FO R E W O R D

by David Clutterbuck

uch of my research in recent years has been focused on the systemic

nature of human interactions in a range of areas, including work-life
balance, talent management and, of course, coaching and mentoring. Linear
systems thinking, I observe, has led to the creation of a great deal of
coaching bling mechanistic approaches that have a lot of glitter but little
genuine functionality! So I was delighted to find, on my first taste of
constellations, in a workshop facilitated by John Whittington, an approach
built not just on recognition of systemic complexity, but on a visceral experience of that complexity and a new road to resolution.
Rooted in family systems, constellations bring an important additional
dimension to coaching. Over the past two decades there has been a gradual
evolution of coaching at the leading edge to embrace increasing complexity.
In the early days of coaching, the emphasis was on setting and achieving
specific goals, then on solutions focus. Developmental coaching, in part
a derivation from developmental mentoring, shifted the emphasis towards
client identity/values and allowing goals to emerge. Now we see a range of
approaches that allow clients to explore their own systems and make
informed choices about how they relate to and interact with those systems.
In simple terms, we have moved from the doing coaching, through reflective coaching, to coaching that emphasizes being on the part of both coach
and client. All of these approaches are valuable and effective in the appropriate context.
In Systemic Coaching and Constellations, John Whittington provides
an insightful but practical stepping-stone for coaches wanting to embrace
a systemic approach in their practice. I do not think it is possible to be truly
effective as a coach without supporting the client to become more aware
of the systems in which they belong. Coaching the client must inevitably
involve coaching the system. The principles and practices explored in this
book are a great starting point for the coachs journey towards this way of
working.

David Clutterbuck

C A S E S T U DY C R E D I T S

his book includes contributions from coaches, my peers and students

from across the world, as well as a selection of my own work. Each
brings to life the application of the principles and practices in different
contexts. With many thanks to all coaches and their clients who so willingly
shared.
In order of appearance the case studies contributed by others are:
Philippe Truffert, executive coach
France, UK and Europe
Focus on the system
Applying the stance of systemic coaching in a coaching session for
the first time
Page 55
Gerry Brannan, executive coach
London, UK
Creating chemistry
Applying the principles and practices of systemic coaching and
constellations in coach selection meetings
Page 124
Jan Vos, executive coach
Madrid, Spain
Challenging for the truth
Deeper truths emerge in a one-off coaching session
Page 126
Katia del Rivero, coach and consultant
Mexico City, Mexico
Finding my place
Working with two directors to illuminate the source of underlying tensions
Page 139
Judy Wilkins-Smith, coach and trainer
Tyler, Texas, US
No heart
Affecting organizational health through a one-to-one intervention
Page 144

Case Study Credits

Marinda Hall, group facilitator

The Netherlands
Drowning not waving
Using constellations for a large-group, multi-team intervention under time
pressure
Page 166
Sarah Cornally, executive coach
Sydney, Australia
Finding authority
Using the cataleptic hand in one-to-one coaching
Page 179
Chris Dalton, subject area leader personal development
The Henley Business School, England
Where is your purpose?
The language of systems
Page 193
David Presswell, executive coach
UK and International Head of Coaching at YSC
A line of men
Resourcing a client through their family of origin
Page 216

~
Workshop and studio photography by Tony Harris
~
Illustrations by Joan Scarrott

Orientation
A guide for your
journey
T

he most effective way to understand constellations is to experience them.

