HOW DO SIMILAR PATTERNS PERSIST?
Anyone grappling with organizational and social transformations asks the same crucial questions. How can organizations and communities be better designed and led so that people and initiatives thrive? What forces may be preventing them from thriving? If everything is changing so radically and so quickly, and so much effort is poured into making a difference, how do the same patterns persist?

Controversial, leading-edge work is revealing the presence and power of hidden influences – deep systemic forces which have their own order and which strongly influence organizational and social life. Systems do best when they are aligned to certain natural forces and they show stress and pass on the potential for failure when these forces are not acknowledged.

In mission-critical areas such as leadership, conflict resolution, innovation management, culture change, organizational restructuring, building partnerships, community development, and others, success or failure often depends on the issues that are “below the radar” of awareness and are not amenable to conventional approaches.

SEEING SYSTEMATICALLY
Organizational constellations help us “see systemically.” They are of use across a broad spectrum, from the smaller field of professional relationships and dynamics, to calibrating the impact of bigger more abstract forces such as history or brand loyalty. Every kind of systemic issue can be constellated. A constellation can be used to devise trial solutions and strategies and test them, e.g.: mergers, re-organizations, and launches. It can discover the impact of intangible influences and assets, especially those resulting from past action. It can “see” the energy in a company and how it gets drawn away or increased. It can make sense of persistent patterns that defy reform. It can reveal how issues that belong in the personal realm are affecting the organizational realm. (For example, through this work a young man discovered that unresolved issues with his father were negatively impacting his behavior toward a key senior partner, thereby limiting his career. His constellation helped identify and resolve this issue.)

SOLUTION-FOCUSED
Turning Light Constellations’ work is always solution-focused. When the various parts (people as well as abstract concepts) find their various “right order” (the alignment and statements of truth that bring the greatest strength to the whole), something relaxes in the whole system. This can point the way forward to action, and even bring about changes just by virtue of having been brought to light by the constellation. A deep and precise systemic knowledge is available that brings fresh perspective and solutions.

CONSULTING FROM BEGINNING TO END
While other practitioners of this approach may leave you to sort out your own understanding and the implications of the constellation, Turning Light Constellations’ unique approach combines constellating with consultancy, organizational development, leadership coaching, training and development, and research activities. Founder Darcy Cunningham brings over 20 years of business consulting and leadership experience.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A WORKSHOP
A Turning Light Constellations organization workshop involves about 20-30 people who create a confidential and safe environment for the work. The essence of the work involves people, acting as representatives of components relevant to a specific issue, being positioned in a special grouping, called a Constellation. The issue holder is able to step aside and witness the Constellator working to make the underlying dynamics more visible. This alone can enable one to move forward with a clearer understanding. Resolutions are also possible as transformational new perspectives emerge from the Constellation.

There are 3 ways you might take part:

1. As an issue holder, working a professional or organizational issue.
   
2. As a volunteer representative in the Constellation of another participant. (This is NOT role playing.)
   
3. As an observer and witness.

CUSTOMIZED WORKSHOPS
For a session dedicated to one organizational issue, often a group from this organization (or the individual issue owner) arranges for the work so that independent people are available to stand as representatives – i.e.: people who have little or no knowledge of the organization or issue at hand. Turning Light Constellations can make such arrangement.