While we provide several opportunities every year to experience this approach in introductory workshops, the majority of our work is done inside corporate organisations, under confidential agreements where the content cannot be shared. However, these workshops are often recorded on video in order to provide the client with a record of the day from which they can transcribe the insights and information that emerge in constellations. On occasions and with the client’s full permission and cooperation, we are able to share examples of these bespoke workshops. The example on this page is from one such workshop in 2011.

Context
Bespoke or in-house workshops are those which are commissioned by a business that wants to spend a full or half day exploring a number of organisational system issues. Partners, a team or the leadership of a company invites us to create a workshop around a particular issue or set of issues that they are facing. [We will often provide the neutral representatives for this kind of workshop. As a result these workshops provide good opportunities for executive coach students of this approach to take part as representatives in a real-world case where the client is present and has a pressing need for clarity and resolution in a confidential environment

In the case study that follows the client, an international consulting firm, states in all their communications that they are committed to a progressive and egalitarian culture where the idea of individual integrity and collective intelligence is central. They have made a commitment to be open and on a continuous learning journey themselves. These qualities are important when working in this way as constellations will show deep system dynamics and patterns, and if the client company is not open to new perspectives and information, this can cause fresh difficulties.

It was agreed that leader Carol would be joined by two other members of the leadership team, Jeff and Simon, who would each bring an issue on behalf of the whole system without telling the facilitator anything more before the workshop. To accommodate a request to share the workshop with the staff it was agreed to capture the experience on video so that it could be edited and shown to the wider staff group. This is often a useful resource and a good way to see and hear things from right inside the system.