Bringing the psycho-dynamic to light
On a recent two-day workshop run by the Metanoia Institute, I met old friends and brought deeply buried ideas back into view.
In this article, I'll explore why these ideas are highly relevant to leaders and entrepreneurs and why I intend to be more open and transparent in sharing them going forward.
Like many people, I still feel apprehensive when joining a new group on zoom or entering a room for the first time. So, it was an absolute pleasure when Caroline's image unexpectedly popped up on zoom at the start of the two-day class on Transactional Analysis (TA101), run by the Metanoia Institute, a leading psychoanalytical training institute accredited by Middlesex University and a close partner to Ashridge Business School.
I knew Professor Caroline Sills (Hargaden and Sills 2002) from my days in Ashridge way back when she dunked us in Psychodynamic theory, TA and the psychodramas present in organisational life. Although my two years at Ashridge provided a bedrock for my coaching practice, I realised that this was over 12 years ago! Time for a refresher.
Feeling a Little Anxious
Anyone who knows Ashridge, and Metanoia, will be familiar with the format, involving round circle discussion and in-depth personal reflection. This is not always easy and means confronting often painful realities and buried truths accumulated over the years. Caroline and other faculty members are gentle and caring in their manner but also acute in their hearing, listening for what is being said and what is not being said. So the experience is usually immersive, critically reflective and with nowhere to hide.
This is partly because my cohort was also a group of seasoned coaches, therapists and analysts, all schooled to ask deep, searching questions.
Hence my apprehension. Authentic learning can be disconcerting.
What is “Psychodynamics”?
TA101 is an introductory course on Transactional Analysis, a key element in psychodynamic coaching along with Internal Family Systems and Attachment Theory (Landaiche 2021). The core idea of psychodynamics is that underlying patterns in how we relate to each other can be revealed in the interactions with the therapist or coach via any relationship.
What is Transactional Analysis
In the 1960s, Eric Berne (Berne 2010) took this idea and reformulated Freudian theory into the ego-states model. The TA ego-states model suggests that in adulthood, we have, in fact, three continuing and distinct elements to our psyche:
• The Child ego-state
• The Adult ego-state
• The Parent ego-state
In other words, we don't leave childhood behind but take it with us, at least partly.
Far from being a unitary and integrated self, we are, in fact, a composite of distinct facets and more than this, we can evoke these facets in how we relate to each other. For example, we might use a parenting ego-state when addressing one person about a subject, possibly triggering their Child ego-state in response (asymmetry). With another, we might present an adult ego-state and get a similar answer (symmetrical). Therefore, we can experience very different reactions from two people, even though the subject matter might be similar.
These ego-states are built up from fragments we've picked up and retain from parents, caregivers, family, teachers and peers. These patterns tend to evolve into life scripts, which we write for ourselves and can be unconscious guides as to how we experience the world.
Relational TA, pioneered at Metanoia Institute (Fowlie and Sills 2011), is, therefore, a departure from the traditional interpretive approach of the classical Freudian analysts. Rather than relying on the analyst's objective insight and diagnosis, in Relational TA, the client and coach work together to understand the phenomena and work on developing solutions together. Relational TA is also far more compatible with group dynamics and systems work, as it sees people in context to a much greater extent.
Implications for Leaders, Change Agents and Entrepreneurs
As we break TA down into its constituent parts, its relevance for leaders and entrepreneurs becomes clearer. TA is a model for understanding many patterns and interactions that lie right at the heart of effective teams:
Unconscious patterns, such as transference & counter-transference
• Ego states and symmetrical/asymmetrical transactions
• Group dynamics
• Leadership styles
• Life Scripts
• Dissonance/resonance
• Defensive patterns
• "Strokes" and effective recognition
While rediscovering these gems, I realised how powerful it would be if, rather than leaving these theoretical tools only in my hands, I could disseminate them more widely to leaders, change agents and entrepreneurs.
