Our theoretical approach

How we view organizations

The way a consultant views an organization will affect how they attempt to intervene in its workings and functioning. The vast majority, working from a modernist and individualistic perspective, place a lot of emphasis on 'personality' and seek to establish the truth about a situation.

We view organizations somewhat differently. While individual history and understanding certainly plays a place in explaining people's actions, equally if not more important is the context from within which they are acting, and the sense they make of what is going on.

A human relational system, such as an organization, consists of a number of perspectives or voices. No one perspective has a monopoly on the truth. Indeed, with regard to something as complex as an organization, we would say that a search for 'the truth' is probably futile, it is too complex. Rather we are interested in the accounts people construct about what is happening, as these are what guide their actions. Essentially :

we regard organizations as social phenomena we believe that people are constantly engaged in making sense of what is happening around them we believe that people construct accounts to help them make sense of the world we believe that these accounts are socially constructed we believe that people's accounts determine the action it seems possible to take we believe that the way to achieve change in an organization is to help people change the sense they are making of what is going on, usually in concert with others.

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Social constructionism

This way of viewing people and organizations is known as social constructionism. The argument being that we socially construct organizations by our speech and action. Organization can be viewed as a network of conversation.

This may initially sound a little esoteric, but in fact it is very pragmatic. An increasing number of effective organizational interventions are being built from this theoretical frame, for instance:

appreciative enquiry (or inquiry) open space dialogue future search events co-ordinated management of meaning exploration strange loops and paradox identification systemic investigation

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All these interventions are built on an understanding of organizations as systems of meaning and action. Individuals are always part of and influenced by, a system environment.

This means that when we work with people we are always appreciative of the importance of context for action and understanding.

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Our general approach

Sarah Lewis, the senior partner and principal consultant, is a fully qualified occupational psychologist. She, and her associates, work from a systemic or post modern perspective. This means they pay particular attention to how meaning is created (and so possibilities for action generated) in organizations. They achieve their effects by paying attention to, and creating difference in, the social and systemic processes of communication, meaning making, account giving, story telling and action taking. This approach is particularly appropriate to working with organizational issues of complexity, uncertainty, stuckness or diversity. Specific methodologies include appreciative inquiry (sometimes known as appreciative enquiry), systemic interviewing, values and belief analysis (including the identification of paradoxicalstrange loops of belief), sense and meaning making through communication, and whole system consultancy.

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