This makes the process of writing, and indeed reading, about systemic
coaching and constellations rather counter-intuitive! They are something to
experience, not just to read about.
This has led to a book in which I have tried to maintain a similar path
through the principles and practices to that in teaching and facilitation,
where following the energy, the invisible air currents and interests of the
group, leads to a deep learning. With this in mind Ive included many of the
questions that are often asked in workshops and trainings.
Case studies the work in action are also a central part of this book
and will, I hope, support each reader to find their own way into this way of
working. They come from my own work but also from my peers and students
around the world, each bringing their own facilitation style and approach,
each at different stages of their own professional journeys. They will give a
flavour of application, one that you will also need to taste for yourself
through direct experience.
Alongside the Q&As and case studies are a selection of practical exercises you can try yourself and then, as understanding and confidence grow,
start applying with your clients, in one-to-one and group settings. Finally I
have attempted to highlight key points in the grey boxes throughout the
text. I hope that the combination of different styles and formats will assist
you find your own way into this book and this approach to coaching.
From my own experience I know that the learning journey of systemic
coaching and constellations can seem very straightforward and then suddenly beyond your understanding or imagination. This can lead to a sense
that you are juggling with wet soap: one minute you have it in your hands,
the next its slipping through. This approach to coaching emerges in you
over time, almost unnoticed, as you experience, as you train and as you
practice, until, after some time it makes sense at every level: head, heart and
soul. You will know it without fully knowing how you know it and be able
to facilitate deep shifts in understanding, alignment and behaviour using the

Orientation

principles and practices built on inner wisdom you didnt know you could
access but always knew you had.
The methodology offers a perspective from which to work, from which
to listen, from which to respond. This book offers several examples of integration alongside other ways of thinking and working as a coach. There
are many more and I trust you will explore them as you bring all that you
already have, all that you already trust, together with this way of thinking
and working, in service of your clients. Give everything that you bring, everything that you are a place. When combined with this approach you will have
something that allows you to face into a very wide range of challenges. In
life and at work.
If, after reading about this particular way of working with issues whose
roots rest in the system you would like to learn more, then explore the website links in the appendix where there are connections, in one or two steps,
to every other author and systemic facilitator of every kind, across the world.
Its a vibrant and inclusive community of practitioners. The links include
some to facilitators who specialize in structural and other forms of constellations which, for the sake of clarity, I have not attempted to include in this
introductory book.
So, this isnt everything. There are multiple contexts and contextual layers
in organizational systems that one book cannot cover. There are many developments of the approach across multiple applications. There are other forces
at work in life and in business. This book, especially when combined with
workshops and experiential training, will be enough to get you started; but
it will never be everything. That will come through experience, further learning
through reading, practice and application, until the approach feels like your
own and you can relax into your not knowing and the process, trusting it
completely.
Like you perhaps Im just a coach. Not an academic, not a trained teacher
or experienced writer. Im simply sharing an approach to coaching, passing
on what has been passed so generously to me, because its transformed my
understanding of life and work, and because it feels true. True for me but
also all my clients no matter their background, gender, personality, skills,
psychological profile or role.
The combination of reading, experiential learning and practice will enable
you to support your clients to travel into new territory, unimagined insights
and enduring resolutions.
Your clients will also soon start to enjoy another way of being. And
doing.
Enjoy the journey, with them.

INDEX
acknowledgement 1315, 24, 92, 10708,
133, 195
benefits 15
leaders and 198
stuckness 173
agenda setting 12527
Amanati, Patrizia 59
Aristotle 36
Auer, Carl 223
Belbin personality types 201
Berlin, Isaiah 87
Birkenkrahe, Marcus 157
Booth-Cohen, Dan 37, 22526
bowing 8384
Brannan, Gerry xi, 12425
Brick, Regine 225
British Association of Psychological
Type 149
Broughton, Vivian 226
burdened positions 14142, 192
cataleptic hand technique 115, 138,
17881
chemistry checks 12325
Churchill, Winston 80
client/issue holder 59
choosing representatives 182
family system and 21521
interview with 6970, 20102
resourcing through family of origin 216
selection meetings 12325
sense making 72
clouds as systems 3334
coaches
be useful, to be helpful 58
explore your own system 5859, 6365
facilitator 71
family dynamics and 20812
in-house 19899
inner orientation 5359, 196
learning by attending workshops 224
name the truth 5556
permission to work 6768
personal development 98, 19092
personal relationship system 6465
respectful humility 57
selection meetings 12324
self-supervision exercise 185

