Online Constellation Board
Place a figure for every person in your client's situation, see who looks at whom, and move the figures together, live.
The Systembrett for online coaching, with the video call right beside the board.
What is a constellation board?
A constellation board is a surface on which small figures stand for the people and forces in a situation. Where a figure stands, how far it is from the others and which way it faces carry the meaning. Coaches, supervisors and consultants use it to make a system visible without asking anyone to act it out. In German it is called Systembrett or Familienbrett.
Distance
How close two figures stand shows closeness, or its absence. Clients often place someone further away than they would have said in words.
Direction
Every figure faces somewhere. Who looks at whom, who is turned away and who has nobody in view is often the first thing a client notices.
Position
Centre or edge, inside the group or outside it. A figure at the margin stands there for a reason worth asking about.
Where the method comes from
The board grew out of systemic family therapy as the family board (Familienbrett), developed by Kurt Ludewig, Ulrich Wilken and colleagues. Wolfgang Polt and Markus Rimser later widened it to any system under the name Systembrett: teams, organisations, roles and decisions. Today it is taught in most systemic training programmes.
What can you set up on a constellation board?
Any system with more than two parts. A figure can stand for a person, a role, a team, a goal or a rule nobody says out loud.
Family and origin
Parents, siblings, partner and the client's own figure. Also people who have died, fallen out or are not related by blood.
A question that helpsWho stands close to whom, and who has moved out of view?
Team
Everyone in the team, placed by how closely they actually work together rather than by the org chart.
A question that helpsWhere does the work really flow?
Organisation and stakeholders
Departments, management, customers, a parent company. One figure per stakeholder, turned toward whatever has their attention.
A question that helpsWho is looking at this project, and who is not?
Roles
One figure for each role your client holds: leader, expert, colleague, parent.
A question that helpsWhich two roles pull hardest in different directions?
Decisions
The options as figures, plus what speaks for each one: people, wishes, worries, money.
A question that helpsWhat pulls you toward each option, and how strongly?
Inner conflicts
Inner voices as figures around the client's own figure: the critic, the cautious one, the curious one.
A question that helpsWhich voice stands closest to you right now?
How does a systemic constellation work online?
On metaFox.online the constellation board is part of your coaching session, with the video call right beside it. This is how a session runs.
Open the board in your session
Start the Constellation Board from the whiteboard toolbar and choose a board: wooden, clean or quiet. It opens as a board of its own in the session, next to anything else you prepared.
Your client joins by link
Send your session link. Your client joins in the browser with no account and no install, and you see each other in the video call right beside the board.
Place the figures
Your client chooses a figure for each person or part: four shapes, seven colours, three sizes, with eyes, a nose or no face. A name sits under each figure, and turning a figure turns where it looks.
Look and move together
You and your client both move figures, live. Show a figure's field of view, put distance rings around it, connect two figures with a relation, or switch to 1st person to see the constellation from where a figure stands.
Keep the picture
The board is saved in the session. Pick it up next time, compare the first picture with the last, or send it to your client as a PDF.
What can the online constellation board do?
What a wooden board offers, plus what only a screen can show.
Wooden board or online board?
A wooden board has weight. Picking up a figure is part of the thinking, and in the room you can see a hand hesitate before it places one. When your client is in the room with you, wood is still a good choice.
Online, the board works when you are not in the same place, and it shows what wood leaves to opinion: what a figure can see from where it stands, and whether two distances are really the same. Say more out loud than you would in the room, because your client cannot see what you notice.
Figures with a face
Circle, square, triangle and pentagon, in wood or six colours and three sizes. Eyes or a nose show where a figure looks.
View
A soft wedge in the figure's own colour shows where its attention points, and turns with it.
Distance
Four rings around a figure make distances comparable. Each ring can carry a name in your client's own words.
Relations
Four kinds of connection: bond, strain, pull and broken. The lines stay attached when figures move.
Groups
Put a ring around figures that belong together and name it: a family, a team or the boundary of the system.
1st person
See the constellation from where a figure stands: who is in view, who looks back, how many stand behind. Notes written there land beside the figure.
Three boards
A wooden board, a clean cream board and a quiet white board with a dot grid, on which fields of view and rings stand out.
Plan for later
Add the board to your session plan in advance and start it with a double-click when the moment comes.
Your questions answered
Ready to set up constellations online with your clients?
Try the Constellation Board on metaFox.online. 14 days with all tools completely free, no credit card required.