Revelation in the job matrix

When we look at an organization from a systemic perfective, we look, among other things, at the functions that have emerged over time. We call this composition of functions the job-matrix. And this job-matrix has something to tell us…

Of course, there is a logical idea behind the job matrix as it is described for your organization. Consideration has been given to the distribution of tasks, mandates and required competences for the profession that must be performed in each role. This allows you as an organization to recruit the right people and orchestrate the interaction. In addition to this reality, something less tangible often happens. The description of a role also unconsciously and in invisible ink describes the systemic function of this role. This is about what this role unconsciously must do or not do for the entire organization.

An example to make it practical. After a period of self-management in the organization, a middle layer of team leaders is added. They have the task of taking on operational decision-making that proved impossible in the teams during the self-management phase. This reorganization looks smart on paper, because lessons have been learned from the past. And yet, in the execution, it leads to strange behavior. Capable people do not perform well, friction arises between employees and team leaders and between team leaders and the board. The interplay does not arise and even becomes counterproductive. Tasks that are not being tackled are pointed out to each other despite being well described. Why doesn’t this work?

In addition to the described role of team leader, there may also be an unconscious function that is not seen and recognized. In this example, the role must also cover up the failure of the board in the previous period of self-management. This painful failure was sensible in the teams and they had to bore the burden. And remarkably enough, they wanted to manage this themselves by continuing to raise this with the board, but without being heard. And then there is that solution form the board… An intermediate layer created to help the teams. And yet they are not happy…

A systemic function overrules everything that has been conceived and described. It has the power from backstage, so to speak. In these types of situations, the behavior of people on stage often falls into accusing and defending. Because your personal intention is so different from what you are accused of. The behavior can also fall into passivity. Just imagine that you must remain silent from the layer above you and are constantly challenged to speak from the layer you lead…

A helpful movement is to bring the systemic function on to the stage and into the light. What does your role have to reveal to the whole? What happens through you in terms of where your attention and energy go? For what are you working so hard maybe also in having strong judgments about it? What information does it contain? What do you make possible and impossible in the organization as a whole, just by existing? Have you subconsciously been ordered to conceal or reveal something? Or perhaps both… The systemic function will only come to the stage when you are able to investigate beyond your judgments of what is happening in your position in the organization. Lovingly, you have to park all your previous analyzes on what and especially on whom it is to blame. And in this state, you investigate what else unconsciously participates in the hassle. It requires the courage to speak up and say: “this is what goes through me, every time”. It takes courage because unconsciously everything is done to conceal this information. This is the survival mechanism of the larger system.

And you, as a leader, what does this require of you? Not every team will be able to do this research on their own. And whether they do it or not…. can you listen? Can you listen through the accusations to what this team is working so hard for? What is attention being drawn to? What is protected or painfully brought to the fore? And even more than listening, can you also receive that? Do you really believe that this contains information that is valuable? Are you able to receive information in a wider ‘space’ than the space of your own efforts, intentions and values?

This movement, regardless of where it is initiated, invites the systemic function to stand fully in the light and listen together to what it has to say for the whole. And be careful, it could easily become a full evening performance…