Ubud, 17 May 2022 — What to do when teams tolerate hidden negative energies.

Story

It happened in 2019. The founder of a remarkable worldwide therapeutical movement passed on. Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist, found new ways to bring the best out of people and situations, both in their family relations and at work in their teams and organizations. Ways that helped them to release negative energies — in the form of exclusion, insecurity, prejudice, jealousy, grudges, pain, guilt, shame, taboos, and the like — that held them back from showing up with their best, individually and, especially, collectively.

I was first introduced to Hellinger’s methods in 2012 when I had a direct personal experience with a group of practitioners in Bali who helped to release negative energies in a family situation, leading to transformative results. Later, I learned that they can be equally beneficial when applied to situations in the workplace. In recent years, I have added elements of Hellinger’s therapeutic approach into my coaching work with business leaders, for example with exercises that explore experiences in a timeline and diagnose teams. We refer to that approach as systemic coaching.

Hellinger’s methods evolved from his own experiences in life, as he transitioned from a curious student in Germany to a Jesuit priest working in South Africa, then leaving the priesthood to work as a therapist and headmaster of a large school, and finally writing books to share his experiences with others around the world. Reading about his work, I was reminded of the African saying that if you want to go far in life, you’d better go together with others. Indeed, discovering and learning with others from lived experiences is what Hellinger’s work is all about.

Challenge

The study of human consciousness and objects of direct experience is called phenomenology. For Hellinger and other phenomenologists, the ultimate source of meaning is to be found in the lived experience of human beings in the ebb and flow of the lived world. To arrive at this perspective, he had pondered deeply on the question "What is more important to you, your ideals or people? Which would you sacrifice for the other?" The answer he found was to prioritize working with people over pursuing single-minded ideals.

In systemic coaching, we see people as participants of various constellations in their lives, including the teams in their workplaces, their organizations at large, and their families at home. The focus is on ‘leaning out’ together to shine a light on the hidden dynamics of these constellations, and explore new ways to transform the negative energies (stories) into positive ones that enable better outcomes for everyone concerned.

For the leaders I work with, a systemic coaching session often starts with them discussing lived experiences of tension or dysfunction in their teams and organizations. Sometimes, the discussion extends into the ever-present influence of their family ‘system’ that plays out in the background. This is why, as an executive coach, I am keen to learn about the family background of the leaders I work with, including values, tensions, and transitions they experienced earlier in life.

Question

As I write this from beautiful Ubud in Bali, I am mindful of the deep expertise that the Balinese people have cultivated over the centuries in their study of lived experience, focusing on the many dynamic situations in which human beings participate. They use their philosophy of Tri Hita Karana (three sources of wellbeing) to work continuously on transforming negative energies into positive ones and to balance people’s essential relationships with Spirit-mind, with other People, and with the Environment. To me, that sounds like a recipe for making society more prosperous, harmonious, and sustainable.

In that context, I found it interesting to read that Hellinger later in life chose “Movements of the Spirit-Mind” to describe the phenomenological approach he had developed. In his life and practice, he modeled the way as a student of processes that allow people from different cultures, races, and backgrounds to become reconciled through mutual respect, by “recognizing what is essential out of all the diversity present, without intention, without fear, without preconceptions, relying purely on what appears.” In doing so, he discovered ways to transform negative energies into positive results.

In many workplaces today, high performance and better results are held back by negative energies that involve the range of emotions that I mentioned at the beginning of this post, including people experiencing a sense of exclusion. Often, these negative energies are tolerated in organizations, hidden from view, and not addressed in conversations. My question to you this week is where do you see such hidden, negative energies in your team and organization? And to resolve such negativity, are you ready to focus on people first, over ideals like high performance, so that the energy can be transformed into opportunities and growth? Let me know if you are and have questions about how to do it. Set up a free strategy call here.