Skip to main content
North London, NHS Foundation Trust
Professionals discussing papers in a meeting

Using systems-psychodynamics as a leader

In this article, Dr Nick Waggett reflects on how a systems-psychodynamic perspective can be used to enhance the task of leadership, offering the case study of his own experience as CEO of a professional body in the health sector.

What is going on? This is a question I frequently ask myself as both an organisation consultant and as course lead for our Professional Doctorate in Consulting and Leading in Organisations. I expect you ask yourself similar questions. In this article, I offer some insights from our “systems-psychodynamics” approach, which may help you to understand a bit better what is really going on in your team, department or company, and why. And maybe even what you might do about it…

What do we mean by systems-psychodynamics?

The systems-psychodynamics paradigm draws on research and practice from several traditions, including psychoanalysis, group relations training and socio-technical systems. These combine to provide an understanding of organisations in depth; as human systems within which we relate to each other as holders of roles with particular responsibilities and levels of authority.

The model develops an understanding and ability to better manage the often unacknowledged emotional and psychological dimensions of organisational life in the service of task performance. The specificity of the organisational task – professional services, manufacturing and technology, media and communications, public institutions or the not-for-profit sector – is considered central to the dynamics of the organisation and how the roles of leadership and followership are taken up.

All organisations operate within dynamic and evolving societies, in which issues such as rapid technological change and workforce diversity are factors that affect their capacity to meet the organisational purpose, especially for those leading processes of adaptation and change.

This approach to organisations was originally pioneered at the Tavistock Clinic and remains central to our training, education and consultancy offers.

How can systems-psychodynamic thinking work in practice?

To give a sense of how we might use systems-psychodynamic thinking in a leadership role, I will reflect on my previous experience as CEO of a professional body in the health sector, a role which I took up shortly after completing my professional doctorate.

1. Identifying the primary task

A central concept in systems-psychodynamics is of the organisation as an open system; one that must regulate across its boundaries the flow of inputs of resources and outputs of products, whether these are goods, services or information. This flow must be in balance in order that organisational resources are not exhausted and it is able to deliver its purpose to satisfactory standards. One role of leadership is to manage the boundary relationship to maintain equilibrium. The process that the system must undertake in order to successfully convert input to output is known as its primary task.

The members of the organisation where I was CEO worked with children, young people and families with complex needs. As a relatively small professional group, providing intensive and often long-term treatments, their position in the public health realm was often under scrutiny. Increasing levels and severity of need, at the same time as funding constraints, meant that services were seeking quicker and more cost-effective forms of intervention. One role of the organisation, and the CEO, was therefore to support members in their struggles to maintain high quality and effective services and to act as a voice for the profession. At the same time, though, it was also the regulator of its members’ practice, with a role in upholding standards and public safety. Holding these two roles in balance, with limited resources and with members regularly lobbying for us to campaign on particular issues, was a constant struggle for the CEO and the Board of Directors. These tensions were played out in different ways, in relations between leadership of the organisation and its members, and myself as CEO with the Board and its committees.

It became obvious that the professional body did not have clarity on its primary task. In fact, it had two, often competing, tasks which were variously championed by members and by different committees, some of which were focussed on promoting the profession and others on ethics and standards. Given the small size of the body, and its reliance on members’ registration fees for income, it was difficult to deliver both tasks effectively whilst maintaining a balance of income and expenditure. Thinking about the organisation in this way helped myself and the Board to understand the tensions that were apparent within the organisation, and with its members, and to develop a risk register that helped us to prioritise use of resources in a transparent way.

2. Using emotions as data

Another key element of systems-psychodynamics, and its use in providing consultancy, is that emotions are not something to be dismissed or denied but are in fact valuable data that can help us to understand what is happening in a given organisational context. How we feel, for example, in a Board meeting is a good indication of the dynamics and pressures that are present, whether these are agitation, surprise, fear or anger. Whatever our roles, we will regularly face emotional challenges at work and may sometimes not feel equipped to manage them. The Tavistock’s approach helps by showing that emotions and feelings are a normal part of working life and that they are a product of relationships, group processes and system dynamics rather than necessarily being personal to individuals.

The psychoanalytic understanding of individuals and groups helps us to see that some people are more prone to take up and express particular emotions, so that they become lightning rods for those feelings that are present in the system but that may be unseen by others. These people may then take up a role in expressing these emotions on behalf of the group so that they become, for example, the voice for rapid change, or of constraint, or perhaps the one who challenges decisions. The systems-psychodynamic perspective helps the leader and consultant to recognise that, whilst an individual may have a valency for a particular role, it is never only about them or their personality, but always a communication of something significant on behalf of the group.

For example, a Board member may seem stuck in an intransigent position, arguing that no resources should be invested in a project until there is concrete evidence it will be effective. They may get into an argument with another member who says the Board has to take risks like this and there can never be certainty about outcome. If the Chair is able to take up a consultancy stance in which they observe these two positions as expressions of the tensions that the Board as a whole has to manage, then it may enable them to ask in what way each of the individuals is communicating something valuable that needs to be heard. This may help to find ways to both deescalate the conflict and to discover if there is common ground between the seemingly opposing views.

