Invisible Dynamics - Systemic Constellations in Organisations and in Business

1. The Organisation’s System – Your Most Important Working Capital

1.1 THE INVISIBLE CONTROL SYSTEM IN YOUR BUSINESS

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

It would be a mistake to believe that you, as a businessperson, run your business alone. As manager or employee, if you are of the opinion that your boss or the board of directors are setting the priorities, you are overlooking something critical. In actual fact, everyone together is running the organisation. This is not meant in the sense of “we’re all in the same boat”, nor is it in the sense of the common ownership of the Soviet era.

It is not only those belonging to the organisation who participate in the success or failure; others also play a role – for example, the customers, the share holders, the users, the competitors and perhaps foreign affiliates. Like a network, they create a powerful whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

The whole functions as a living system, whose dynamics have effects that are often in direct opposition to the decisions made by the company executives.

How is this possible? When we consider individuals, it is very clear that everyone has their own blind spots and from time to time acts and reacts unconsciously. At the very least since Sigmund Freud, it has been generally accepted that the unconscious has a powerful influence on our actions, feelings and thinking. Our rational thoughts and actions have even been compared to a floating nutshell, and the unconscious the sea. As long as the sea is calm, the nutshell captain believes he is in control.

A company also has an unconscious.

It is not only individuals that are influenced by the unconscious, but also human systems – families, organisations and businesses. Martin Buber pointed to this conclusion with his well-known statement that the unconscious is not in, but rather between individuals. This unconscious between people is not only a phenomenon of mass psychology, as observable at a football match, pop concert or campaign speech. Even more, it is a powerful but invisible structure in organisations, departments and teams, that functions according to its own rules and principles. Therefore, we speak of a “system” and systemic rules.

Within the system, we are all connected to one another.

What is a system?

What is a “system”, actually? Simply stated, a system is a number of elements that are connected to one another in continuously changing relationships. With any change in one element there is a simultaneous change in all the other elements. This is not true of all technical systems, but it is true of all living systems, including people, organisations and businesses.

If everything in a company system is in a constantly changing relationship, it means we have to let go of the comfortable habit of thinking in terms of cause and effect.

Within the networks of living systems, there is not always a cause first and then the effects. Effects may show up for which we can find no cause at all.

An effect may be a result of a cause that has arisen simultaneously and invisibly in a different place and is itself an effect stemming from yet another cause. From the good old cause-and-effect chain, we come to a circular image in which the events emerge in various places simultaneously and lead to results, also in various places.

Simultaneous and reciprocal effects in systems

Assigning guilt achieves nothing.

One response to difficulties, which is still widely popular, is to look for the guilty or responsible person. This falls short because it doesn’t solve the problem. Seen systemically, the “guilty party” may not be a causal factor, but may be functioning as a symptom carrier for the system. In such a case, this person’s culpable behaviour could be the effect of an invisible systemic connection. Firing the “guilty” person would be a solution something like, “If the red warning light comes on while driving, remove the light bulb and drive on.”

The organisational consultant Grochowiak looked at systemic reciprocal effects using the example of a frog pond:

Let’s imagine a pond and look at the population density of the frogs occupying this space. The population will grow precisely in relation to the amount of food available. If the number of frogs increases in response to a surplus of food available, there will be less food available, which leads to a decrease in the frog population. With fewer frogs around, the quantity of available food increases, which allows for a responding increase in the number of frogs, and the cycle begins anew. (Grochowiak, Castella a. Klein).

The obvious is the most difficult to see.

It remains to be said that frogs suffer from another problem that we humans may also share; they do not always recognise their food! A frog can only identify a fly and catch it if the fly moves. If it remains motionless, even right next to the frog, it is invisible to the frog. Therefore, a frog might starve to death, surrounded by the most luscious flies, if they are lazy enough to lie still. We would do well to learn from the frog example, and not overlook solutions that are sitting right in front of our noses. It is well known, however, that seeing what is obvious is particularly difficult!

Systemic pictures instead of analytical descriptions …

To solve complex systemic problems, business leaders and consultants have to change their habitual avenues of awareness, and free themselves from linear-causal descriptions and explanations. This is where the constellation method can complement classical approaches to consultation by portraying the organisation systemically rather than analytically.

Using this method, you can easily get an overview of the situation as it is at the moment. Tensions that are preventing progress become visible immediately, for example, difficulties between production and marketing or between management and a foreign affiliate. You can see whether the position of a department or individual is right in the larger company context, and how things need to be changed to improve the functioning of the whole.

… makes solutions clear.

When systemic connections become clear to our customers, many react with, “It couldn’t possibly be that simple! We have invested so much time and money over the years without ever really solving the problem!” The pain of such recognition is well known in many contexts. These days, for example, simple, inexpensive software solutions can solve problems in logistics that used to involve a major investment of time and effort, often with unsatisfactory results. Force of habit, however, can keep companies from accepting such solutions, sometimes for years. Often, the resistance is not due to economic or technical considerations. Now and again, even the most innovative managers appear to get caught in a strange reluctance to accept something new.

How does it happen that people who have proven themselves many times over with their daring and good business sense, are suddenly plagued by doubt? They are responding to a “gut” reaction, an instinct based on the impact of a shift in the systemic whole. No matter how smoothly innovative software simplifies a technical procedure, the effects at the interactive, human, systemic level can be disastrous. To avoid this kind of turbulence, any major restructuring steps should be accompanied by a systemic check. Proponents of a new technology or streamlined process may feel discouraged by a half-hearted response to this newly introduced improvement. Because they are looking at the linear, analytical aspects of the situation, they miss the systemic level, which is critical to success.

The systemic level is critical to success.

Of course it is important to optimise a company technologically, but the match is being played elsewhere. Even in the age of information technology, businesses are human constructions and they function as all interactive human systems – simply, logically, and consistently – like a biological organism. Our bodies, too, are complex organic systems that require a particular kind of nourishment, a certain amount of movement, and a set quantity of fluid. They react with irritation to the poisons of our civilised life, particularly when combined with stress. As we know, those who are aware of the systemic laws of the body and act accordingly have an easier time than those who consider themselves impervious to these demands. Interactive systems behave in a similar way. Here, too, we have a choice; we can make an effort to understand and conform to the rules and demands, or we can wilfully ignore them in favour of short-term gains and suffer the consequences later.

Human systems function according to the powerful, unconscious laws.

Also in the organism of a company, the system, there is an underlying awareness of what is useful and...