We are Catalyst Consulting
The Facilitation Experts
Catalyst Consulting Partners LLC is a small (by choice) boutique professional services firm founded as a woman-owned business almost twenty years ago. Our two principals have a unique breadth of knowledge and experience in consulting, facilitation, strategic planning, coaching, leadership development, training, and organization development — all of which we apply to every project.
We specialize in Sparking Transformation™ for our clients and their organizations. We design and facilitate meetings, retreats, workshops, training sessions, and projects that produce breakthrough results —at the organizational, team, and/or individual levels.
Strategy Development | Strategy Execution | Team Building
Our clients include:
Meet our Principals
Cynthia Waisner
Hi! My name is Cynthia Waisner, and I am the owner and Managing Partner of Catalyst Consulting Partners LLC.
I have over 20 years of experience in L&D, consulting, facilitation, coaching, and culture change. My mission — and my passion — is helping leaders, teams, and organizations spark transformation. I’ve worked with all types of organizations, including government, associations, manufacturers, and small and family businesses.
I bring tools from HR, OD, management, and behavioral science to bear on your situation to help you make lasting decisions and achieve sustainable results.
My clients range from well-known organizations such as Wal-Mart, NASA, Gucci, The Centers for Disease Control and Stanford University to smaller businesses you may not know such as Williams & Williams, Cameron, CookShack, and Nutranext.
On the surface, these organizations may seem so dissimilar that you may wonder how I could possibly bring value to each of them. But the answer is simple. Every organization, regardless of size, location, industry or culture, holds important meetings — meetings that must be successful for the organization to grow and achieve its objectives. This is where my facilitation skills and broad business and leadership experience are leveraged by my clients to achieve breakthrough results.
Glen Waisner
While spending more than 20 years on “your side of the desk” — first in the energy industry (where, among other positions, I was Vice President of Marketing for a Fortune 100 company), then as founder of a start-up that we took from zero to $65 million in revenues in eighteen months, and later in Consumer Goods (as President of a midsize manufacturer with operations in the US and China) — I purchased a lot of professional services from some of the biggest names in the consulting, legal and accounting worlds. For the most part, their work products were excellent. But their costs were such that I very carefully considered all of my options (and my budget) before picking up the phone to talk with them. After all, the “meter” was always running.
Cynthia and I knew there had to be a better way. So we launched (full disclosure — she launched and I joined later) a firm specifically designed to provide a niche menu of professional services at reasonable, project-based rates. No time clocks. No per-day or per-hour billing. No walnut-paneled office to add overhead costs. We want our clients to pick up the phone or shoot us an email or text without stopping to think “what is this going to cost me?”
Speaking of clients, my passion is working with senior leaders to facilitate and accelerate growth within their organizations (and themselves). I have coached dozens of CEOs and other senior leaders one-on-one as I work with their teams to facilitate special meetings/events or provide project-based advisory service. The people I work with often come to view me as a “professional outsider,” a trusted colleague who mixes a strong understanding of their businesses with a fact-based and experienced point-of-view that seems to help them solve some of their thorniest issues. I guess that’s why they keep inviting me back!
contact us today!
Call us now at
(800) 378-9843
The Catalyst Difference
We understand that choosing a professional facilitator, adviser, training partner, or consultant can be a difficult process. Over the years, we have repeatedly heard several things from our clients regarding what they have found uniquely valuable in working with us:
WITH CATALYST, YOU ALWAYS WORK WITH A PRINCIPAL, NEVER WITH A CONTRACTOR.
We are a small organization, by choice. We long ago made the decision to remain focused and flexible, allowing us to work on a few projects at a time and provide the best possible facilitation, training, and consultation services on those projects.Each Catalyst client works with at least one of our two principals. This deep focus allows us to thoroughly understand our clients and their organizations. Often, our clients come to view us over time as valuable members of their teams.
WE ARE NOT JUST PROCESS EXPERTS BUT WE UNDERSTAND ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR LEADERS.
