Discovering a new way of working (and being)

From time to time, something comes into my world that makes a huge difference to the way I see it, move in it - and work in it. Systemic Constellations has been one of those things. And the difference it's making to my practice - coaching, leadership and organisation development - is clear.

I've heard some people say it's a bit too odd for them. A bit too 'woo woo' said one. 'I bet you're training with a very weird bunch of people, right?' said another.

And so, if they mean that constellations work asks you to tap into a different 'way of knowing' than just our heads, our cognitive processing, then it's different. This work invites us to work from our intuition, and our somatic knowing, and with our hearts and our feelings. And then to use what we notice in service of a client issue. And yes, that can certainly feel a bit weird, takes some getting used to.

What sort of client issue? In essence, it's a way to:

• Develop new insight into an issue or problem.
• Help an organisational system – or part of one – find ease, flow or balance.
• Better understand the competing forces at play in a problem or situation.
• Unstick something that feels stuck.
• See more clearly through complexity
• Reveal what might be undermining a change effort.
• See previously unseen possibilities and new ways forward.

It's a modern way - based on some ancient principles - to work with an issue or problem, a contemporary way to create or support change.??

Alongside the traditional approach of diagnostic, analysis, implementation and review Systemic Constellations offers a different and complementary way to resolve thorny and complex issues and problem-solve as well as gain new and deeper insight or learning.

The methodology uses spatial mapping and ‘parts work’ to work with the various elements of a system.??It draws not only on our cognitive intelligence but also on our intuition and embodied intelligence to give us vital and often overlooked data about what’s going on in the system.

Complex issues and ‘wicked problems’ require us to use all our intelligences and traditional approaches to decision making and problem solving that rely on rational and logical approaches sometimes miss key information that provides a holistic picture.

It's versatile and super-useful, in, say:

• Individual coaching.
• Helping a team move through a difficult phase.
• Supporting a piece of change
• Helping a whole organisation find its purpose.

How does it work in practice

There's a particular structure or flow, which we adapt according to the issue we’re working with.??

We start with a?discovery interview?when we identify the key parts of the system to work with.???This step alone, identifying all the influential parts and elements, can be very revealing.?Like in coaching, getting the real issue out can be enough of a breakthrough.

Next we co-create a?spatial map?or?constellation?of these various parts.?? Separating things out, identifying the difference parts elements, voices etc and physically laying things out in front of us is so useful. Again, even at this early stage, things may start to come into focus, providing early insight and new information.

Then, using a range of approaches, we?work with all parts of the map, dynamically, exploring how each part relates to the other parts.??

Sometimes we take a helicopter view, coming right out – and spot patterns that we'd been previously unaware of.??Other times we get right up close to one part of the system and experience what it’s like to BE that part of the system – and from there we often get a visceral understanding of what that feels like.??We?give each part of the system a voice?and hear what they think and feel.?

As we work together, all kinds of shifts and insights can occur.??Most people say they get a better understanding of the dynamic of the system.??Some might realise that the problem isn’t x at all, but something rather different. We might find ourselves being less judgemental and more compassionate. We get a blinding realisation about what it is we’ve overlooked or been blind to. We may understand what hidden forces are at play. Or maybe we realise that the relationship between two particular parts needs some work.

As strange as this may sound, we learn what the system has to say.?We ask the system. We discover what’s missing and what the system needs in order to be restored to health, or be brought back into balance.?And if you're wondering if the system answers you. Yes, it does!

As we come to the end of a session, we start to ask ourselves: ‘and with this new knowledge, what now might be possible?’??Or: ‘what might be the?next wise action?I might take?’

So this work has changed the way I work. And it might just be changing me. I think it's contributed directly to me starting to write poetry, for example, something I never imagined would happen. It's making me more compassionate in my work because it encourages me to keep seeing the bigger picture all the time. It's helping me get closer to my own intuition and that's helping clients get closer to theirs.

Anyway, it's a wonderful approach and I'm am so pleased that I came across it.

Solving Complex Problems with Systemic Constellations - an introductory workshop.

If you’d like to get a feel for it all, here are details of an introductory workshop. It’s in central London, on 24 November and you can?find details and book here.

It's run by me and my colleague Matt?Fairbrass, both of us deeply experienced in organisational change and transformation - and both loving the way this approach benefits it.

Systemic Constellations draws on the work of many great teachers and many disciplines including?Bert Hellinger,?Judith Hemming?and?Ed Rowland?from the field of Systemic Constellations, for example.??For Matt and me, our training in?Shadow Work?and?voice dialogue?practice has also made a powerful contribution.?Ideas from?Deep Ecology?also inform our practice, as does Keegan and Lahey’s?Immunity to Change.??And of course, a range of somatic and embodied practices.?