Dees and Jan Jacob are guests on the podcast “The Profit of Loss: Unraveling Change” by Esther Polak. In this episode, you’ll hear, among other things: • How systemic interventions work in organizations• What you allow into the team – and what stays outside• The power of language• Wielding the sword: recognizing and breaking patterns […]
We’re sitting in a hot pot in the Westfjords of Iceland. Four generations of an Icelandic family are present. Son and grandson fysically. Father and grandfather imaginary, but very present in the stories. Son: ‘I want to show my kids where we come from. When I was young, the conversations were often about the fishermen […]
What happens when a CEO who once saved his company from bankruptcy is now faced with his own ‘expiration date’? In an Eastern European country, we spent a day and a half working with CEO Alex and his remarkably stable management team thirteen years together without a single change, true ‘brothers in arms’. Despite their […]
Current geopolitical shifts serve as a wake-up call, prompting us to reexamine our patterns, beliefs, ideals, and perspectives within organizations, businesses, communities, and ourselves. These reviews often trigger transition and transformation processes, sometimes without our conscious choice or decision. Beyond external triggers, transition and transformation are natural evolutionary processes. Growing into a new phase of […]
In November ’24, Dees and Jan Jacob were in Tallinn, Estonia, for the day program “Systemic Approach in Organizations.” This podcast was recorded there. The conversation explores the examination of a systemic way of thinking within teams and organizations. Dees and Jan Jacob share their experiences and insights on how a systemic approach can contribute […]
How do we actually view teams and organizations? It often seems logical to think in terms of structures, processes, silos, and hierarchies. But what if we looked at them as living, interconnected systems instead? Nature offers us a beautiful metaphor: mycelium. What is mycelium, and what can we learn from it? Mycelium is a fascinating […]
25 years of systemic work in organizations. Playtime is over, now it’s getting serious. Last half year we worked in many different countries with many teams and organizations. Looking back and looking forward on the requests that were made to us, one common denominator stands out: ‘How to create resilience and adaptability in an unpredictable […]
When I tried to learn Latin at school, I never understood the deeper meaning of this proverb: Nomen est omen. When I asked my studied father, he replied with a stern frowning look and a somewhat ominous voice: ‘Nomen est omen’, which didn’t help me much either. Bert Hellinger wrote a beautiful paragraph on the […]
I started the new year calmly, letting go of the old in my sleep and remaining open to what 2025 will bring. When I woke up and looked at the news, the main images were of fireworks, more fireworks, a few skirmishes, and some fireworks-related accidents. It seemed as if there was more fireworks this […]
In Tallinn, after three days of systemic interventions in teams and organizations, I realize how influential Bert Hellinger’s discovery has been – what we now call the Evolutionary Force. What had been lying in plain sight for some time has now fully hit home: problems in a team are often nothing more than symptoms of […]
