Organisational Constellations – Intro

Organisational Constellations reveal hidden dynamics in key areas such as leadership, conflict resolution, relationships between stakeholders or between founders and their successors, culture change, management of innovation & organisational restructuring.

How are Organisational Constellations set up?

After an issue holder describes an organisational dilemma including what needs to be different, the facilitator identifies the key elements of that dilemma. The issue holder then chooses other workshop participants to represent those elements: colleagues, customers, suppliers, owners, workers, governments, The Stock Exchange, other stakeholders, nations or ethnic groups, even more conceptual elements like resources, limitations, goals or the future.

These elements are then intuitively placed in relation to each other. What is surprising is that the representatives are able to feel deeply and report accurately the experience of those they are representing. This reveals hidden dynamics that are worked with creatively to explore new and deep perspectives that go below conventional awareness to reveal profound resolutions.

“A constellation shifts people’s perception of where problems come from and suggests ways to move forward differently that strengthen and build. The new perspectives allow issue-holders fresh insights, a renewed sense of possibility and a strong focus on action. In addition, a synchronous shift sometimes takes place in the real organisation or community that has been represented. “ (Judith Hemming)

Practical Uses for Organisational Constellations:

• Defining a strategy for an organization
• Verifying the consistency of a structure within an organization
• Preparing negotiations
• Preparing for restructuring or integration after restructuring
• Integration after merging or acquiring an organization, company or business
• Project management
• Project assessments or creating a new company
• Company operational diagnosis
• Management of conflicts within an organization
• Answer personal questions as “ Should I stay or should I leave? “
• Clarifying the client’s own place in the organization / company
• Supporting decision-making in all the business areas
• As an approaching tool in dysfunctional organisations structure
• Seeing the systemic “interactive” effects in different company departments
• Testing the efficiency of important steps or changes in an organisation
• Trying different possibilities, “a test run”: “Should I do this, or that, or perhaps something else?
• Supplying additional forms of analysing complex entanglements of business, about family issues in family companies and/or to find ways and solutions of handing business to the next generation
• As a supervision tool for coaches or consultants: focusing especially in the consultant, so he can better deal with the request of the client.

More information about organisational constellations is available for MBSC students in the section MBSC Training Material.