Business constellations: what are they?

Imagine that a company is like a living system. It has people, roles, goals, money and customers. It also has products, rules and expectations. Everything affects everything.

Common areas of difficulty in businesses:

• there is tension in the team, but no one knows what is causing it.
• decisions drag on
• change creates resistance
• the same problem repeats again and again

Business constellations (also known as organisational constellations) is a method to help “invisible” patterns in the visible visible. So that a clearer picture can be obtained and better decisions can be made.

Business constellation is a way of making a spatial layout of a business to see where there is tension, what is missing, what is in the wrong place and what needs attention.

Why should an entrepreneur or manager use business constellations?

The business constellation provides clarity when the situation is:

• complex (lots of people/experience/long or changing business history)
• Recurring (the same theme comes round again)
• unclear (“I feel something is wrong but I can’t put it into words”)
• high stakes (strategy, structure, new roles, conflicts, mergers)

What are the benefits?

In practical terms, there are usually 3 types of benefit:

Clarity and focus

You’ll get a better picture of what actually influences the situation.

Testing decisions before taking action

You can see how different options fit into the system.

For example:

Shall we create a new department?

Are we changing the governance structure?

Should we choose Strategy A or Strategy B?

Improved cooperation

As roles, relationships, and expectations become clearer, tension often eases and people understand each other better.

The business constellation is not a substitute for financial analysis and strategy work.

What problems can business constellations help with?

Choice of strategy and direction

If there are several good options or new directions at once

How and in which direction to expand

Teams and conflicts

Tensions in management or team

“Two camps” in one team

Trust has been eroded, cooperation is difficult

Roles and responsibilities

No willingness to take responsibility, roles are confused

Decision-making is slow

Employees over- or under-perform in their roles

Change and growth

New manager / new team / rapid growth

Restructuring

Merger or takeover (crops do not overlap)

Projects and “bottlenecks”

Project drags on

One and the same place where a bottleneck occurs (resource, decision, cooperation)

Customers, product and market

Marketing doesn’t work, sales stall

The product is good but does not sell

The same tensions recur in customer relations

What does a business constellation session look like?

You formulate the topic
For example, “Why aren’t sales growing?”

“How should the division of roles in leadership change?”

You choose the elements of the system
For example: manager, team, customer, product, target, money, marketing, market, competition, project…

Place the elements in the room
The elements are placed in the room to create a complete picture.

Follow the process, ask the constellation for clarification if something is unclear.
The aim is to find out what the obstacle or difficulty is and take steps to get the desired result..

Who is the “replacement”?

Substitute is a person who represents an element in a constellation (“team” or “customer” or “product”).
The person in this role does not know anything about your company or organisation, and can also use a pre-agreed name if additional privacy is desired.

Why are substitutes used?

Because this way you can look at a company’s subject from the “side”, with the help of impartial people, elements. A picture emerges in the room, which helps to spot patterns that you don’t see in everyday work.

What does the business constellation look like in practice?

Business constellations can be carried out:

✔️ Group workwhere participants represent elements of the business (e.g. manager, employee, customer).
✔️ Individually, using symbols and objects if it is not possible to involve participants

Who does the business constellation suit?

For professionals: Executives, team leaders, HR, coaches, consultants, project managers.
For clients/businesses: Owners, founders, partners, small and medium teams.

Business constellations help companies to see systemic connections that may remain hidden in traditional management.

The biggest benefits of business constellations are Creating clarity, resolving conflicts and supporting more informed leadership.leading to better and sustainable results.