John Whittington - Systemic Coaching and Constellations

Imagine all the systems in which you have belonged, behind you, as if each were an eyespot in your own peacocks tail. The experience of joining, of belonging and of leaving each of those systems is held within you.

While its easy to think of ourselves and those we work with just as individuals, in truth we are all born into and belong in systems, relationship systems. In the first, our family system, we start learning about finding our place in relational groups. Our deepest patterns begin to form as we tune in to the rules of belonging and find our relative place and size.

As we grow we join multiple other relationship systems: educational, then professional and organizational. In each system we search for our place and learn to tune in to the unwritten rules.

Our belonging in each of these systems informs our identity and sense of place in the world. Each offers us powerful experiences and we soon learn how it is to feel included or excluded. In some systems we thrive; in others we survive. We are left with an embodied sense of each system and our place in it, and carry that around within us, our inner constellation.

So, if you imagine all the systems in which youve belonged behind you, like a peacocks tail, you will begin to see how many influences, resonant experiences and loyalties you bring from the systems in your past with you into the present.

Once you include the hidden dynamics, repeating patterns and rich resources held in all the different experiences of belonging you have behind you, you have a fuller picture of yourself. And you are thinking systemically.

This is the start of understanding what systemic coaching is. Its a way of looking and working that includes the impact of our belonging in multiple systems, relationship systems. Clarifying and resolving our belonging in systems in the past and finding our place in the present, so we can move with more ease into our future. It is informed by an understanding of the natural ordering forces of systems and enabled through a mapping and facilitation process called a constellation.

The peacocks tail is a metaphor that many people also use with their coaching clients on a day-to-day basis as it immediately opens their field. Their field of vision, but also the field that is held in the systems they belong in and come from. The joys and challenges of joining and finding their place in each and all the joyful, though often more difficult, leavings and endings.

Much coaching is built on the belief that the client as an individual, or team of individuals, has the answers to everything within them. This is a useful place to start; however, when you include the richness of an individuals or teams tail feathers you are able to offer and access a much deeper, wider pool of information and resources. Beyond the individual or team and into the fields they belong in and come from.

As you are about to discover, the stance, principles and practices of systemic coaching with constellations will enable you to facilitate respectful access to these fields and then influence them in ways that endure.

Systemic coaching and constellations enable respectful access to the hidden dynamics, deep patterns and the many resources held in relational systems. It is coaching that leaves clients, individuals, teams and groups resourced, whole and free to move into their future.

Endorsements for the 3rd Edition

I was lucky enough to be coached by John Whittington at two critical times in my career. Helping me understand and find my place in the constellations around me from both an organizational and personal perspective allowed me to make critical decisions. As a result, I felt able to move forward with confidence, in a different direction to one I might have taken had I been loyal to old patterns. If you havent already done so, I highly recommend you take up the invitation in this book to map your own system.

Johns clarity on the importance of respectful endings also has particular resonance and I have used the learnings several times myself and with others, with resolving, positive impact. This is an invaluable book that is both a piece of thought leadership and a very practical guide.

Helen Hyde

Former Personnel Director, Waitrose, and Board Director, The John Lewis Partnership

The fact that this book is now in its third edition is a testament to its value to coaches interested in systemic and embodied enquiry. John Whittington communicates with incisive simplicity the theory, methods and core practices of constellations, and helps make this powerful approach accessible and inviting. He also locates constellations within the broader panoply of systemic approaches to organizational coaching.

I particularly welcome, in this edition, his greater focus on the centrality of belonging; of the origins of many patterns of relating that come up at work, in our own family systems; and of the imperative of coaches doing our own inner work on self-as-instrument of client outcomes. As an enriching companion-piece to support and explain experiential work with constellations, I highly recommend this book.

Ty Francis PhD Coach, facilitator, filmmaker and author

What I find particularly useful about this book is John Whittingtons focus on the cycle of joining, belonging and leaving organizational systems. We spend so much energy as leaders, as members of organizational systems and as other kinds of professionals on the start. The recruitment, the incentives and the whole hoopla of moving towards and into an organization. In fact, as John points out, it is attending respectfully to endings and leavings where both the dignity of the individual and the integrity of the field of the organizational system can be built and maintained.

Since first working with this methodology some years ago Ive continued to find the combination of the philosophy behind constellations and the very practical application of them in my development and the teams I lead very clarifying.

Sarah Weir Chief Executive, Design Council, UK

Working with constellations has impacted all aspects of my life. The process is visual and immediately actionable. Leading a creative business is about making things, being productive, constructive. For me this comes down to priorities, alignment of the system and allocation of time and energy these are finite and I have not experienced a more effective way to orient myself than this approach.

The way I and my co-founders planned the business, went to market, talked with people, the way we executed. Everything became clearer and more aligned. Things changed at the level of the system. Ten years later and on another continent, the methodology described in this book is one that has resourced and clarified me, not just as a leader of an international business but as a human being.

Ben Wolstenholme Founder and CEO, Madefire, San Francisco

The simple, practical application of systemic constellations described in this book belies their hidden depths. They are immediately accessible whilst repaying much study and reflection; they are based on universal observable truths yet express the uniqueness of every human soul. With his gentle provocativeness, John Whittington engages us in this world of paradoxes, guides us through the jungle of uncertainty and delivers us safely into understanding.

The genius of this book lies in Johns ability to invite coaches and leaders from multiple contexts to see things differently. This third edition of a much-loved book charts the further development of Johns thinking, confidence and voice. He is a thought-leader who is a delight to listen to and a joy to read.

Alison Hardingham Coach, trainer, author and business psychologist