What does working with the system board achieve?
The system board can make hidden conflicts visible, forces your clients to take the perspective of others, and reveals hierarchies in the system. Solutions are found by the client themselves through working with the board and targeted questioning by the coach.
In the different systems in which we all move, three factors always play an important role:
1. Bond
How strong is the bond between two people? (e.g., mother to child, boss to employee, friends among each other, ...)
2. Balance
Balance is important. Giving and taking must be balanced, and both must be learned.
3. Order
How is the hierarchy in the system structured and why? Does everyone feel in the right place? (If the trained IT specialist in the company is employed as a window cleaner, this is rarely the most sensible solution for the entire system.)
The system board can help you with:
- Conflicts in the family
- Disputes and stress in the company
- Optimizing hierarchies
- Achieving personal goals such as success, health, balance
- Detecting obstacles or hidden resources
- Understanding other people
You should be cautious with:
- Trauma patients
- Cases of abuse
- Especially for children!
With the system board, we go very deep into conflicts and sometimes bring many repressed feelings to the surface. We work in a solution- and goal-oriented manner. This approach is not right for every problem! You should consider beforehand whether working with this tool really makes sense.
What makes a good system board?
A good system board offers a wide selection of different, neutrally designed game pieces and blocks. Various sizes and colors are helpful. Strings can also support the work. With a dividable board, gaps between different parties can be clearly visualized.
How does working with the system board proceed?
At the beginning, of course, there is the preliminary conversation, in which you can already get a rough idea of the problems and important people in your client's life. To gather as much relevant information as possible, you let your counterpart speak freely and guide them in the desired direction through occasional targeted questions.
After you have gained an overview, ask your client about their goal. What does he or she want to achieve?
Once the goal is formulated, offer to work on the problem-solving if he or she wishes. "Shall we work on it together?"
In the next step, ask your client to pose a question to the system. This question should be as solution-oriented as possible and not negatively phrased. Questions like "How can I achieve xy?" or "How do I gain respect at work?" are focused on finding solutions, while "Why does no one like me?" is very negative and unhelpful.
After clarifying the question, ask your client to select appropriate figures for the relevant people. Since different sizes and colors can be chosen, initial hierarchies become clear at this step and you get ideas for questions. For example, ask why the client represents themselves with a smaller figure than their partner or boss. Don’t jump ahead; just be interested and attentive. Your job is only to get the other person thinking and clear the path to the solution.
At the first selection, try to choose only a few relevant figures, which are placed at the edge at the beginning. Remind your client of the goal question formulated in the preliminary discussion. If during the process the absence of an additional person becomes apparent, they can still be added. Be as minimalist as possible!
Once all the figures are chosen, ask your client to set up their system on the board. The distances and directions the figures face reveal the bonds and relationships between them. Here you have points to ask targeted questions ("Why doesn’t person xy look at you/stand far away/...?" ). With shareable boards, deeper rifts in the system can also be visually represented at this stage.
Give your client time to arrange everything until he or she is satisfied. Now ask the important question: "What do you notice?"
You will be amazed at how far this small question can lead. Now the client thinks about why their figure is the smallest/largest, why certain figures stand further away, and who the gazes are directed at. Your client may now have a completely new perspective on the system surrounding them for the first time. It is not uncommon for initial problem solutions to be recognized at this stage. After representing their own view or feeling about the situation, have your client take on the perspective of the other members of the system. "How does XY feel about being looked at by everyone/standing further away...?" Pay attention to when figures face each other and look at one another. This often indicates a need for conversation. Ask what your client wants to say to the person or how they feel. Then you can introduce a perspective shift again and ask what your client’s counterpart would like or how they feel. During the coaching process, the figures will move across the board until a satisfactory solution is found for your client and, ideally, their environment. The target setup for a family should ideally look like both parents standing together with the children in front of them in the middle. All figures look forward in the same direction. The gaze indicates that everyone in the family system is looking toward a shared future. Since our systems all function differently, there is naturally no universal target setup. The target setup is usually correct when it feels good for all involved. On the way there, you can be creative together. Exchange figures, add some, or change the direction of the gaze. This way, you support your clients in putting the puzzle pieces together for themselves and playfully exploring different scenarios.
Not only people get their place on the system board; problems, hurdles, and solutions are also visualized
To implement a problem setup with the system board, proceed similarly to a normal system constellation. However, it becomes a bit more creative because not only people but also problems, solutions, or obstacles are assigned individual game pieces. It is advisable not to use the normal figures but, for example, square stones that lie as obstacles in the way.
A typical basic setup for dealing with specific problems looks like this:
- Select the figure of the client
- Determine the target figure (also note the goal on a piece of paper)
- Place a figure for an overlooked (unknown) resource
- An obstacle block (this does not necessarily have to be defined in detail yet; over time, the obstacle will be given a name, e.g., fear, inhibitions, overwhelm, ...)
- One figure represents the upcoming task so that the goal can be achieved. (for example, having more trust in Xy, regularly completing certain tasks, ...)
- One figure stands for the secondary gain. This means the gain that stands in the way of the goal. (e.g., wanting to be liked by everyone and always being there to receive affection, but ignoring one’s own deeper needs.)
This constellation can now be worked on creatively:
- “What if the obstacle wasn’t there?”
- “Who could help remove obstacles?”
- “What resources can be accessed?”
Don’t have a system board yet?
You see, the system board is a powerful tool to uncover and work on problems and issues in your clients’ relationship networks. In our shop, you’ll find a particularly versatile family board that is even divisible to simulate divides and offers you a wide selection of figures in various sizes, shapes, and colors to illustrate the systems. We’ve also included colored strings that can help you represent bonds between individual people in the system or divide the board into different zones. Here’s the system board!
For absolute beginners, we have produced a video course that gives you a step-by-step guide for your first constellations. Here’s the basic course!
