INTERGROUP
CONSULTING

OUR RESULTS

Different behaviours.
Different possibilities for performance.

We work towards changes in what people do together: the issues they raise, the decisions they own, the behaviours they change, and the commitments they follow through.

OUR RESULTS

What would change look like?

People raise issues earlier.

Bring concerns into the conversation while there is still time to act.

People challenge openly.

Test assumptions and disagree constructively, rather than agree in the room and resist afterwards.

People take shared responsibility.

Resolve problems across boundaries instead of handing them off or escalating them by default.

People take initiative.

Build ways of working in which initiative becomes an expectation rather than a surprise.

These are the kinds of behavioural changes we help people and groups work towards. What matters in each engagement is their effect on the results the organisation needs.

OUR RESULTS

Food Manufacturing — 1 of 2

From “them and us”
towards more constructive relationships.

Four departments at a food manufacturing site had become caught in a “them and us” pattern, marked by negative assumptions and strained working relationships. We were invited to help the site address these dynamics through a focused intergroup intervention. At a three-month follow-up, participating groups reported substantial improvements across all five relationship dimensions.

BeforeAfter · approximately three months

Candour

Objectivity

Communication

Role Clarity

Teamwork

Reported scores on the original nine-point scale.

Historical, anonymised, group-reported relationship outcomes. These are not productivity or financial-performance measures.

What results could stronger collaboration among departments make possible for your organisation?

OUR RESULTS

Food Manufacturing — 2 of 2

From departmental focus
to a stronger shared focus on the business as a whole.

As relationships improved across the four departments, one of the largest and most important shifts was away from departmental preoccupation with one another and towards a stronger shared focus on the business as a whole.

Shift in understanding of shared purpose

+14.7percentage points

71.1% → 85.8%

Before71.1%
After85.8%
0%100%

Historical, anonymised evidence. These figures reflect a change in how the groups understood their shared purpose; they are not measures of productivity or financial performance.

From “WHO is right”
to “WHAT is right”.

What changed most?

The groups became less focused on one another and more focused on their shared responsibility to contribute to the effectiveness of the business and the site as a whole.

Why does that matter?

This was not just a relationship improvement. It represented a more strategic, business-focused way of thinking and working across departmental boundaries.

What would it mean for your organisation if departments shifted their focus from one another to the business as a whole?

OUR RESULTS

Different sectors and settings. Similar hidden dynamics. Consistent positive outcomes.

Examples from different sectors and settings include:

Major Projects & Partnerships

Client–contractor relationships had become defensive and adversarial, with mistrust, defensive communication, escalation, aggressive challenge and leaders pulled into firefighting.

Our work focused on surfacing mutual perceptions, ventilating frustrations, clarifying responsibilities and decision-making, and resetting how the parties worked together — supporting less escalation, stronger shared delivery and a more unified one-project-team approach.

A client perspective from a separate energy-sector engagement.

Sean HegartySenior Project Leader, Energy Sector

See measured relationship changes in a separate Food Manufacturing case

Healthcare / Medical Manufacturing

Multiple departments and shifts had become caught in silo thinking, lower mutual trust, subtle finger-pointing, unclear roles and weak cross-functional working.

Our intervention helped create clearer roles and responsibilities, change behaviour across groups, and establish a stronger culture of working together across departmental boundaries as one site team.

Different sectors. Different pressures. The recurring issue is what happens between groups that depend on one another to deliver results — and what can change when damaging hidden currents are surfaced.

OUR RESULTS

What results could become possible in your business by bringing Hidden Currents to the surface?

Start with the result you need and what is happening between the people who depend on one another to achieve it.

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