solutions rather than goals 5758

stance of 91, 92
stay free of the story 5657
types 5
wounded helper 209
Cohen, Leonard 33, 173, 207
coherence 44
conflict 5
constellation workshops 7, 3638, 15871
benefits 16162
client/issue holder 37
closed 16266
confidentiality agreements 38
creating living map 3637
de-roling procedure 38
emotions and 20203
examples 112
holistic approach 51
impact on individuals 38
interviewing the client/issue holder 43
learning by doing 192
non-verbal language 39
open workshops 15961
patterns and 37, 8788
process 51
representatives 18283
size 36
trust/safety 51, 159, 184, 187
constellations
acknowledging 48
agenda setting and 47
applications 4350
attending 224
benefits 97
branding 204
building blocks 2728
challenging relationships 48
coaching and 3840, 9495
coaching supervision and 18487
communication problems 49
contraindications 50
consumer/stakeholder insights 204
deep/hidden issues 47
defining 3435, 94
detail/long story 46
diagnosing issues and 4748
effect of 81
effectiveness of 10304
facilitating 31

228

Index
facts 92
feelings 92
felt sense 39
first stage/current situation 14, 35, 39
forces 92
goal-setting 13538
journey of 8990
living map 161
mapping and 15, 34, 35, 7374
MBTI and 149
messages from the system 4550
muddled/unclear issues 4646
multi-team, large group 16671
one-to-one coaching 14248
placemaking 48
representatives 18283
resolving difficult dynamics 50
resourcing and 49
role clarity and 13941
swarm 166
systemic 30
tabletop examples 10911, 113
team applications 15158
three-way sessions 142
top tips 10607
two people and 13941
uses 96
Cornally, Sarah xii, 17981
Cox, Professor Brian 34
Dalton, Chris xii, 193
Del Rivero Vargas, Katia xi, 13941
difficult behaviours 5, 48
difficult conversations 13839
difficulties in occupying roles 5, 49
Dunn, Nicola 82
dysfunctional teams 5, 105
Einstein, Albert 30, 43
ejector seat syndrome 21
embodied experience 84, 107
emotional intelligence 8, 83, 133
emotions
primary 102, 13839
secondary 102, 138
workshops and 20203
empathy 1415
endings 12829
European Association on Systemic
Consultancy 224
European Mentoring and Coaching Council
(EMCC) 16366
EXCHANGE 2428, 79, 88, 99100, 132
business systems and 199200
exercise for yourself 2627

family systems and 213

inner balancing 25
levels of 199200
executive/team coaching 43
family systems 23, 36, 59, 93, 100, 101,
20203
books about 22526
difference between business systems
and 215
coaches and own 20812
EXCHANGE and 2526
impact on leadership style 215
trauma and 203
feedback 24
felt sense 104, 105
field of information 30, 31
floor markers 115, 138, 177, 222
focusing 104
frequently asked questions 93119,
195204
Gendlin, Eugene 104
goal-setting 13538
Hall, Marinda xii, 16670
Hardin, Garrett 15
Harrison, George 59
Hellinger, Bert 6, 36, 100, 208, 215, 221,
223, 225
Henley Business School 186, 193
hidden entanglements 142
hidden loyalties 13739, 192
Horn, Klaus P 225
Hvel, ten Gabriele 225
International Coaching Federation (ICF)
16366
International Forum for Systemic
Constellations 224
International Systemic Constellations
Association 224
joining and leaving 12732
Jung, Carl 5
Jurg, Wim 225
knowing field, the 104
leaders
acknowledgement and 198
hero 11
joining and leaving 129, 132
position 18, 215
role of 8, 12

