September 2026
From Training Room to Real Cases: Meet CONSENSUS Solutions
Many people get to know us through the International Mediation Campus: as participants in the Professional Mediation Course, as members of our alumni community or as colleagues in the international dispute resolution field. What fewer people know is that IMC is one part of a larger organisation. Behind it stands a team that works on real conflicts for organisations in Germany, across Europe and internationally, every day.
That team is CONSENSUS Solutions. This article explains who they are, what they do and how the different parts of the CONSENSUS Group fit together.
One group, three specialised areas
CONSENSUS was founded in 2014 with a simple idea: training and practice should strengthen each other. Today, the group brings together consulting, professional training and international education under one roof, with more than 70 trainers and staff.
The group is organised into three areas:
- CONSENSUS Solutions is the practice arm. It provides mediation, ombuds services and conflict management for organisations in the public and private sectors.
- CONSENSUS Campus is one of the largest providers of mediation training in Germany, with more than 300 certified mediators trained every year. Its programmes are held in German and are certified under the German mediation training regulation (ZMediatAusbV).
- International Mediation Campus (IMC) is the international training branch. It offers English-language, live online mediation training for professionals worldwide. Its alumni community spans more than 80 countries.
All three areas share one vision:
We build bridges, not barriers.
What CONSENSUS Solutions does
CONSENSUS Solutions supports organisations when conflicts become too complex, too sensitive or too costly to resolve internally. Its work centres on two core areas.
Mediation and conflict resolution
From tensions between two colleagues to disputes that involve entire departments, CONSENSUS Solutions provides structured, impartial mediation that helps parties move from positions to workable agreements. Services include:
- Workplace mediation between individuals, for example between employees and managers
- Team and group mediation when conflicts affect collaboration across a unit
- Business mediation for disputes between organisations, partners or stakeholders
- Short-notice mediator support when a situation escalates and needs attention quickly
Mediations can be held in person or online, which makes it possible to work with parties across locations and time zones.
Ombuds services and conflict hotlines
Not every concern can be raised through regular channels. Some issues are too sensitive, or people fear the consequences of speaking up. For these situations, CONSENSUS Solutions acts as an external ombuds office and runs confidential conflict hotlines. Employees and other stakeholders get a neutral, trustworthy point of contact outside their own organisation.
Where needed, CONSENSUS Solutions also carries out impartial investigations into complaints. This gives organisations a fair, well-documented basis for their decisions.
Trusted by public and international organisations
CONSENSUS Solutions works with a broad range of clients, including companies, public authorities and international organisations. Many of these mandates involve multiple countries, languages and organisational cultures.
Confidentiality is at the heart of mediation and ombuds work. For that reason, we don't publish the names of the organisations we work with. What we can share is the kind of feedback we receive. As one head of department at a public institution put it:
“CONSENSUS Solutions guided us through a complex transformation process that sustainably improved not only our structures but also our culture.”
“I'm a trained mediator. Why not handle it myself?”
It's a fair question, and one we often hear from IMC participants and alumni. After all, you've learned the methods, practised the phases and reflected on your own role in conflict. So why bring in an external team?
There are good reasons to do exactly that, and knowing when to refer a case is itself part of professional practice.
-
Experience with high-stakes cases.
A training course gives you a solid foundation. Handling a multi-party dispute, a conflict at leadership level or a case with legal or reputational risk takes something more: years of casework and the routine that comes with it. The CONSENSUS Solutions team deals with such situations on a daily basis. They recognise patterns early, stay calm when things escalate and know which interventions work in which settings.
-
Neutrality that is visible to everyone.
Even the most skilled mediator loses some of their impartiality once they are part of the system. If you work in the same organisation, report to the same management or know the people involved, the parties may question your neutrality, whether or not that is justified. An external mediator or ombuds office has no stake in internal hierarchies, and everyone involved can see that.
-
Protecting your own role.
Mediating between colleagues can strain your working relationships long after the case is closed. When you bring in an external partner, you can still support the process by setting it up, raising awareness or following up on agreements, without being caught in the middle.
-
Capacity and scale.
Some situations call for co-mediation, several mediators working in parallel, or a hotline that has to be available at all times. That's hard to provide alongside a regular job, but it's everyday business for a dedicated team.
-
Specialised procedures.
Ombuds functions, confidential reporting channels and formal investigations follow their own standards for documentation, data protection and fairness. They are a discipline of their own, beyond classic mediation.
In short, your mediation training helps you recognise when a conflict needs professional attention and makes you a valuable partner in the process. CONSENSUS Solutions can take on the part that calls for an experienced external team.
Talk to CONSENSUS Solutions
Are you dealing with a workplace conflict, a dispute between teams, or do you need a confidential ombuds office or hotline for your organisation? The team at CONSENSUS Solutions is happy to discuss your situation, in confidence and without obligation.