Systemic work for leaders and organizations

The organizational system

Within organizations live multiple systems, such as the team, the department, the branch or the entire organization. Often issues can be traced back to one of these systems. The systemic perspective reveals the unconscious patterns and dynamics that cause things not to run as they should.

What issues are at stake within organizational systems?

There can be all kinds of issues within organizations that are difficult to resolve. The systemic perspective can bring different insight and movement. Think of situations such as:

• There is (unexplained) resistance or a culture of fear.
• A merger of the department or company leads to problems.
• We don’t want certain behaviors or patterns within the organization (anymore).
• A manager/executive does not find his place in the organization.

The systemic view can also be helpful for the success of future decisions. Changes can raise questions beforehand. What would be the effect when we merge teams? Can we introduce a new product? And what conditions are needed if we change policies?

What is going on in the undercurrent?

This is the recurring question within systemic work and thus when examining an issue within organizations.

In doing so, the system has a number of principles:

• Everything and everyone has a place. Even those who are ill or have unloved roles. Also the past and predecessors in the organization. Everything that was, is and is to come. Including everything that means. And some things may come to an end.
• Who has what place? What might go for something else?
• Is everyone adequately rewarded for what they give? With demonstrated appreciation, compensation in cash or time off, in development opportunities?

Once you understand what the system is trying to accomplish, other movements can occur. Then the question follows: what does it take to move forward?

Examining organizational questions systemically

You can explore the organizational question with different methods. The most commonly used methods are an organizational constellation, team coaching or a customized program, such as an in-company program or personal coaching. Whether a systemic facilitator goes to work with a team, a person, the management – and in what form he or she does so – depends on the organization and the question.

Organizational constellation

Organizational constellations can make an enormous contribution to the development of an organization. By depicting the system, the undercurrent becomes visible. This makes an organizational constellation an ideal test environment to find out what the causes of problems are, to bring patterns to the surface and to find out what the system needs for next steps.

As in family constellations, representatives or materials are used for this purpose – but in the case of representatives, people from outside the own organization are preferred. In this way the conditions are as optimal as possible for pure observations, without coloring actual knowledge of the system. It also helps to view the issue entirely within the organizational system and to leave the personal system of employees out of consideration. An organizational constellation should remain focused on the organization unless the attendees expressly agree to explore their personal patterns.

Team coaching

When there is a problem in a team, a systemic coach can bring movement to the situation. The coach zooms out with a systemic phenomenological view and, together with the participant(s), looks at the team as a whole, as well as the organization, or its origins and perhaps more than that.

In this way, the facilitator examines the true cause of the problem. This creates insights and different perspective from which the team can act very differently.

Customized pathway

In a customized program, any method or a combination of several methods can be used. With (individual) coaching, workshops, short trainings, lectures and organizational constellations you introduce a new, open approach that creates a different movement in existing management models, business structures and organizational plans.

Systemic leadership

Systemic work in organizations does not just consist of examining questions in the organizational system. Leaders are able to direct the system. They can strengthen it and keep it in balance – but they can also disrupt entrenched patterns, enabling change. Systemic leadership thus adds something essential beyond all existing management models, business structures and organizational plans.

The power of systemic leadership

Systemic leadership has evolved over the past twenty years and has now proven its worth. Countless leaders in different places and in wonderful roles nowadays choose to lead their organizations, projects and teams in a systemic way. In fact, the entire organizational system becomes more vital, productive and happy as a result.

The systemic approach brings connection, in and around the organization, and creates cohesion – exactly what many organizations lack. The energy of the leader is essential and guiding for the system. Not only can leaders inspire and carry their team in this way, they also experience how they themselves are included in the system and how the organization can move from cohesion. Systemic leadership brings new insights from the head and the heart, about the whole and the individual employees. This ensures that the organization and the people within it can truly develop sustainably.

Systemic leadership styles

Systems need frameworks and support. We can translate these into three different systemic leadership styles, all three of which are equally necessary for complete leadership. If one is missing or is represented weaker than the other, it affects the whole.

1. Agenda leadership (framework setting).

Agens stands for “working force” and “that which sets everything in motion. A system first of all needs Agens power, which ensures that the system can exist autonomously. For this, the frameworks must be clear: what do you belong to, what don’t you belong to, what are the guiding principles and where does the money come from?

This type of leadership is strongly connected to the outside world at the level of the organization as a whole. What is happening in society, in the market, around us, what are (r)evolutionary developments coming our way? Agens leadership knows how to translate this into the right course for the organization. It sets the contours and frameworks within which the organization can exist, in which it has vitality and potential can flow.

2. Professional leadership

Organizations and teams have a core function: they have performance, products and/or services to deliver. That is their destination and their right to exist and that requires content knowledge. That requires passion for your profession, awareness of the quality and quantity to deliver what fits within the frameworks set by Agens. It requires being open to developments and innovation.

3. Communio leadership (facilitating).

Communio stands for “community, being part of something, security. Communio leadership is about facilitating optimal performance of the core function of the organization or team.

This ranges from very practical, that the necessary facilities are there, to very connecting, so that everyone can feel part of the whole. It is about well-being, about connection, about (personal) development and cooperation. And also about making sure that the technology works, the personnel policy is in place and the accommodation is in order.

This type of leadership is strongly tied to the inner world of the organization or team as a whole and how the individuals within it are doing.

The value of systemic insight for organizations

With systemic insight, you can create space on a completely different layer in a situation that didn’t want to change. Or you can direct the system as a leader, using your energy appropriately. This is a valuable addition to everything you already know!