Systemic Thinking and Practice Series: Work with Organizations – serie

A Systemic Approach to Consultation discusses the application of systemic thinking to work within organizations. The authors draw on their experiences of consulting with teams, departments and whole organizations in both the public and private sectors. They describe their work as an integrated approach called Development Consultation, which focuses on the beliefs and behaviors in the wider system which makes it difficult for organizations to manage their own processes of change. The authors then discuss the way they formulate systemic problems and the interventions, particularly the interviewing technique, which they have used in numerous case examples. The book is intended as a handbook for professionals from any discipline who are engaged in consultation work.

Systemic Work with Organizations explores a powerful new perspective on the challenges faced by managers and consultants who work in large organizations. Building on principles and methods originally developed in the family arena, the authors show how an emphasis on connection, context and communication can help managers and others involved in change, deal with issues of identity, leadership, and learning faced by staff in today's complex work environment.The main thesis is that one way cause and effect thinking and a central focus on the role of the individual, is no longer sufficient. Managers and change agents now need to make use of the insights and interventions offered by a systemic perspective that highlights the roles played by circularity and reflexivity in how people construct shared meaning in human systems.In early chapters the three authors develop bridges between the family and organizational fields, exploring the ideas and methods of systemic and constructionist thinking in preparation for the three detailed case studies which illustrate systemic thinking in action.

A book which will illuminate the learning process from the perspective of the teacher as well as the learner. The experiences of the various contributors will empower the reader to take more personal risks in their own learning.

The therapeutic relationship is increasingly becoming a central topic in systemic psychotherapy and cross-cultural thinking. Here, experienced systemic psychotherapists offer their reflections and thoughts on the issues of race, culture, and ethnicity in the therapeutic relationship. The aim is to develop this area of systemic practice, to place culture squarely at the centre of all systemic psychotherapy practice as a model for all psychotherapy practice, to encourage both trainees and experienced systemic psychotherapists to pay attention to race, culture, and ethnicity as central issues in their own and their clients' identities, and to inform researchers who use qualitative research techniques such as ethnography. This book moves the issues of culture, race and equity into the centre of psychotherapeutic practice, including that which involves therapeutic encounters across culture, racial and ethnic divides. It develops an approach to cultural transference and demonstrates that thinking about culture, race and ethnicity does not belong at the margin.

This book sets out to explain how the reflexive inquiry model can be adapted to research so that consultants can continue to evaluate their work and learn from the process. It draws out some implications of the principles, arguments, models, and tools presented for undertaking research.

This book shows the underlying thinking of experienced consultants deciding how to position themselves in organizations, seeking to enable organizational change to occur and redefining their relationships with their clients over time and according to organizational need using a systemic lens.

This book looks at organisational problems occurring in a particular context, and clearly traces the way problems arise out of relations amongst the different parts of the larger system. It also pursues the meanings that these problems have for individuals and organisations alike. The authors, who are both practitioners experienced in working with

This book describes the processes that shape organisational life and shows how managers can work together to help one another to work out their problems and develop their skills. The authors draw on their experiences of working with managers and in the group relations field.

This book on social constructionist thinking addresses the manager's job for creating reflective space for people to observe themselves and others. It explores broad societal and organizational discourses that offer positions from day-to-day realities that govern behaviour are constructed.

This book presents the dynamics of organisations from a social constructionist viewpoint, taking the organisation as something that is constructed continuously through individual interactions with others, both within and without the organisation.

Most of Shakespeare’s tragedies have a family drama at their heart. This book brings these relationships to life, offering a radical new perspective on the tragic heroes and their dilemmas. Family Dramas: Intimacy, Power and Systems in Shakespeare's Tragedies focusses on the interactions and dialogues between people on stage, linking their intimate emotional worlds to wider social and political contexts.Since family relationships absorb and enact social ideologies, their conflicts often expose the conflicts that all ideologies contain. The complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of Shakespeare’s portrayals of individuals and their relationships are brought to life, while wider power structures and social discourses are shown to reach into the heart of intimate relationships and personal identity. Surveying relevant literature from Shakespeare studies, the book introduces the ideas behind the family systems approach to literary criticism. Explorations of gender relationships feature particularly strongly in the analysis since it is within gender that intimacy and power most compellingly intersect and frequently collide.For Shakespeare lovers and psychotherapists alike, this application of systemic theory opens a new perspective on familiar literary territory.

Most of Shakespeare’s tragedies have a family drama at their heart. This book brings these relationships to life, offering a radical new perspective on the tragic heroes and their dilemmas. Family Dramas: Intimacy, Power and Systems in Shakespeare's Tragedies focusses on the interactions and dialogues between people on stage, linking their intimate emotional worlds to wider social and political contexts.Since family relationships absorb and enact social ideologies, their conflicts often expose the conflicts that all ideologies contain. The complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of Shakespeare’s portrayals of individuals and their relationships are brought to life, while wider power structures and social discourses are shown to reach into the heart of intimate relationships and personal identity. Surveying relevant literature from Shakespeare studies, the book introduces the ideas behind the family systems approach to literary criticism. Explorations of gender relationships feature particularly strongly in the analysis since it is within gender that intimacy and power most compellingly intersect and frequently collide.For Shakespeare lovers and psychotherapists alike, this application of systemic theory opens a new perspective on familiar literary territory.