Both Catalyst principals have MBAs and broad business backgrounds, positioning us to engage credibly with C-level executives across industries and organizations. Ms. Waisner also has a Ph.D. in Leadership and Change. Our varied interests and backgrounds allow us to partner each project with the Catalyst principal most suited to the organization and its needs.
OUR FOCUS IS ON OUTCOMES, NOT ON US.
Too often, facilitation is more about the facilitator than about achieving desired outcomes. We adjust our style and approach to the needs of the organization. The hard-charging, extremely fast-paced session that “works” for a Fortune 50 senior team may, for example, be all wrong in a university setting, where a more reflective, consensus-based style is appropriate.
WE PROVIDE FULL-CYCLE FACILITATION.
We work with you through the entire facilitation process, from customized design through follow-up. We believe that thorough preparation is the key to a successful facilitation, and never attempt to short-circuit or “wing” the design and preparation process. Once the session ends, we stay involved, providing you with the appropriate follow-up, input, and recommendations.
WE UTILIZE AN EXPANSIVE TOOLKIT.
The adage “if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail” poses a significant risk when exploring facilitation, training, and consultation services. Too many facilitators, trainers, and consultants try to apply standard, often “proprietary,” methodologies to every project – regardless of fit. We continuously update our toolkit of approaches and best practices so that we can bring the most appropriate solutions – including Everything DiSC® – to bear for each client’s unique needs.
What people say about us
Professional and Objective Facilitator
Glen quickly assesses organizational dynamics, challenges and issues from which he facilitates tough, honest, open dialog and effective resolution. No matter the issue or challenge, Glen facilitates productive dialog and effectively leads sessions, managing divergent points of view to consensus and action. Glen diplomatically surfaces organizational blockers in an engaging fashion, encouraging participation, problem solving and commitment to accountability. As an experienced professional and objective facilitator, any executive team would benefit from Glen’s engagement.
Mary Ann Knaus, Founder at Aquarius Group and Former SVP at Jarden Consumer Solutions
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Part facilitator, Part Therapist, and Part Coach
I’m happy to report that I can now add another glowing testimonial to the others. Having experienced Glen’s adept facilitator skills at our Executive Retreat, I can attest that all you’ve read about him is true. We were a group of 5 consisting of two Founders and senior management. We sorely needed to focus on our company’s strategic planning for the next few years. There was no shortage of opinions, but with Glen’s insight to keep us moving in a unified direction, we achieved consensus and buy-in. Not an easy task when two of the country’s thought leaders in our industry are at the same table. Not only was Glen agile on his feet, but his follow-through & documentation provided a record of our discussion and a range marker to keep our goals & direction aligned as we move forward.
Matthew Tove, Director, Marketing & Sales, at InterActive Legal
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An Extremely Gifted Professional
Cynthia is an extremely gifted professional. I needed an outside professional to help identify many of the challenges and opportunities of a growing organization. Cynthia took us through a SWOT Analysis and Strategic Plan more effectively than any other consultant with whom I had ever worked. Through her deep engagement with the organization, she could see many things that many of us on this inside could not. After a successful implementation of her recommendations, we began moved from a time of “storming” and “norming” to one of great “performing.” I highly recommend Cynthia.
Brad Root, Former COO, Anglican Church of North America
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Gets Everyone Involved
My biggest concern before hiring Catalyst was “would they be effective?” The answer was yes! My favorite part of our strategic planning session was getting ideas and feedback from all group members, not just the usually-vocal ones. Glen has a solid methodology that creates a framework for planning. He then facilitates without “getting in the way,” allowing the team to focus on the actual planning, not the structure.
Frank Kenna, CEO at The Marlin Company
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One of the Best Investments I’ve Ever Made
I hired Cynthia for several years when I was employed at Textron and leading its senior executive marketing council and senior executive communications council. Both groups were comprised of very diverse and opinionated executive leaders. Also in both groups were 2-3 individuals who tended to be argumentative and seemed to enjoy de-railing meetings and exploring rat holes. Bringing Cynthia in to help me plan our monthly meetings so that the meeting goals were achieved was one of the best investments I have ever made professionally.If you are looking for expert assistance to help you bring a group of people together around a vision, mission, goals or action plans: you will find no one better than Cynthia.