As a coach, I notice how our relationship develops and the client's impact on me as a proxy to understand patterns that might be evident elsewhere in the client's world. I notice the ego-state presented by the client and how this shifts during a conversation. This opens the way to learn "in the moment", develop joint insights, to rehearse new ways of being in real-time.
While it is true that much of the theory and practice of psychodynamics was born out of psychoanalysis, often in clinical settings, an important strand is situated in an everyday organisational context. The Tavistock Institute and psychodynamic writers such as Robert De Board, David Armstrong, Anton Obholzer, and Clare Huffington defined this space (Board 1997).
Entrepreneurship is Primal
The business world is often presumed to be rational, where speed and smartness allow you to outwit the competition. Some of this is true. But because people are integral in every way, business is much more than that. Entrepreneurship is primal. It's about emotions, relationships, trust and risk, which can only be understood as psychological states shaped by unconscious patterns that we do not fully control nor know how to harness.
For example, one might see the entire start-up process as a defence mechanism undertaken by youthful entrepreneurs to forestall the onset of the adult world, hence the emphasis on the "disruption" that we often associate with the child ego-state. Just think about a term such as "move fast and break things"!
Fear of failure, anxiety, self-delusion and a hero complex are all common phenomena coursing through a founder's veins, often unconsciously (Bröckling 2016). Once we consider the impact of cofounders, angel investors, and the broader start-up teams, we are into the realm of a full-on psychodrama (West 2020).
My goal is to simply trigger adult-to-adult conversations amongst leaders and founders about their personal drives, needs and expectations. By tackling these conversations early on, and going deeper, leaders and founders can avoid derailment and rupture when critical decisions are needed about roles, equity allocation, investment decisions, planning exits, etc.
My contention is that we are simply not addressing these common patterns across the entrepreneurial ecosystem that lead to derailment. Let's consider that the 5-year survival rate for SME businesses has been falling for many years. The result is a high and unnecessary business failure rate with high personal collateral damage to the people involved.
The way I work with Clients.
The key insight to emerge for me was that although I was at heart a psychodynamic coach, strongly infrequent by Eric Berne's integrative and relational TA approach, I hadn't always made this evident to my clients or written about it publicly. In fact, instead, I'd protect my clients from having to think about it and perhaps holding back from fully exploring the relational dynamics I was experiencing and likely also shared by others in my client's world.
I have always presented myself as a relational coach. Still, I've always tended to emphasise the pragmatism and real-world impact of the coaching relationship, and I've tried to avoid getting lost in theory or complex models. I'd overlooked the incredible momentary and pragmatic insight that psychodynamic coaching can offer. Capturing those moments and exploring them there and then - truth in flight - provides the largest payback.
So, I will share more of my learning going forward and be bolder in addressing the underlying patterns there and then, in the room, in real-time.
Bibliography
Berne, Eric (2010): Games people play [electronic resource]. The psychology of human relationships / Eric Berne. London: Penguin.
Board, Robert de (1997): The psychoanalysis of organizations. A psychoanalytic approach to behaviour in groups and organizations. London: Routledge.
Bröckling, Ulrich (2016): The entrepreneurial self. Fabricating a new type of subject. Los Angeles [etc.]: Sage.
Fowlie, Heather; Sills, Charlotte (2011): Relational transactional analysis. Principles in practice / edited by Heather Fowlie and Charlotte Sills. London: Karnac.
Hargaden, Helena; Sills, Charlotte (2002): Transactional analysis. A relational perspective / Helena Hargaden and Charlotte Sills. Hove: Brunner-Routledge (Advancing theory in therapy).
Landaiche, N. Michel (2021): Groups in transactional analysis, object relations, and family systems. Studying ourselves in collective life. 1st edition. London: Routledge (Innovations in transactional analysis: theory and practice).
Metanoia Therapists: https://www.metanoiatherapists.co.uk. 13 North Common Road, Ealing, London, W5 2QB and 13 Gunnersbury Avenue, Ealing, London, W5 3XD.
West, Chris (2020): The Karpman Drama Triangle Explained. A Guide for Coaches, Managers, Trainers, Therapists - and Everybody Else: CWTK Publications
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