An important factor in the continuing success of the professional body was a strong relationship between myself as CEO and successive Chairs who were professional members of the Board. A shared understanding of how these and other dynamics were impacting the organisation, and clarity about our different but intertwined leadership roles, was crucial to holding the body, and the profession, through periods of change and upheaval. In psychoanalytic terms, a lot was projected into the leadership pair and it would have been easy for these to have caused splits between us so that, for example, one took on the role of championing the profession whilst the other argued for the prominence of the public protection function. In this case, the system tensions would have been unhelpfully played out in argument and disagreement between CEO and Chair. To others, this might end up looking like a personality clash or loss of leadership capacity, when in fact it represents core challenges for the organisation and profession as a whole that need to brought to the surface and addressed directly if they are not to be acted out by individuals in different roles.

3. The requisite organisation

What these systems-psychodynamics look like will vary hugely from one organisation to the next depending on its size, structures and aims. In fact, one aspect of our approach, derived from the work of psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques, is that of the requisite organisation. In other words: organisational effectiveness is dependent on having structures, lines of authority and management processes that are aligned to the specific nature of the primary task. For example, a tech start-up needs to be organised and function in very different ways from an established manufacturer of computer hardware. A large teaching hospital cannot be organised as though it was a small community health charity. This may seem obvious, but it is often the case that leaders will want their legacy organisation to act as if it was a start-up, or a charity that has grown to be a large, well-funded bureaucracy still clings to the flat structures and democratic mindset of its founders that no longer serve their purpose.

In the case of the professional body, a step-change in structures and processes was required at the point at which it was registered with the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA). Previously, as described by a past Chair, it had been organised like a ‘tennis club’. I was presented with an organogram showing multiple committees but with no lines of authority or reporting to connect them. This structure had nevertheless ‘worked’ for many years. A requirement of PSA accreditation was that we formed the association as a limited company and put in place a Board of Directors with clear reporting lines to the key committees, which were themselves reorganised. The Chair and I led a process of consultation with committee members and other stakeholders in order to explain and gain buy-in to the new structures and ways of working. A significant part of this was that the association would not only be run by and for members, but that other perspectives were both necessary and helpful. This took the form of myself as CEO, with managerial and consultancy experience, and in non-executive Directors who provided invaluable support and guidance.

Major change of this nature is never easy and individuals take up different positions that both reflect their individual values and as an expression of the dynamic pressure on the system as it reorientates itself to the changed external environment. Members and other people who related to the association had invested a lot of time, energy and emotion into it and developed strong attachments. Given the complex and difficult nature of the work undertaken by members with children and families, the professional body provided an important source of containment for their anxieties. The concept of containment builds on the work of psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, and describes how we project fears and anxieties onto others – whether individuals such as leaders, or institutions such as the NHS, church or employer – in order that they may be managed on our behalf. For example, our fears about ill-health may be contained by a feeling that health services will be there for us when we need them. Therefore, when undertaking major changes, such as mergers, acquisitions and restructures, it is important to consider what stakeholders will have projected into the containing structure and how this may be disrupted in the transitional period before new systems can provide a renewed sense of security.

4. Knowing one’s limits

I faced all of these dilemmas and many others in my six years as CEO. My training as an organisation consultant was invaluable to my ability to take up this role and to manage its challenges. Whilst we had many successes, both in developing robust governance structures and promoting the profession to key government bodies, we never resolved the tension with members about our primary task. The point at which I moved on was when I felt that a new CEO would be better placed to lead the next phase of growth and development that was required. Recognising the limits and boundaries of one’s own capabilities is an important capacity for leaders.

A key element of systems-psychodynamics, and one that is developed through the provision of training, coaching and consultancy, is the importance of self-reflection. This can help us to see how we are ‘showing up’ in our roles, how we are relating to and impacting others, and also how their behaviour is affecting us. Increasingly important is a recognition of our own positions of difference to others – in terms of age, gender, race, class and ability – and how this may lead to either privilege or disadvantage. An ability to pause and reflect, however briefly, on how a situation is making us feel, can help prevent us getting unhelpfully caught up in projections and anxieties. This in turn can allow for new thinking to emerge, so that we can learn from the experience.

Your experience as a leader may be very different to mine, but I hope this brief introduction to some of the ideas behind systems-psychodynamics will help to develop your capacity to think critically and systemically about organisations, and your role in them. Who knows where this might lead you?

Intrigued? Learn more

Drawing on our distinctive systems-psychodynamic approach, our world-renowned education and training is here to support your professional and academic development.

From our Master’s Degree and Professional Doctorate, to our Executive Coaching Programme and consultancy CPD course, you will find opportunities to explore the rich interrelationship between the conscious and unconscious in group dynamics – preparing you to work with the most complex and challenging organisations.

Meanwhile, Tavistock Consulting, our specialist consultancy business, works below the surface to tackle the hard to reach issues that are limiting the performance of organisations, teams and leaders across all sectors.

Explore all leadership, management and consultancy courses

Related courses

For a better viewing experience we recommend you upgrade your browser.