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We offer coaching and training on
happiness, family therapy and healthy relationships.
What are Human Systems?
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A human system refers to a group of people
that live or work together, such as a team, a family, an organization or a
community. Human systems accomplish what individuals, no matter how motivated or
resourceful, cannot accomplish.
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Systems coaching has been influenced by natural
science, chaos theory, physics, systems theory, psychoanalysis,
anthropology and evolutionary psychology. Our systems coaching
examines systemic influences and reciprocal effects rather than
linear influence or statistics.
Systems are subject to complex rules, which differ
from linear rules of cause and effect. Systems coaching can work at many
levels, and this page describes some practical aspects of systems
thinking in the context of social constructivism.
Chaos Theory & Therapy
. Executive Coaching
Social Constructivism
You describe and explain the world with words derived
from your relationships, not from reality. Your words are cultural patterns,
embedded within relationships. A constructivist view is that if you change
your words, you change your relationships. If you create and disseminate
new words within your culture, you affect everyday relationships. As with
Heisenberg's Principle, diagnosis can change that that was diagnosed.
Social constructivist ideas are integrated throughout our coaching.
As nobody is isolated from human systems, all coaching,
counseling and therapy have systemic consequences. The consequences of
individual change on a human system can include chaos, including symptoms
of emotional and physical disorders, unless the system is included in
changework.
Complexity
Human systems are complex. Attempts to simplify human
systems can lead to authoritarian systems (e.g. communist and totalitarian
societies, military and cult phenomena).
| Simple
Systems |
Complex
Systems |
- few similar elements
- few links between elements
- limited potential for behavior
- stable, determined impact chains
- behavior is easily measured
- possible states can be predicted
- complete control is possible
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- many different elements
- strong links & dependencies
- large repertoire of behavior
- manifold, variable impact chains
- behavior is difficult to measure
- possible states are unpredictable
- limited control is possible
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Human systems cannot be completely analyzed, there
is too much happening. Statistical analysis data may be useful, but
in a system, every action can be both cause and effect. Circular
interactions, feedback loops and fuzzy logic better
define systemic behavior. Our systemic diagnosis provides systemic
models for predicting individual, couple, family and team behavior.
Systemic Rules
Although systemic rules guide the behavior of the
members of a system, some systemic rules are explicit and some cannot
be discussed by members. Examples of systemic rules include:
- Boundaries: Which boundaries are flexible
and which are rigid?
- Coalitions: Who can align with whom for what
benefits?
- Communication: What are the communication
rules and meta-rules?
- Culture: What is the identity of the
system? (religion, status, ethnicity).
- Entanglement: Is there differentiation or
are members entangled each other.
- Hierarchy: Who is in control? What lines
of authority are used?
- History: What traditions and history are
still in active use?
- Life Cycle: What is the developmental
stage of the system?
- Maturity: What are the emotional ages
of the members?
- Metaphors: What underlying symbolic
interactions occur between members?
- Power: Who makes important decisions
for the system?
- Roles: Who rescues? Who distracts? Who
makes trouble?
- Values: What are the overall systemic
values? (Clare Graves)
Systemic Coaching & Therapy
Although a problem may not be a person, nor a system,
a problem is a problem. Solutions include:
- Dissociation: Helps members
dissociate and discuss problems
- Change history: Help members evaluate
who they are and how they got here
- Mapping: Help members explore benefits
and consequences
- Metaphors: Help members reframe
their situations and solutions
- Outcomes: Research both individual and
system goals
- Planning: Help members visualize
steps to success
Systemic Phenomena
As all members are affected by changes to a system, individual
change can be embedded in systemic coaching. Some presuppositions seem to be:
- Systems exist in a cultural context
- Systems go through a systemic life cycle
- Systems organize themselves to maintain stability
- Experiences in a system shape the system's development
- Changes in part of a system affect all
people in that system
- Problems can be better understood within the context
of a system
- Conflicts between two people often involve a third
person triangulation)
- Systems can get stuck in repetitive patterns
that restrict their choices
- Symptoms are often functional and help
a system maintain equilibrium
Changing Systems
You can try to be a neutral observer - or you can
join the system ... as a guest.
- Decide on which sub-system you want
to focus
- Avoid taking sides - strive to be perceived as
fair and objective
- Reframe problems so that members do not
focus on one member
- Implement interventions through demonstration
and provocation
- Consider individual behavior while observing
interactive patterns
- Keep things moving and keep members (especially
children) busy
Stages of Systemic Change
- Contact: Be accessible,
knowledgeable, confident and kind
- Enroll: Build
connections with system members without favoritism or bias
- Assess: Assess coalitions,
hierarchies, communication channels, behavior
and the entanglements of each member
- Reorient: Present your interpretation of
what is going on within the system
- Feedback: Listen to and incorporate
the feedback from system members
- Realign: Change the way system members
interact with each other (systemic coaching)
Types of Systemic Coaching & Systemic Therapy
- Communication/Humanistic (Satir &
Whitaker): Emphasizes relationships within systems. Observe
communication styles and provide experiential interventions.
- Intergenerational (Bowen): Emphasizes
multi-generational family maps. Observers resolve systemic tension
by avoiding participation in dysfunctional family rituals.
- Milan Model (Selvini-Palazolli):
Perceptive and paradoxical teamwork - two team members interview
while another team member covertly observes from a hidden location.
- Multicultural approaches: Examines the
societal influences of oppression and ethnic identity.
- Narrative Therapy (White & Epston):
Examines a system’s experience and personal meaning through
the use of language and metaphor.
- Psychoanalytic (Ackerman & Framo):
Examines how influences from the past shape the present.
- Soulwork (Carruthers): Describes healthy development
and appropriate behavior in a hierarchy of relationships. This offers rapid solutions for
emotional and relationship entanglements.
- Strategic (Haley & Madanes): Examines
inter-relational and communication styles to help families define
problems, and then help them solve those problem.
- Structural (Minuchin): Views a system as
an organism undergoing transformation. Explores the underlying
structure of systems.
- Systemic Family Therapy (Hellinger): Shows how
individual lives are determined by systems; and how conscience reacts
to changes in relationship bonds and
violations of family rules.
Online Coaching & Mentorship
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright ©
Martyn Carruthers 2004-2012 All rights reserved.
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