What Working With an OD Consultant Looks Like
When I introduce myself to founders as a consultant who helps series A and B startups scale, they ask me back: “Do you mean technical scaling? Or financial scaling?” My answer is “No, I help with the 3rd pillar of scaling: team dynamics.” Let’s explore what this means and why it’s a game-changer for rapid growth - for the better.
Many founders, leaders, and teams tell me a similar story. They feel something is off in their organisation:
Some team members avoid each other.
In meetings, everyone seems aligned, but then they go do something different.
Units don’t talk to each other.
Talents start leaving the company.
This isn’t a technical problem, nor a financial one. It’s an organisational problem called “team dynamics”. Team dynamics exist in every organisation and startup out there - whether we want it or not. And part of my profession as organisational development (OD) consultant is to effectively address them.
In a more general sense, OD consultants help organisations become healthier and more performing. We support them handle rapid growth, conflict, and change. Organisational development is - compared to other sciences - fairly new. It started “only” some 90 years ago and draws from other fields like sociology and psychology. Some industries use OD extensively and systematically. Others less. While it is very established in certain organisations, it is something still fairly new to others. In the startup context, some VCs offer organisational development support to their portfolio companies, but in my experience, many don’t.
How OD Consultants Work
But let’s stay with our example. When you experience something like this, here’s how OD consultants usually approach it:
1) Understanding your situation
There will always be a first call between the leadership and the consultant. This is to explore the situation and its scope, share some first impressions and outline basic contractual questions like availability, pricing and duration. This is always a free call, between 30 and 60 minutes long. No strings attached. If you don’t like what you hear or feel no value, you simply walk away.
2) Diagnosis – making the invisible visible
If you want to work together, there will be some sort of diagnostic. Try to compare it to a doctor: Before prescribing a treatment and medicine, they will first diagnose what’s really happening. If we stick to our example, OD consultants will want to conduct some confidential interviews with team members and the leadership group.
3) Sharing insights and deciding what to do
After the diagnosis, OD consultants come back to you with ideas and an outline of the way forward. They will share with you what they have found out - and how the company can effectively address it. Usually, this is the next point where you can decide: Can we solve this on our own, or do we want the consultant to accompany us?
4) Supporting change
But what does a way forward look like? Obviously, it depends on the situation. But there are some typical things, OD consultants can do. Often, the way forward is a combination of team session or workshops (to solve team issues collectively), leadership offsites, and coaching for leaders or team members. It might also involve structural changes: roles and responsibilities, organisational chart, work processes, tools and platforms, OKRs, incentive systems, HR policies, etc.
In the case of team dynamics, many things can be resolved within a couple of weeks. For more profound challenges and complex issues, we are talking about several months.
Why Work With an OD Consultant?
1. Fresh, Unbiased Perspective
One client told me after attempting DIY solutions: “It was a complete waste of time, money, and energy - never again.” Why? Because leadership teams are part of the system. As outsiders, we bring an impartial, experienced perspective - especially valuable in facilitating tough conversations and aligning teams under pressure.
2. Expertise in Group Dynamics
We don’t just manage workshops; we design inclusive, effective conversations - even in high-stakes or emotionally charged situations. This is our daily work, and we excel at it.
3. Empowerment Over Dependency
Unlike traditional management consulting, we don’t impose solutions. Instead, we enable you and your team to develop your own answers - tailored to your context. Our goal is to strengthen your capacity to handle complexity, conflict, and change independently.
The Value for Startups
In 24 years of working within and with teams across 30 countries, I’ve seen first-hand how OD transforms teams and organisations. This is of incredible value to startups, especially once they enter the scaling game. You scale your headcount. You scale your complexity. But most startups don’t scale their human operating system. The results are silent or open conflicts, decision paralysis, a founding team that feels alienated from new hires. Execution slows down exactly when it needs to speed up. Scaling a team from 10 to 50 isn’t just about hiring more smart and motivated people. It’s about upgrading how those people connect, decide, and trust each other under pressure.
How I Make This Easy for You
None of this has to be vague or open-ended. I have turned my proven diagnostic approach into a clear, productised starting point:
Fixed scope
Fixed price
Clear timelines
No surprises
You do not have to figure out “how to work with an OD consultant”. We start with a structured Team Check-Up. You get a concrete picture of what is going on in your team or organisation, plus a small set of actionable recommendations.
From there, you decide whether you want support in implementing those recommendations, or whether you take it from there with your own team.
If this is the kind of support you are looking for right now, you can send me a message or book a short call. We will look at your situation together and see whether this is a good fit for you and your organisation.