Every organization is full of patterns of recurring dynamics that shape relationships, communication, and culture. Some of these patterns foster creativity and trust, while others breed misunderstanding, conflict, and stagnation. Too often, leaders mistake these patterns for individual flaws rather than seeing them as systemic forces at play.
Barry Oshry, a pioneer in systems thinking and organizational learning, devoted his career to helping leaders and teams decode these recurring patterns. When paired with vertical development or a development of consciousness, his work equips leaders not only to notice these dynamics but also to transform how they respond to them.
Oshry’s Core Insight: It’s Not Personal, It’s Systemic
Oshry observed that organizations operate through recurring relationship patterns that arise when people occupy different positions in the system:
• Tops (leaders at the apex of responsibility) often feel burdened and alone.
• Middles (managers caught in between) often feel torn, fragmented, and pulled in opposing directions.
• Bottoms (those executing work) often feel powerless, unseen, and overworked.
• Customers (internal or external) often feel neglected or underserved.
These positions give rise to predictable systemic conditions, not because of “bad” people, but because of the dynamics of the structure itself.
For example:
• When Tops feel overwhelmed, they push harder. Bottoms then feel dumped on, and their resistance rises. This results in Tops feeling even more burdened.
• Middles try to please both Tops and Bottoms and their attention becomes fragmented, leading to both Tops and Bottoms feeling unsupported and Middles feel pulled at both ends.
Unless leaders learn to see these patterns, they can easily get trapped in them, fueling cycles of blame and disconnection.
Decoding Patterns through Kegan’s Orders of Consciousness and Vertical Development
Kegan’s adult development framework sheds light on why these patterns persist. Each order of consciousness in his framework briefly described below interprets organizational life differently:
• Socialized Mind: Leaders with a Socialised Mind, see patterns as “just the way things are”. As they align with organizational/group norms and may lack the perspective to question the system itself, they may react against those who do not align with organizational/group norms.
• Self-Authoring Mind: Leaders with a Self-Authoring Mind, begin to recognize patterns and define their own frameworks for responding. They can step back, set boundaries, and create processes to break cycles.
• Self-Transforming Mind: Leaders with a Self-Transforming Mind, see patterns as systemic fields that can be shifted. They hold multiple perspectives (Top, Middle, Bottom, Customer) simultaneously and design adaptive interventions that benefit the whole system.
In other words, when leaders develop their level of consciousness, they develop the mental complexity to not just react to patterns but to decode and transform them.
Leadership Interventions: From Reacting to Reframing
Here are some ways leaders can apply Oshry’s insights with the following practices that support leadership development of consciousness in organizations:
1. Name the Pattern
• When conflict or overwhelm arises, pause to ask: Is this personal, or is it a systemic pattern playing out?
• Naming the pattern reduces blame and opens the door to systemic solutions.
2. Shift from Blame to Curiosity
• Socialized responses look for fault. Vertical development invites leaders to step back: What’s the structure creating this tension? How are roles shaping perception?
3. Perspective-Taking
• Practice inhabiting the view from each position: Top, Middle, Bottom, Customer.
• Self-Transforming leaders learn to “walk the system,” building empathy across divides.
4. Systemic Dialogue
• Bring Tops, Middles, Bottoms, and Customers together for facilitated conversations.
• Use practices like Kegan and Lahey’s Immunity to Change to surface hidden assumptions and expand awareness.
5. Create Deliberately Developmental Cultures
• Shift the organizational mindset from “who’s to blame” to “what pattern are we in, and how do we want to evolve together?”
• This requires leaders to model reflection, openness, and systemic thinking.
Why Is it Important to See Organizational Patterns?
Today’s organizational challenges of complex markets, distributed teams, and diverse stakeholders, magnify systemic patterns. Without awareness, leaders risk being consumed by them. With awareness and development of consciousness, leaders can:
• See patterns as fields, not flaws
• Step out of reactive cycles towards leading systemically
• Foster organizations where people experience power, responsibility, and connection differently
Barry Oshry teaches us that organizations are living systems. We can learn to decode the patterns in our organizations. Robert Kegan reminds us that to shift those patterns, leaders must grow in their capacity for meaning-making. Development of consciousness of leaders or vertical development gives leaders the depth and perspective to not just survive in organizational life, but to transform it.
When leaders learn to see the dance of Tops, Middles, Bottoms, and Customers, they gain the power to rewrite the choreography, creating organizations that are wiser, healthier, and more humane.
Contact us to find out how systemic team coaching can help leaders, professionals and teams decode and shift patterns to transform their leadership, teams and organizations towards becoming more collaborative, wiser and more humane.
