General workshop outline and Do’s and Don’ts
Most trainers engaged in systemic constellation work are trained to apply the method in an organisational or business setting, often as consultant or trainer. Applying systemic constellation work in a regular (medical) education setting may need a bit different approach. A workshop for students differs in structure and setting from systemic constellation sessions in organisations. For instance, the time frame and location is often fixed and all students need to be able to do (the same) workshop. In our case, in 2018 up to 400 medical students needed to do the workshop in 1 single day! Also, there is a question about grading the students and you need to decide whether the workshop is compulsory for the students or not. And, if you have finally managed to get the students in a workshop room, how do you explain the systemic constellation approach to them? How to engage them? How can they participate and make sense of it without any prior knowledge on systemic work (and without asking for it)?
Based on our experience we came to the following workshop outline and structure, that we can tailor to specific situations or requests from students or teachers.
Participants and trainers
Normally, we work with 12 to 20 students per workshop. Often, they are engaged in project teams. In that case the students participate as a team, which results in 2-4 teams per workshop. The workshop is facilitated by 2 trainers. Per constellation, one of the trainers is in the lead.
Time frame
A 2-hours time frame for a workshop is what we usually have. This means we have 20 to 30 minutes per team for a constellation.
Structure
Start (± 15 mins). Welcome and introduction of the setting and trainers. Short exercise (examples). Brief introduction of the systemic approach. Explain why we do this workshop and how it fits in their learning and the curriculum.
Constellation of the project team (± 20-30 mins). One constellation per project team, so in total 2 to 4 constellation rounds, consisting of: an interview, a systemic constellation, harvest.
Conclusion and collective ‘harvest’ (± 15 mins). What stood out for you, or what did strike you the most during the workshop. What can you incorporate into your daily life? Answer questions and conclude.
Do’s and don’ts
Looking back at our experience so far, we see a number of important elements for a successful workshop with students. Central is that the trainer has to meet the students in their world, make a connection and lead them in the workshop. Often, the students are not the ones who asked for the workshop. So, first comes the connection and then they might be willing to follow you in this method that is very new and uncommon to them. A few hints:
If a trainer uses language that is uncommon to them or that they regard as ‘vague’ or ‘mystical’, you will get lost. Words that are common in systemic constellation work, such as ‘potential’, resonance’ and ‘the field’ are big turn offs. Instead we use descriptions as ‘where can you function the best’ or ‘where can you learn the most’. Also, if a trainer does put off his shoes, looks esoteric, or starts with a long meditation, the students tend to have difficulty in engaging in the workshop.
It needs some bravery of the trainer to leave your own comfortable atmosphere, make the connection with the students and lead them through the workshop. The students need to have the feeling that they can trust you as a trainer (even if they do not understand the method). You need to have an attitude that you know what you are doing, without arrogance, and without knowing what will be the outcome of the workshop.
You need to ‘contain’ or ‘carry’ the group as a whole during the complete workshop. That is why we chose to do the workshop in pairs. While one trainer works with one of project teams, the other trainer can have an eye on the group as a whole and keep the ‘holding space’. The group consists of students with a large difference in level of interest in the workshop and all classroom and student-teacher dynamics are likely to pop-up during the workshop. For instance, some students explicitly state that they think this workshop is all bullshit and completely useless, while you see that others are interested and curious, but have difficulty to express that in the group.
Finally, there needs to be movement and flow in the workshop. Students are busy people and ‘they don’t have all day’. A long interview or repeated questioning of all representatives is not appreciated and makes the energy of the workshop go away.
In other blogs I already wrote about our experience and why we use the systemic constellation method in our education.