Index
leadership 10, 13, 23, 133, 16061
delegation 133
development 4950, 13339
own family system and 215
360 feedback 13335
learning circles 224
leaving well 128
example 13132
Lee, Bruce 123
living maps 8791, 94, 103, 198
Mahr, Dr Albrecht 104
Manne, Joy 226
map making see mapping
mapping 15, 28, 39, 6784
bowing 8384
closure 7173
constellations and 3435, 47
difference between constellating and
7374
family systems and 21012
finding right place 74
interview with client 6970, 106
movement 7475, 222
organizational chart of the team 117
personal relationship system 6465
processes 6883
sentences 7583, 222
team relationship system 117
top tips 10607
MBTI 149, 200
Milne, A A 75, 175
morphogenetic field 104
natural orders 6
Okada 67
online resources 22324
orders of love 208
organizational health 912, 29, 132, 164,
192, 196, 198
definition 10
joining/leaving 49
staff and 11
working with individuals and 19798
organizations
behavioural change and 203
constellation workshops and 20304
definition 9
history and 14, 100
joining/leaving 1011, 49
mergers/acquisitions 24, 204
organizing forces 16, 88
organizing principles 6, 93, 96, 99100,
101

EXCHANGE 2428
in action 2830
interrelationship 30
PLACE 2124
TIME 1621
Parks, Tim 83
patterns 8788, 95
conflict 87
different purpose 88
leaving 87
loyalty to someone/something else 87
out of order 87
repeating 5
resource required 87
permission 10708, 119
personality type see MBTI
phenomenology 56, 101, 106
Pirsig, Robert 8
PLACE 2124, 28, 78, 79, 88, 128,
19596
coach and 54, 55
exercise for use in one-to-one coaching
23
exercise for use with a team 153
family systems and 213
impact in organizational systems 2324
re-membering 2122, 195
Presswell, David xii, 216, 21718
radical inclusiveness 104
reading, recommended 22426
RelationChips 223
representative perception 10102, 104
difference between role play and
10203, 162
representatives 18283
resource 119, 175
resourcing exercise 14344
respect 10708, 133
Rogers, Carl 104
role-play 10203, 138, 162
Rupert, Franz 226
self-awareness 8, 58, 133
self-supervision 116, 18485
Senge, Peter 9, 12, 194
sentences, systemic 7583
examples 7880
offering to client 7677, 132
responses to 77
when to offer 7780
sentences of truth 37, 76, 82
Shakespeare, William 63, 177
Sheldrake, Rupert 104

229

230

Index
somatic coaching 56, 103
Sparrer, Insa 225
Stam, Jan Jacob 58, 225
stuckness 5
strategies for releasing 17375
supervision 18487
systemic coaching 13, 28, 34, 3536, 51,
123, 18994
alignment with business objectives/
purpose 197
definition 95
difference from goal-oriented coaching
89
uses of 96
systemic constellations see constellations
systemic issues 98
organizational systems and 9899
systemic supervision 224
systems
alignment 55
books about 225
coherence 5, 12, 35
clouds as 3334
defining 3334, 93
dynamics 5, 7, 8, 39, 8889, 95, 142
hidden forces in 1628
hierarchy and 22
individuals and 8, 11, 31
interconnectedness 7
language of 531, 7583
leadership 1213
organizations as 9
self-righting 11
teams and 8, 11
see also family systems, mapping
systems thinking, origins of 36

teams
conflict and 15658
dynamics/exercises 15156
purpose 154
telephone coaching 118
The Knowing Field 223
360 feedback 13334
example 13435
TIME 1621, 27, 78, 79, 88, 99, 128,
15253
authority and 16
case example 2021
employee length of service 16
exercise for use in one-to one coaching
19, 20
exercise for use in team coaching 19
family systems and 213
impact of history 16
impact on organizational systems 1721
touchstones 223
transformative coaching 97
Truffert, Philippe xi, 54
Vos, Jan xi, 12627
Weber, Gunthard 57, 100
whole-system approach 53
Wilkins-Smith, Judy xi, 14448
workshops see constellation workshops
www.BusinessConstellations.com 223
www.CoachingConstellations.com 223
www.ConstellationsSet.com 223
www.human-systems-institute.com 223
www.theknowingfield.co.uk 223
www.TalentManager.pt 223
www.tyfrancis.org 223