Recently I had put my thoughts together to one of my preferred consulting and facilitation practices of:
Systemic constellation work
As the title suggests, there are the three dimensions of "systemic", "constellations" and "work" that come together.
Systemic
The world in a systemic perspective is typically seen as a world of systems, their elements and the relationships between the elements. In a systemic view, it is the constellation of the elements that define to some extent the quality of the relationships, and it is the quality of the relationships that define the elements.
These leads to sometimes paradoxical statements as this interdependency can not be captured in our normal linear logic of simple cause-effect relationships. The mathematics of systems are captured in a larger, dialectical logic, where A and non-A are not exclusive from each other but rather provide conditions of existence to each other, their reality is included in their non-identity. The absence of something therefore means that something is real to some extent even if we do not measure or perceive it. The systemic logic allows for a mathematical, structured approach to phenomena like life and creation, as what is not there (absent) is however real (as a potential or a memory, or a life process).
As implied from this multiple perspective logic, change is rather a re-configuration of elements than a chain of cause-effect actions. This helps conceptualising why and how change as framed in linear logical cause-effect actions is non-successful. One can rarely observe the configuration of the elements only in function of the change initiative.
Constellations
As potential in systems is already real (even though as an absent reality), one can undertake serious measurements. Constellation work is a set of qualitative measurement and intervention practices that has been developed in the last 20 years.
Constellations are the configurations of the elements of a system. Living systems as opposed to purely technical systems are self-organised. This means that the processes between elements are at the same time structuring the elements and structured by the configuration of those same elements, so that the system itself takes it shape and processes as "from itself". This concept has been called "autopoeisis" and worked out by the life scientists Maturana and Varela.
Once a system has been structured into its elements, constellations can therefore be explored to measure the fields of relationships in a system at a given moment, as much as in any other, as time itself is an element of systems structure.
Interventions in the constellation of the elements are impactful as they intervene into the self-functioning and processing of a living system. As one does not know this inner processing from the outside and not even from the inside, only the effects of the interventions can be observed.
Work
The work with systemic constellations is an intense, and sometimes very short consulting process:
The consultant facilitates the learning process of the client with the help of a (series of) constellation(s).
The classical set-up is within a group that provides a learning space and is itself a learning, living system. In the group, the facilitator invites the client to come forward with an issue that is important to them. In a conversation, the system and relevant elements are clarified. Sometimes, the work stops here, as this may be all what's needed.
When working with constellations, the client is invited to identify representatives for some salient elements and to arrange them in the room in the center of the group. The representatives are most often other participants from the group. The representatives enlarge the perspective of the specific element, and if a human being is there, we can sense this perspective with all our senses. We "are" this element, as much as we stay who we were.
After the initial set-up through the client, the constellation enters into a dynamic interplay between the various elements. New elements can be sensed in their absence ("there is something missing") and included (a new representative comes in). The dynamics often tell pieces of a story that relates to the issue. We see the overall picture as much as we can enter a specific relationship.
The facilitator connects the client with the unfolding constellation. Their role is to sense the overall sense of the constellation and to focus the attention of the client.
This work is highly analytical and structured, as the process of facilitation has its inner structure. It is an artistic and holistic process, in as much the facilitators as any consultant are themselves the instrument and measure in their interventions.
The work lets us experience the relations, elements and dynamics of systems in whatever scale. There has been some specialisation:
- self-systems and families (family constellations)
- organisations
- social and political systems.
Family constellations
This tradition is the oldest practice. Starting with the foundational work by Bert Hellinger, family therapists pursue the question how the suffering of a particular client can be understood (and maybe even healed) in the context of their origins and their intimate family relations.
Organisational constellations
Soon consultants found that organisational systems can be worked with like family systems. Organisations are not families, though. They are created by a founder to serve a need of specific beneficiaries, and operate in processes that are intended to create value. The constellation work is here geared to the service of strategy, client-orientation, process re-alignment and most other organisational consulting or development work. A constellation is typically part of a larger process; it can help to create a very fast and sharp clarity in a situation, and can establish a focus moment in an organisational development workshop.
Political constellations
In the field of the European Union institutions, the organisational constellation work often reaches out into larger, all-encompassing systems like the EU itself as a system, the health system in Europe, the financial markets, consumers and citizens systems, bureaucracy, the fate of nations etc.
The work here needs a passionate client with a real connection to the issue to stay meaningful. For instance the question for the purpose of "my career in the EU" is a sufficient starting point to explore the larger systems around the Commission and their impact on the inner functioning of the institutions and even a single job.
As one expands the scope, one includes more and more complex dimensions. At a political issue level, the origins of the client and their families are still present, as much as the functioning and dysfunctioning of their organisations. My constellation workshops therefore include the three levels, and in any constellation intervention a focus on the self, the organisation or indeed the large political system may show itself as the most relevant one.
Learning from constellations
The reward of this inquiry and its artistic beauty come together when the individual clients discover their angle of meaningful changes they are capable of. This at times may just be an acknowledgement: So it is. Or a fresh actor to be involved. Or an action one can stop doing.
A constellation is mostly the beginning or contunuing of a longer and slower development process. What the work can do is to amplify and concretise it. This is already a lot, and much more than many other discovery practices can do.
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April 2009 
Rainer
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