Gisela Wendling, Ph.D.
Senior Consultant and Vice President of Global Learning
Gisela Wendling, Ph.D., is senior consultant and vice president of global learning at The Grove Consultants International. She is the co-author (with David Sibbet) of Visual Consulting: Designing and Leading Change (published September 2018), the fourth book in the Wiley Visual Facilitation Series and the originator of the Liminal Pathways Change Framework.
Working with change is at the center of Gisela’s practice. In her consulting work, she collaboratively engages people from across the organization or stakeholder groups to tap into their intelligence, vision and capabilities as they move through the stages of a change process.
As a coach, Gisela works with senior executives wishing to develop their competence as transformational leaders. She supports them in learning to lead change processes more effectively, connect to their own vision, grow their self-awareness and relational skills, and increase their capacity to stay centered through turbulent times.
She holds a Doctorate from Fielding Graduate University’s School of Human and Organization Development, and an M.A. in Organization Development and a B.A. in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State University in California.
Earlier career experiences include working as an internal consultant at Andersen Worldwide, Center for Professional Education, Director for Learning & Development at Netscape Communications Inc. and tenure track professor at Sonoma State University, where she also directed its MA Program in Organization Development and facilitated the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply at Ag Innovations. In addition, she serves as faculty at Meridian University in Petaluma, California.
Gisela pairs a process orientation with systemic perspectives as well as dialogic and visual approaches. Drawing on this synthesis, she creates unique, highly interactive, content-rich and outcome-focused transformative group experiences. When guiding professional-development programs, she engages participants in learning experiences that combine conceptual understanding, practical application and personal growth.
As vice president of global learning, Gisela co-leads (with David Sibbet) The Grove’s Global Learning & Exchange Network (GLEN). The GLEN is a learning community that supports rich practitioner exchanges, immersive programs, self-paced learning modules, action research collaborations and a built-in Research & Development process. This network provides opportunities for practitioners and organizational and social change leaders to be in a well-facilitated and innovative online/offline environment to co-evolve collaboration methodologies and practices within and across organizations, communities and cultures. Ultimately the aim is to become better prepared to address the serious challenges we are facing everywhere.
Gisela's approach has been deeply influenced by her experiences with diverse cultures. This includes field research in South America, Southern Africa and Australia, as well as living in Australia and being German-born and raised. Her work is also grounded in her early visual training in architectural drafting and the expressive arts.
She lives in Petaluma, California, with her husband David Sibbet and daughter Hannah. For more information about Gisela’s services and approach, see her website and her blog.