Adele J Suddes, former Vice President Communications at Textron
Dependable Advisor
Glen has become a dependable advisor and friend for our company. He has great ability to listen and offer unique perspectives, that I have learned to appreciate and value. He has a good sense of humor, and great business sense, and judgement. I enjoy our 1-1 meetings, and our group meetings.
David Snodgrass, Owner at Snodgrass & Sons Construction Co. Inc.
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Highly Insightful, Intelligent Partner
Cynthia is a highly insightful, intelligent partner who helped our group see potential areas to grow and to develop a plan to get there. She’s personable and engaging to work with and is perhaps the quickest, most instinctive analyst of individuals and group dynamics that I’ve ever worked with. She’s always dead-on in her insight and shares her assessment in direct but constructive ways, always with an eye toward creating strategies for improvement and, ultimately, success.
Sherry Chisenhall, Managing Editor at the Charlotte Observer
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Couldn’t Have Done it Without You!
I would not have believed that this group of individuals could have gotten this far in this little time. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Andy Hill, Former President & CEO at Jarden Consumer Solutions
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Highly Recommend
Glen and Cynthia have both helped us with Strategic Planning and they always have ideas to help us improve. I would highly recommend Cynthia and Glen.
Stuart Powell, President/CEO at Cookshack, Inc.
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Created a Safe Environment and Kept Us On Track
My biggest concern was that we would invest a good amount and walk away without any additional insight, which we didn’t already know or could have come up with on our own. Fortunately, this was not the case and the session was extremely valuable. Glen is very detail oriented and a great communicator. His approach made everyone on the team feel like they were in a safe atmosphere where anything could be brought to the table without judgment. In addition, he had a great way of guiding us back on topic when needed, to make sure that our agenda was accomplished. I would definitely recommend his service!
Jon Butts, President of Muscle Up Marketing
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Always Willing to Address the “Elephant in the Room”
It’s one thing to claim to be a “trusted adviser,” but quite another to deliver on that promise – and Glen does! As a member of the JCS Executive Team, I worked with Glen for years as he provided facilitation and consulting services across a host of strategic areas of our business. He was always willing to address the “elephant in the room” and help us navigate and align around some tough issues. And he never let us forget “Glen’s Rule” that “no business can outperform its leadership team long-term.” Glen would be a true asset to any business leader looking to accelerate success in their marketplace and comes with my heartfelt recommendation.
Jerry Zuchowicki, President/GM of North America & EMEA for Newell Brands, Appliances & Cookware
Turned a Difficult Situation into a Positive
Cynthia worked with our non-profit organization to bring us through some amazing times of change and growth. Her work with our organization turned a difficult situation into a positive and rewarding working environment for all of us. Her skills to bring us to a higher level and more complex organization were instrumental in our successful growth.
Nancy Norton, Executive Director at Anglican Relief and Development
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Discerns Issues and Opportunities
Glen has a wealth of business experience and the desire to help others. He listens well, and discerns issues and opportunities. His recommendations are solid. I highly value time with Glen.
J. Richard Coe, Owner & President at Coe Financial Services, Inc.
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Helped Us to Solidify and Gain Consensus
I worked with Glen at Jarden for several years; both in group and one-on-one settings. His ability in both, to weave strategic intent through the many dynamic challenges and opportunities in our business, proved critical to our consistent success. Glen continued to prove and hone a deft skill of leading and managing a plethora of inputs from our senior team. This included ability to work with multiple functional departments, diverse backgrounds and strong personalities. He had a way of bringing focus to the many complicated and various ideas we had as individuals and then helping us to solidify and gain consensus to one comprehensive business vision and plan.
Michael Kratofil, Former SVP- Global Business Development at Jarden Consumer Solutions