Systemic Perspective

The systemic perspective deals with taking a different perspective on organisations, departments, teams, or any group of people and viewing them as social systems. The idea of the systemic perspective is that when you zoom out from the level of the individual to the level of the system and you see the system as a whole, a different picture emerges. When using this perspective, organizations can be seen as complex, living and learning networks of relations and patterns which are interwoven with each other in many ways.

The systemic perspective fits with the general social system theories and has a strong basis in social constructivism. We are born into a social system and during our life we become part of many other social systems. When being part of these systems we are socialised and, unconsciously, learn about the rules, structures, relationships of these systems. It is assumed that our perception of our social reality results from this socialisation process and is influence by the social systems where they are part of.

Using the the systemic perspective helps to identify these complex, often informal or subconscious, relationships, patterns, and interdependencies within a group of people. The idea is that when you are more aware of the patterns and inter-dependencies in a system you are part of, you can handle these patterns better. For this systemic constellations method is used. Systemic constellations are a visualization of the social system, using a spatial arrangement of elements (using people or objects) relevant to the organization or the team and its social context. By externalizing the elements of the social system, systemic constellations render the inner image someone has of a system in a visible and tangible way.

For further reading on the systemic perspective and the systemic constellation method please visit the website of the Bert Hellinger Institut Netherlands, a renowned Dutch training institute in systemic work. Or the website of Infosyon. Infosyon is an interdisciplinary international association for qualified deployment of system constellations in organisations.

This perspective and method is already used in many counselling and training settings, but scientific background information is scarce. The main reason to study this perspective is that I’m intrigued by it and I’m very curious how it works and how to optimize it.

This research line is part of SCOPE, the Expertise centre for personal development of the University of Groningen. More details about research on the systemic constellation method and on the application in education can be found here.