Our Story
“Grape People is like the Ikea of Facilitation. Not because they are cheap – but because they have been able to extract the essence of the art of working with groups and they know how to deliver that knowledge to the world.”
Max Watanabe
Chief Executive Officer
Successpoint, Japan
Our story
Grape People was founded in 2003 with a clear ambition: to make organisations more inclusive and help people move forward together.
As working environments grew more complex, knowledgeable leaders alone could no longer provide all the answers. Organisations needed leadership that could bring different perspectives together and turn them into shared direction and action.
Alignment
Creating alignment is at the heart of our work. We develop and use facilitation methods that help groups build shared understanding, agree on what matters and commit to action. Whether creating a shared vision, putting strategy into practice, navigating change or strengthening teamwork, we help people find a way forward they can support.
Alignment also happens between individuals. We developed Emotional Dialogue to help people move from interpersonal conflict to agreement—by listening until people feel heard, uncovering their underlying needs and finding solutions together.
Tools and methods
We bring these approaches to organisations through facilitation, training and facilitative leadership development. We don’t just teach individual tools: we teach the theory and methodology behind them, and how to use them throughout the decision-making process.
Our methods grow from hands-on experience: together, our facilitators and trainers have guided countless workshops and trained more than 50,000 facilitators worldwide. Using tools based on dialogue helps groups create breakthrough ideas and agree on the best way forward.
We continue to learn, refine and develop our methods wherever people need to think, decide and act together.
Learning style
We believe that today is the age of e-learning…but not completely. Our training programs begin online, but nothing can replace the insights gleaned from face-to-face observation and feedback. That’s why we end our Breakthrough Decision Making certification programmes with a live event where you demonstrate your skills by hosting a practice workshop. Those who are up for the challenge will become Certified Facilitators (program evaluated by Finnish Education Evaluation Centre). Our online training events are a bit different, too. They are active and participatory. You will be testing out the group level tools yourself, not just listening to someone else explain how they work. We believe that hands-on experience is better than passive listening and note-taking any day.
Our Core Beliefs
- We believe in the power of each individual.
Every person brings valuable experience, insight and ideas. When people have the opportunity to contribute and feel heard, they help shape better solutions—and take ownership of making them happen.
- We believe that dialogue connects individuals and creates alignment.
Dialogue helps people understand one another, explore differences and discover common ground. Through meaningful conversations, individual perspectives become shared understanding, agreement and commitment.
- We believe that aligned organisations are more successful.
When people share a direction and understand how their contributions connect, they can make decisions and act together with confidence. Alignment turns collective potential into coordinated action and lasting results.