Systemic Intervention Principles

cf.: Stage Appropriate Support & Interventions

A Systemic Perspective represents the ability to understand and articulate the core principles of the system that govern the set of interactions being observed.  This knowledge is then used to inform choices regarding participation/ intervention in the group/community context.

This includes:

• An awareness of the interrelatedness of self in systems.
  The “objective observer” is a myth
• An awareness of the interactional patterns that define the system.
• An ability to effectively engages/manages the inherent polarities and their accompanying tensions found in living systems.
• Your capacity to assess the overall health of the system and design effective intervention strategies aimed at maintaining or returning the system to health.

Note: You MUST have a clear picture of what a ‘healthy’ organization looks like.  Both because it aids in forming your intervention strategies, and because if you do not articulate this vision clearly, it is too prone to be swayed by circumstance, or unduly influenced by your own Family Of Origin issues.  (cf.: The Intimacy Paradox)

Because everything is related…

• Change yourself, not the other.
• Consider being the intervention.
• Model what it is that you want to the intervention to be.
• Change is brought about by action, not understating and/or reflection
  • You must DO something (from your understanding/reflection)
    “It is not enough to have compassion… you must act” – Dali Lama
  • No change can be forced.
  • Your best shot is to be a perturbation to the system .