Leading at All Levels: Using Systemic Ideas to Get the Most from the Workplace moves away from traditional perspectives on leadership and, utilising ideas from systemic consultation, provides a rationale for leadership at all levels, emphasising the potential of everyone in organisations to lead in their own area of work. Reviewing the theory of resilience and its place in organisational life, the book provides guidance on how to foster resilience in the workplace.Written in accessible language, the book is divided into three sections: on work and leadership, on problem solving and finally on approaches to leading at all levels. A variety of perspectives on leadership are explored, as well as barriers to effective leadership and there are many suggestions for improvement. The book discusses the ways in which systemic thinking can contribute to enhance leadership, which includes considering different perceptions and experiences of leadership, the influence of power in workplace relationships and organisational outcomes, the link between positive employee engagement for performance and well-being at work, and the importance of interpersonal and relational behaviour on leadership. The book also considers the importance of everyday workplace interactions to our understanding of leadership and supports a wide understanding of workplace conflict. It contains examples throughout, which are applicable to different types and sizes of organisation, and provides suggestions for readers relating to the practice of leadership at all levels.Good leadership is of great importance to today’s organisations. The book suggests that by paying more attention to leadership at all levels, organisations can work towards improving productivity, which has been highlighted as a critical issue in the UK since the 2008 recession. Leading at All Levels will appeal to systemic trainees, practitioners and systemic consultants and to those in related professions, as well as to personal development practitioners and coaches.

A Systemic Approach to Consultation discusses the application of systemic thinking to work within organizations. The authors draw on their experiences of consulting with teams, departments and whole organizations in both the public and private sectors. They describe their work as an integrated approach called Development Consultation, which focuses on the beliefs and behaviors in the wider system which makes it difficult for organizations to manage their own processes of change. The authors then discuss the way they formulate systemic problems and the interventions, particularly the interviewing technique, which they have used in numerous case examples. The book is intended as a handbook for professionals from any discipline who are engaged in consultation work.

Robert Bor and, Riva Miller, who run the AIDS Counseling Service at the Royal Free Hospital, London, are internationally known for their work in providing consultation to many hospital departments from within the hospital itself. Internal Consultation in Health Care Settings should, however, be of interest to anyone working within a large organization. The authors have produced a step-by-step guide to negotiating an internal consultation; and, in a very comprehensive manner, they have described their theoretical framework and the consultation work itself, both based on their own application of systemic thinking. The book is illustrated throughout with examples drawn from their own work.

This book describes the processes that shape organisational life and shows how managers can work together to help one another to work out their problems and develop their skills. The authors draw on their experiences of working with managers and in the group relations field.

A book which will illuminate the learning process from the perspective of the teacher as well as the learner. The experiences of the various contributors will empower the reader to take more personal risks in their own learning.

This work provides a rich mine of ideas to stimulate thinking about organisational interaction, and organisations in relation to various socio/cultural values.

This book looks at organisational problems occurring in a particular context, and clearly traces the way problems arise out of relations amongst the different parts of the larger system. It also pursues the meanings that these problems have for individuals and organisations alike. The authors, who are both practitioners experienced in working with organisations, show how their ideas can be implemented in different settings.

This new work looks at the dynamics of organisations from a social constructionist viewpoint, taking the organisation as something that is constructed continuously through individual interactions with others, both within and without the organisation.

The impetus for this book came from an appreciation that reflexivity, for both consultant and client, is the core ingredient for facilitating the "changing organization". Central to this belief, Reflexive Inquiry draws on the spirit of five overlapping theoretical traditions - systemic, social constructionist, critical, appreciative and complexity. These principles each offer a contribution to the management of reflexive consciousness and are used to shape consultancy practice. Part of the Systemic Thinking and Practice Series.

This volume provides a positive and productive model for helping people to move out of static positions or difficult relationships in the workplace. Informed by systemic thinking and social constructionism, the authors discuss how it is possible to create realities through dialogue and to enable greater opportunities for the employee, manager and consultant alike. Taking Positions in the Organization uses a model of semantic polarities to create simple solutions to complex problems in a format which will inform and enthuse all its readers.

In this book, each contributor describes the way they use the systemic model in their consultancy practice. Their key ideas are illustrated via a case example (or examples), where possible including detailed accounts of the exercises and techniques they use inspired by systemic thinking. They conclude with a evaluation of the work, pinpointing its strengths and weaknesses and what the contributor learned from it as well as how it might be developed or applied in other situations.'Describing and charting the way in which a consultant working from the systemic paradigm brings a unique lens to the understanding of organizational complexity has been, and remains, a challenging task in a global corporate world where the demand is always for products, new interventions, and approaches that "work" and can be measured.'The structure of the chapters in this book offers readers the opportunity to connect to each contributor's account of his or her work, showing how systemic ideas and practices shape a piece of consultation, while simultaneously respecting the need for the generic stages of consultation identified by the editors, in their Introduction to remain visible and recognizable to the readers, whatever familiarity and fluency with systemic thinking practices they may bring to the text.'The interventions described by the contributors, all established and respected consultants, elegantly reflect a number of facets of the value of systemic work in organizations - namely, the distinctive ways systemic practitioners pay attention to and use feedback, examine and seek to understand beliefs that sustain repetitive patterns of behaviour, explore the development over time of cultural values in an organization, seek to increase possible explanations for the above, and clarify roles and tasks in relation to specific contexts, to mention only a few.- David Campbell and Ros Draper, from the Series Editors' Foreword