The Wesley Group

Governance, not therapy.

There is a common perception we run into that people who are engaged in human systems

work are “touchy-feely” or “woo-woo” and that retaining someone to help improve family

outcomes will require a lot of awkward and unproductive navel gazing or something like

therapy.

We understand that concern and hope to lay it to rest right now.

We are no longer living in the 1970s. The days of hot tubs and the early human potential

movement are over. We have grown up.

Over the course of the last thirty years, we have learned a tremendous amount about

individual development and how high performance human systems actually work. The

research is deep and the application of that research is powerful. Various technologies are

being used in high-performance teams in competitive businesses, in elite military units and on

athletic fields. These techniques can be found in operating rooms, innovative design firms,

and cutting edge social ventures. They are well-researched and well-proven in the real-world.

It is these strategies and technologies we have adapted and now bring to families.

The Lurking Fear of Woo-Woo

What usually lies behind dismissive “woo-woo” comments is a deep recognition that human

systems are complex. People are uncomfortable (or even fearful) around this type of

complexity. Most believe that because they don't personally have the wherewithal to

adequately address these challenges and create change, there is nothing useful to be done.

These folks seem to have given up. They seem to believe that simply containing the situation

(and hoping that things don't blow up) is the best that they can do. The complications scare

them and they dare not believe that solutions are possible.

What is Complexity?

What do we mean by complexity? Most situations we address are complex in the following

ways:

· They are dynamically complex in that the causes of the situation are tangled and

confused. This means that it is difficult to get clarity and find the right levers to create

change.

· They are generatively complex in that the solutions which worked in the past are no

longer effective. Moving forward requires innovation, creativity and system wide

intevention.

· They are socially complex in that people are seeing the problem from multiple

perspectives with different agendas, personal psychologies, generational perspectives,

ideologies and so on. These differing perspectives make it very difficult to create

aligned action.

The Failure of “Solutions”

Unfortunately for complex systems, we live in a world of experts. Experts isolate technical

problems and solve them. These are “simple” problems in the sense that there are clear lines

between cause and effect, old solutions work and the “solutions” are indifferent to social

perspective. A legal problem may be technically complex, but it is not “complex” as we use

that term.

What is required to address truly complex problems is a multidisciplinary approach that sees

systems and takes into account what we have learned in the last 30 years. It then applies an

arrary of interventions with clarity and precision. This means that those who are helping

clients address complex problems must be well versed in a wide variety of disciplines and

have the uncommon wisdom to apply these cutting edge technologies in ways that are truly

useful and productive.

Nothing harder than the soft stuff…

Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic, said “The hardest issues I ever faced in business

were the so-called soft issues.” We think that is also true of families. The problems

successful families face require wide-ranging intellect, courage, personal vulnerability,

creativity, growing emotional resilience and the development reservoirs of personal depth. Any

consultant helping a family develop these capacities must embody these capacities and have

the ability to help develop them in others.

It is the rare advisor who can stand in the fire of complex systems and catalyze change. It is

not for the faint of heart and it is certainly not a place for crystal gazing or new age nonsense.

What is required is the ability to help move from complexity to clarity, confusion to coherence,

conflict to collaboration and complacency to commitment. But how can this be done?

We don't run from the complexity, we step into it...

Our entire approach is to take on the full complexity and find the simplicity that lies behind it.

We enter the complexity with a great deal of knowledge and wisdom, but also with as few

preconceptions as possible. We don't know in advance what will work, but we do know that

we will find an approach that will - and we have confidence born of experience that the right

technologies are at hand to shift the family system. We don't expect families to conform to

our process because that, in our experience, never works. Instead we use the processes of our

client famlies to shift the family system. We don't force change, but we do generate it. Most

of all, we operate without the security net of canned techniques because, in our experience,

the open approach is the only way complex family systems change.

At the end of the day, we are interested in results.

We cannot get results through “woo-woo”. We cannot get results through canned programs.

Instead, we offer application of proven dynamic approaches, interdisciplinary thinking and

precisely designed solutions for each client; all delivered with the grounded confidence of

uncommon and hard-won wisdom.