During the Australian International Systemic Constellation Conference, I shared my work on Trauma in Organizations. Key take-aways were on the level of 'language' and 'concepts' to open corporate minds for this work.

1. Dealing with
Organizational Trauma
Philippe Bailleur

2. Who’s in the room?

3. 20
dingen die
je wil lezen
voor je
je organisatie
naar een
levend systeem
transformeert
Het nieuwe organiseren, ook in België
Livingsystemscoaching.be
Philippe Bailleur - Anne Billen - Hans Hoegaerts
systeemverandering
in de
zorgsector
Tilda Duchamps & Philippe Bailleur
Trainer - Coach - Systemic Worker - Org Dev - Org Trauma
0 16 24 28 35 49

4. Looking for patterns

7. Opening the
corporate world
for the
phenomenon of
trauma.
“The limits of our
language mean the limits of
our world.”
-
Wittgenstein

8. Organizations as
Living Systems
Resilience
Regenerative
Life Force is Flowing
Life Force is Stuck
Degenerative
Rigidity

9. Individual
Trauma
(parts)
Collective Trauma
(shared by several
parts)
Systems Trauma
(connecting tissue
between parts,
cfr. fascia or
nervous system)

10. The relational wiring of a company is becoming a strategic
asset. Working in a trauma-informed way is about taking
care of that relational fabric as if it’s an entity, a body.

11. The capacity to deal with complexity, a changing world and
even overwhelming events, grows with the density and
quality of the relational wiring of a company.

12. Conway’s Law:
“Any organization that designs a system (= a product, service, software, …)
will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's
communication structure.”
“Companies ship their org chart.”

13. Organisation B
Organisation A
The quality of the relational wiring has an immediate impact
on the wellbeing of the workforce, the absortive capacity
and the output (product, service, quality, …) of a company.

14. Working in a trauma-informed
way with companies is about
‘upstream’ care
&
‘downstream’ healing
of the relational wiring.
In service of people,
organization & society.

16. This system has a bottleneck
If those folding lines
won’t be managed a
SILO-dynamic will
unfold, exactly what
board members try
to overcome
nowadays.
The information & know-how
of this ‘sub-system’ will not be
available for the development
of collective intelligence.

17. What kind of behaviour,
dynamics, symptoms,
problems, ...
could be an indication of
organizational trauma?
What kind of somatic cues
show you that trauma could
be in the room?

19. Where does the work start?

20. “Your pull towards
juicy healing work,
could be your biggest
enemy in working
with trauma.”
Babette Rothschild

21. Uncovering what needs to be healed.
What is Stuck, Where and How?

22. 1. One, clearly defined,
overwhelming incident.
2. Several, clearly defined,
overwhelming incidents, not
linked to each other.
3. A combination of
overwhelming events and/or
chronic, toxic conditions
forming a tight cluster.

24. External
Source
Sudden
Acute

25. EXTERNAL SOURCE (cfr. nature) or PERPETRATOR
RESCUER
VICTIM

28. Internal
Source
Sudden
Acute

29. INTERNAL ‘CULPRIT’
RESCUER
VICTM

32. Other examples?
Questions and/or
reflections so
far?

33. It is becoming
clear that
chronic toxic (working)
conditions
are just as destructive as
a sudden,
overwhelming event
but there isn’t yet
recognition for that.

34. 1. One, clearly defined,
overwhelming incident.
2. Several, clearly defined,
overwhelming incidents, not
linked to each other.
3. A combination of
overwhelming events and/or
chronic, toxic conditions
forming a tight cluster.

35. External
Source
Chronic
Toxic
Conditions

36. EXTERNAL ‘PERPETRATOR’ or SOURCE but OUT OF REACH
RESCUER
VICTIM
INTERNAL ‘PERPETRATOR’ WITHIN REACH

37. Slow
External
Killer

38. Loosing
resilience in a
slow way until
a crisis - cfr.
COVID-19 -
crushes the
company.

39. Internal
Source
Chronic
Toxic
Conditions

40. Research, in hospitals and schools among others, is
showing us that the increasing number of drop-outs
and burn-outs is not only due to the work itself but
to the way the work is organized.
Some organizations operate in such a way that they
take the soul out of the work. This soul-wounding
leads to systemic trauma, by design.
In these cases we bump into toxic leadership or
pure neglect.
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.”
W.E. Deming

41. PERPETRATOR
REDDER
RESCUER

42. A complex and tight
trauma-knot will
develop, needing
plenty of work and
time for proper
healing.
Often the conditions
to do the work just
can’t be met.

44. Some elements to open
the space for healing
are mandatory to move
to phase 2/3 with a
limited risk of re-
traumatization and/or
re-enactment.

45. The healing journey of the facilitator
RESCUER
VICTIM
PERPETRATOR
PASSIVE WITNESS

46. We see strong parallels between
what it takes to create healthy
attachment in children and what
leads to healthy relational wiring
in organizations.

47. The deep 'assumptions’ about
leadership open or close the
door for
upstream and/or downstream
care
for
the relational wiring of
organizations.

48. Developing
Trauma-
Informed
Leadership
Crisis, Emergency & Resilience
Management
Managing toxins & complex
emotions
Healing & Corporate Rituals
Salutogenic Organizational Design

49. “And so we lift our
gazes not to what is
between us, but what
stands before us.”
Amanda Gorman

51. There is a crack in everything …
Let’s stop only seeing the dark in trauma and,
start looking for the light behind trauma.
… that’s where the light comes in.

52. And there is much more to share about this topic:
• Check the book “Stuck”, available on AMAZON.
• Via www.traumainorganizations.com you can
download a free pre-read and you’ll get some
extra content on the topic of TiO.
• But for now, thanks for helping me
• open corporate minds for this topic.
• develop this emerging field.
Philippe Bailleur