Unearthing the Unseen: How an Organisational Constellation Resolved Deep-Seated Team Conflict (A Case Study Snippet)

Persistent team conflict, declining morale, and a culture that just feels… off. These are challenges many leaders face, often trying various interventions with limited success. What if the true root of the problem lies deeper, hidden within the unseen dynamics of the organisational system itself? This was precisely the situation for a mid-sized software company, and an Organisational Constellation provided the key to unlocking the core issue.

When surface-level solutions fail to address ongoing team conflict and cultural malaise, it’s often a sign that something more profound is at play. In this anonymised snippet from a real-world engagement, we explore how a systemic approach, specifically an Organisational Constellation, brought clarity to a seemingly intractable situation, paving the way for genuine resolution and a revitalised team environment.

The Challenge: A Culture of Conflict and Underperformance

The Executive General Manager (EGM) of a 150-employee software company approached our practice facing a troubling scenario. The organisation was grappling with:

• Pervasive Team Conflict & Negative Culture: Beyond typical workplace disagreements, there was significant friction and a lack of accountability within the upper management team. This filtered down, creating a dispirited atmosphere that impacted everyone.

• Missed KPIs and Performance Issues: The internal conflict and poor culture were directly translating into missed key performance indicators.

• Concerning Behavioural Patterns: Patterns of after-hours employee conduct suggested high stress levels and a lack of healthy coping mechanisms or team cohesion, rather than genuine camaraderie.

• Financial Instability: The cultural and performance issues were so severe that the company had periods where it struggled to meet payroll, a clear indicator of deep systemic distress.

Traditional approaches had failed to make a dent. The EGM knew a different perspective was needed to understand why the team dynamics were so fraught and why performance was suffering despite the talent within the company.

The Intervention: Looking Through a Systemic Lens with Organisational Constellations

We embarked on a comprehensive engagement, beginning with an Organisational Constellation. For those unfamiliar, an Organisational Constellation is a powerful experiential method used to reveal hidden dynamics, entanglements, and loyalties within a human system, such as a company. Representatives are used to stand in for elements of the system (e.g., departments, roles, the company owners, the customer), and their spatial arrangement and felt senses provide profound insights into the underlying relational field.

What the Constellation Revealed:

The constellation process quickly brought a critical, previously unacknowledged dynamic to light: a significant disconnect and lack of alignment between the company's owners and the upper management team.

• Ownership Detachment: The owners, for whom this particular software company was a smaller part of a larger investment portfolio, were perceived by the system (as shown through the representatives in the constellation) as emotionally and strategically detached. There had even been past discussions of selling the company, which was viewed as a declining asset. This created an undercurrent of instability and a lack of felt support from the very top.

• Impact on Management: This detachment at the ownership level was identified as a primary driver of the dysfunction within the upper management team. Without a clear, felt sense of direction, value, and commitment from the owners, the management team was, in a systemic sense, left unanchored. This contributed to the internal competition, lack of accountability, and avoidance of problem-solving – symptoms of a system lacking clear leadership and a secure foundation.

The constellation didn’t just identify the problem, it allowed for a represented dialogue to begin addressing and healing this core disconnect. Unspoken issues, fears, and frustrations were able to surface and be acknowledged within the safe container of the constellation, creating an initial, powerful systemic shift.

The basis behind a Systemic Constellation is to bring flow to places that are stuck in a negative loop.

From Insight to Action: Addressing the Root of Conflict

Once this fundamental misalignment was brought into conscious awareness, the path towards resolving the team conflict became clearer. The constellation provided the diagnosis; the subsequent coaching and strategic interventions built upon this insight:

• Re-establishing Systemic Alignment: The initial work focused on restoring a sense of connection, shared purpose, and pride throughout the organisation, with a symbolic (and later actual) re-engagement from the ownership level. This was more than new strategies on paper, it was about shifting the felt sense of the system.

• Targeted Leadership Coaching: The EGM received coaching to better understand and meet the needs of their upper management team, fostering an environment where managers felt safer and more supported. This directly addressed the internal leadership conflict by improving communication and trust.

• Cultural Rebuilding: With the systemic blockage addressed, initiatives to rebuild a positive culture could take root. This included fostering healthy social connections and creating symbolic representations of shared goals, which helped to mend the fractured team dynamics.

By addressing the root cause – the disconnect with ownership that was fuelling instability and insecurity down the line – the symptoms of team conflict and poor performance began to resolve. The team members weren’t inherently problematic, they were responding to a dysfunctional systemic pattern.

The Power of Seeing the Whole System

This case snippet illustrates a crucial point for any leader struggling with persistent team issues: sometimes the problem isn’t with the individuals, but with the invisible dynamics of the system they are part of. Organisational Constellations offer a unique and profound way to make these hidden dynamics visible, providing a clear leverage point for effective and lasting change.

When we dare to look beyond the surface symptoms and explore the deeper systemic field, we often find that the path to resolving conflict and unlocking team potential is more accessible than we imagined.

Is your team caught in recurring conflicts or a culture that undermines success? Are you sensing that there might be deeper, unseen forces at play?

An Organisational Constellation can provide invaluable insights and a clear path forward. I invite you to explore how this powerful methodology can help your organisation uncover the root causes of its challenges and foster a more harmonious, productive, and aligned system.

For leaders seeking to understand these systemic principles and apply them within their teams, my Corporate Talks and Workshops offer practical learning and experiential opportunities.

Let’s connect to discuss how a systemic perspective can bring clarity and resolution to your organisation’s most pressing challenges.