, one of the instructors for the new Process Consultation course, told us. “If you are in a helping role, consulting is a relatable tool for you.”

Process consultation is an approach to helping people.

We’ve partnered with the VCU HR Organizational Effectiveness team to give professionals the skills they need to successfully operate with clarity, trust, and thoughtful inquiry. While there are several types of consulting styles, this six-week course focuses on building the toolkit used for the collaborative consulting style. “Process consultation is an approach to helping people,” Jeremy Bost, Senior Consultant with the VCU HR Organizational Effectiveness team, told us. “When people ask us for help, often you’re helping people help themselves. It's not just knowing the right answer… Often what people are asking for isn't exactly what they need. It's sometimes a challenge to help people see that they could be asking for something better than what they're asking you for.”

What we’re seeking to do with this course is to empower people who might not even realize that they're in collaborative consulting roles and give them tools to make their partnerships with their stakeholders or clients more collaborative in nature.

O’Hallahan and Bost developed this course to help professionals of all levels build a consultant mindset. In O’Hallahan’s own words: “What we’re seeking to do with this course is to empower people who might not even realize that they're in collaborative consulting roles and give them tools to make their partnerships with their stakeholders or clients more collaborative in nature.” These essential tools include active listening, diagnostic questioning, stakeholder identification, contracting, boundary setting, and role clarification. According to Bost, “when someone asks you for help, effective consultants ask questions. They try to understand the system and identify what the real challenge is. It’s not about finding the right answer, but slowing down and asking the right questions.”

This course is designed for professionals who provide guidance, support, problem-solving, or advisory services, especially those who are new to consulting or want to bring more structure to their approach. No prior consulting experience is required.

If you’re ready to start asking the right questions, join Jeremy Bost and Celia O’Hallahan for this online, synchronous course. Registration is open at https://cpe.catalog.vcu.edu/courses/process-consultation