Systems and Meaning

Gitte Haslebo is a psychological consultant specialising in consultancy assignments and training courses for managers and consultants. With inspiration from systemic, appreciative and narrative approaches, Gitte uses customized methods for organizational development, with particular attention to relational ethics in the workplace. She has authored and co-authored a large number of books and articles about leadership and organizational development. Gitte is also an Associate at the TAOS Institute, which is a community of social constructionist scholars and practitioners from all parts of the world. Kit Sanne Nielsen is an organizational psychologist, specialist and author, as well as owner and CEO of an international leadership consultancy firm with operations in such culturally diverse locations as Denmark, South Africa and Greenland. She specialises in a narrative psychological and systemic approach to leadership and organizational development, as well as the development of systems-based team coaching methods. As an authority in her field, she has authored and co-authored a wide range of books and articles about leadership, coaching and organizational development.

• Editors’ Foreword -- Preface -- Organizational consultation in a systemic perspective -- Organizational consultation and learning -- “Assess our manager and expose his shortcomings”: a consultation in a private company -- “Free us from the past!”: a consultation in a municipality -- Key concepts in systemic thinking -- The consultant’s cognitive processes in practice: when two consultants work together -- The consultant’s cognitive processes in practice: receiving supervision -- Epilogue

'This book by Haslebo and Nielsen was originally written in Danish and published in Denmark, where it has had four printings. We felt that these authors bring a new perspective to systemic work with organizations, and since there is far too little writing to match the amount of work done in this area, we decided that this was an important book to add to our series. Readers will immediately feel familiar with the values and conceptual framework that underpin Haselbo and Nielsen's work. They see organizational problems occurring in a particular context, they clearly trace the way problems arise out of relations amongst the different parts of the larger system, and they pursue the meanings that these problems have for the individuals and organizations alike. Yet they also introduce new conceptual models, such as Kolb's model of experiential learning.'But these authors are, above all, practitioners. They earn their living through their work with organizations, and it is this precious first-hand experience that must somehow be understood and articulated so that other practitioners can take the ideas into their own settings. The case studies are presented in some depth and are used to illustrate the way systemic concepts are translated into consultation work. Although this book is clearly written and accessible for practitioners starting to work with organizations, it is the depth of experience of the authors that comes through on every page.'- David Campbell and Ros Draper, from their Foreword