Constellations restore the natural systemic orders, strengthen the motivation and engagement
of employees, improve process effectiveness
and boost company development.
Constellations restore the natural systemic orders, strengthen the motivation and engagement
of employees, improve process effectiveness
and boost company development.
Systemic constellations for business
Systemic constellations are being used in an increasing variety of our spheres of life. More and more often they are applied to business management issues, company administration, work. Just as in case of families, companies and organisations constitute systems affected by hidden dynamics. A system is more than the simple sum of its parts. At the same time, each system is an element of a larger system, such as a department in a company is a system in its own right, but also a part of the entire company. Each company, in turn, is subject to a system of interrelationships between business partners, it is surrounded by a particular business environment. According to the shortest definition of a system, which is used in constellations: „inside is different that the outside“.
Similar to family systems, there are invisible forces in the companies which aim to rebalance and ensure stability of the entire system. They aim to maintain completeness of the system by including persons or elements, which have been excluded. For the company to function properly all applicable orders need to be recognized and respected. Constellations may expose which of the orders has been violated and what is required for the order to be reinstated.
When to decide to have a constellations session for business?
Constellations can basically always be of help, when we experience difficult situations at work, in the company or organisation. The difficulties may be of personal nature, may relate to our emotions in connection with our professional careers, for example when working with a difficult boss, repeatedly feeling underrated, missing out on a promotion despite being a competent and diligent worker, or having difficult relations at the workplace. It is, however, also the case, even more often actually, that people who attend constellations for business experience „external“ issues at work. The following examples are situations to which systemic constellations for business could be applied:
- Misunderstandings and conflicts between or inside departments
- Falling sales and/or profits
- Churning or dissatisfied customers
- Problems in project management
- Lack of decision making in management
- Employee turnover, low satisfaction, lack of motivation
- Broadly speaking, lack of success
- Lack of common view on business development or generally lack of such vision
Other than in cases such as the above examples, where problematic situations are being healed, constellations for business are also applied in decision-making processes and in company restructuring. It has to be noted, however, that taking the final decision with all its consequences, remains the responsibility of the Client or the decision team, whilst the constellation, like other considered factors (such as research results, advisory reports, current trends and many others) shed additional light and broaden the scope of analysis of the task at hand.
The systemic orders, rather disorders, which we encounter in companies, match with those observed in family systems, however we can see them in a broader perspective. One of the orders discovered by Bert Hellinger in family constellations is the order of seniority. In companies and organisations there are a few additional ones which apply. For example, there is a key order of leading principles, which are referred to as „company DNA“, followed by the order of function and contribution. Certain other rules defined for family systems, such as the rule of belonging, the rule of connection and the rule of balance in giving and receiving, apply to companies and organisations too. Violation of the rules reveals itself in a way which may be counterintuitive and lead to recurrent patterns.
Oftentimes employees unconsciously „carry” their own entanglements from their family systems to the company. They thus serve the company in restoring order, whilst the company serves them by demonstrating the entanglement, providing ground for the entanglement to resurface.
Business and job related topics may come up during an individual session regarding a person‘s family system (for example when dealing with money issues) and during a constellation session for business, in which the private matters of the client would not initially be explored, but which would focus on what relates to the work environment. The consultation as such, the so called systemic interview, plays a significant role in constellations for business, where a conversation may help to „connect the dots“. During the conversation the client may realize the root causes of issues troubling the company and just recognizing the pattern may have an effect of a constellation. There is a difference in that many topics in family systems are shrouded in secrecy, we have no access to information from the past and painful experiences are taboo. In companies, certain topics are simply never discussed, some people are excluded or forgotten, the past is not paid respect, but information as such is available. Therefore, switching to systemic thinking in organisations may have a profound healing effect.
