Organisational wounds - from rupture to repair
This week I facilitated an event for one of our clients, Locality, focused on bridging divides in challenging times, and one of the speakers, Tim Magowan, shared their project based in Belfast which runs Change Circles, where over 8 months, and 8 meals, an intentionally diverse group meets to discuss priorities and change for their community. It felt like such a hopeful initiative in a place that had experienced deep DNA level division that is now further complicated by new dividing lines on all aspects of identity.
If you’ve been in session with us, you will know that we are fascinated by working with organisations that have wounds - they may not be as deep as those this project faces, but they still have huge significance for how a workplace grows or stays stuck, innovates or becomes resistant to change, trusts or starts a culture of no safety, And at its worst the us and them dynamics can really bed in and become difficult to change.
I’ve seen this more times than I can count in our work with organisations. Sometimes it’s gotten to such an impasse that communication isn’t possible, or letters have been sent to trustee boards or even to external media because their staff feel so stuck. We’ve seen wounds result from cognitive dissonance in how teams expect their organisations to respond to issues or when challenges are not met; resolution of discrimination issues, bullying or toxicity problems, or response to / stance on world events. We’ve seen it set in when lack of fairness surrounded how restructures were handled or decisions about promotions or project work lacked integrity.
However it shows up, the pattern is the same: the organisation holds the wound in its collective memory and felt body. And like a body, it needs attention and care to heal.
Patricia Vivian and Shana Hormann describe organisational trauma as a collective wounding that overwhelms an organisation’s protective capacity. When that pain isn’t acknowledged, it doesn’t fade - it gets stored in memory and culture, in the stories people tell and the silences they keep. Over time, the organisation forgets its values, fractures into us and them, and starts to close in on itself. I’ve watched this happen in spaces that once radiated purpose and courage.
Deb Dana’s work on the nervous system helps make sense of why repair feels so hard. Rupture is a felt experience - a breaking of safety. When trust is shaken, people move into self-protection. What can look like resistance or cynicism is often the body’s way of staying safe. This is why repair can’t be a communications exercise. It has to be relational and embodied - it's about helping people feel safe again.
Right now, that feels especially important. Repair has become leadership work. It’s how we rebuild trust and how we turn values into practice, I’m still pondering on the Belfast circles of change project as a concept that can help with healing and what this might look like in an organisational context. There’s definitely more for us to think about in terms of how we pay attention to wounds that time doesn’t heal, and how we transform those challenges into new energy with creative force to build new possibilities for what our team can achieve together.
What we’re noticing
Why organisational wounds deepen in divided times
Across the organisations we’re supporting, we’re noticing how the fractures in society are quietly showing up inside workplaces. When the world outside feels polarised, those same pressures shape how people relate, how safe they feel to speak, and how trust is built - or eroded.
Some of the deepest organisational wounds we’re seeing right now aren’t caused by a single incident. They come from the conditions that allow harm to settle in: defensiveness, avoidance of conflict, urgency, perfectionism, silence around difference, or the instinct to protect reputation rather than connection. These are traits rooted in white supremacy culture - and they appear even in teams who care deeply about justice, belonging and equity.
In a divided society, these patterns intensify. Teams try to build unity without acknowledging the different needs, fears and identities in the room. Leaders want to create belonging, but feel overwhelmed by competing perspectives. Organisations hope to move forward, but skip over the conversations that would help them understand what people are carrying.
All of this makes repair harder - and more necessary.
It’s one of the reasons our Beyond White Supremacy Culture programme feels so relevant right now. It’s a space for leaders and practitioners who want to understand these patterns more deeply, unlearn the habits that create organisational wounds, and practise building cultures rooted in courage, connection and accountability.
We’re hosting an interactive intro session on 3rd December if you’d like to see whether the programme might be a good fit. We’ll explore what we mean by white supremacy culture and how it shapes our leadership, organisations and collective future.
what we’re practising
The stages of repair
Repair asks us to slow down, stay present, and return to what builds trust. The five stages shown above are a simple framework we use when supporting organisations through rupture. It's not a linear process, but a practice leaders cycle through as needed.
1. Naming
Saying clearly what has happened - even when it’s uncomfortable. Repair starts with shared reality.
2. Listening
Creating space for those impacted to speak, without jumping to fixing or defending. Enabling people to feel seen and heard matters more than solutions.
3. Owning
Taking responsibility for what’s ours to own. Accountability is often the turning point that makes repair possible.
4. Repairing
Showing change through tangible actions - in behaviour, decisions or structures - that realign practice with values.
5. Restoring
Rebuilding trust slowly and consistently, at the pace people can meet. Integrity becomes a practice, lived over time.
We’ve walked alongside many teams through the repair process - if your organisation is navigating a moment like this, we’d love to talk about how we might support you.
What's resourcing us
Befriending our emotions
At the Barcelona Journalling festival I attended, in one of the workshops, run by Pavita Singh, she got us writing love letters to emotions we’d rather not have in our lives, and it was a powerful way of changing energy and narrative in a 5 minute exercise.
I could imagine a team doing this as a collective but individual exercise to process a tricky week, or challenging time on a project. I wrote about emotions coming up from a year of endless news cycles and it helped to think about different ways to support myself with this.
Resisting urgency
Eloise recently joined the Sunday Scaries Club - a community of women who meet online on Sunday evenings for quality company and self-connection before the week begins.
There’s something radical about setting aside time simply to notice what’s happening in your body, to connect to what you need, and to prepare for the week from a place of care rather than urgency.
It’s a small reminder that repair starts here - in our nervous systems, in how we pace ourselves, in how we practice care with each other.
