While we all have heard the importance of taking care of our physical bodies, my experience is there is less focus on other aspects of our personal landscape. While we do hear about things like meditation and mindfulness, essential oils and flower remedies, how many people have delved into the systemic aspects of their family lineage and the emotional DNA we inherit? How many look at the people who trigger them, the generalizations they make, and the meanings they create based on the view of the world they have? These are all areas that give us an opportunity to look deeper within ourselves.
I recently had an experience that allowed me an opportunity to look at a pattern I sometimes attract and dig a bit deeper to see that the same pattern presented itself in my family lineage. I could also see how that pattern connected to an experience I had earlier in my career. Looking at them together, I began to see a systemic pattern, one I am now calling a “systemic setup”.
In my days working in the area of quality, we used to say that it was the manager who created the “system” in which people work. While there can be a tendency to blame the team members when things go awry, we really need to look at the system they work in as a whole.
In my corporate position focusing on customer quality, I created a small call center that handled customer issues that other departments did not. It was staffed with individuals qualified to handle the calls and frequently required them to work cross organizationally – and positioned the group to become the glue working collaboratively to resolve diverse problems. At some point, it was decided to disband the department. I no longer remember the reason why, but when the team was re-assigned, we started hearing feedback that a group like that was needed.
As a result, the decision was made to re-create the group with one person from each of several departments who used their own selection criteria to identify the appointed individual. I remember the feeling in my gut from the day the decision was made. My intuition told me loudly that the system being re-designed in this way would not work to achieve the desired outcome. Turns out my intuition was accurate. Ultimately the system as re-designed was set up to fail – it became what I am now calling – a “systemic set-up”.
My recent experience was similar in nature. I was working in a system that was not designed to provide the ultimate desired outcome. When the result was seen as less than optimal, ownership was pointed towards an individual rather than looking at how the system was working against itself.
Sometimes the information we receive from our family systems, our system of beliefs, and other aspects of our personal landscape, requires some excavation. If we don’t look deeper and instead point fingers at a particular person, or deem their outcome lacking, we can miss the point entirely and never truly fix the root cause of the problem.
I am grateful for this recent situation as it both highlighted for me a pattern I could see within my family system as well as one that I witnessed more than once while I was working in a corporate structure. This included a time when someone was challenged to manage others, and placed the blame outside of themselves, rather than take the time to look within to find an opportunity for personal change and growth.
Find yourself needing to do some personal landscaping excavation or maybe look into a systemic set-up of your own? Please contact me for a complimentary coaching conversation.
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