Better Leaders
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Leadership

Context, Context, Context!

  • 1:10 pm
  • July 8, 2025

“An old proverb says: ‘We see people not as they are but as we are’. To which we add: ‘And who we are is shaped by the context in which we exist’. We win first prize when we are able to see, not just the actions of others, but also the context out of which these actions come. We win second prize (and it is not an inconsequential prize) when we know that, for the most part, we don’t”.
Barry Oshry, Seeing Systems

Let this sink in. Do you really see anyone or any situation clearly?

Most of us think we do, but we don’t. We see others through the prism of how we are. And context shapes how we are.

This insight landed with me like a meteorite hitting my personal planet, during the seven-day, 24/7 total immersion Power Lab programme in 2000. Luckily, unlike in the movie Don’t Look Up, I survived the Power Lab.

Observing my behaviour during this programme, people might have asked who is John Watters? Was he the overbearing, distant, aloof, arrogant ‘top’ who showed up in the first five days of the Power Lab? (Note: I was living in the ‘elite/top’ space for the first five days of the programme.) Or was John the sociable, fun, creative ‘bottom/worker’ who showed up in the last couple of days of the programme? (Note: I was moved to the bottom space for the last part of the Lab).

My personality was constant over the week; what changed was the context in which I was living and working. The tricky thing is that we think our experience is the only reality, in the sense that we believe that our experience is solid and tells us who we are and who they are. Yet change your context, or change your relationship to the context you’re in, and most times you will feel and behave differently, and you will look differently to others. Context matters much more than we think, and most of us don’t see context or realise its power!

So, I think our work is twofold:

1. Clean up the lens through which we see. Notice the assumptions, the stories we carry, the stuff that triggers us, all the things that obscure our view of things as they are. Life is a practice and it’s easy to go to sleep on the job. Or is that just my experience? 😉 It requires discipline to stay awake and alert.

2. See the context we and others are in. And learn how context (top, middle, bottom, customer, dominant/ingroup, other/outgroup…) shapes behaviour and consciousness, including our sense of ourselves, others and the whole system.

What are your thoughts about the power of context?

John Watters, Facilitator, Leading Self, Leading Systems programme

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Jules brings over 45 years of experience to boosting people’s motivation and purposeful contribution to their roles and organisations. With first-hand experience of senior leadership in the private and non-profit sectors and 15 as a consultant.

Jules designs and delivers leadership development and partnering programmes for all levels of leaders and managers. Trained to coach individuals and teams to build trust, techniques and resilience in a volatile and complex world. Clients include Arup, Philips, PwC, Aegon, British Council, and both Universities in Sheffield.

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She takes a systemic approach that shines a light on the deeper dynamics influencing our perception and choices. She accompanies and resources leaders and ‘top teams’ in their role as shapers. She helps groups build cultures for innovation and extraordinary partnership. She helps people explore resistance and stuckness, and what is limiting their success and fulfilment. People are able to act with more awareness, alignment, impact and ease.

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His interests are in the realm of leadership, individual and team development. Louies 22 years of experience includes working with middle management up to the C-suite level. As a coach, Louie combines somatic practices to support his clients in understanding the connection of mind, heart and body. He uses a wholistic approach as a base to provide space for sustainable change. He encourages people to break barriers, challenge what is current and move them to a space of choice and action.

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He delivers leadership development programmes, coaching individuals and teams to build capability, confidence and resilience in a changing world. Recent clients include Arup, Aegon, Zurich, Prudential, and Phillips, with experience spanning from new managers to senior leadership and board level.

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Since 2000, Beth has been a consultant, coach and facilitator. Beth has coached C-suite executives all over the world. She coaches leadership teams, including those in start-up or transition. Beth has also been part of the development staff in many leadership faculties for multinational organisations such as Shell, Philips, Adidas, Jollibee Food Corporation, British Petroleum and others. Her ability to work across multiple cultures has been honed through her leadership responsibilities as a global senior executive at Johnson & Johnson and through worldwide and regional assignments in leadership development for a range of multinationals as a programme developer and executive coach.

Abundant energy and physical stamina, Beth has an infectious but grounded energy. Her communication skills carry her comfortably from the lecture hall to the boardroom. Her coaching skills can give an invaluable boost to rising, or temporarily sputtering, organisational stars. She has been recognised for her unique ability to draw out extraordinary performance in organisations and teams with diverse members.
Jon’s early career designing applications led to him becoming IT director for a market-leading multinational. His systemic perspective, allied with a background in psychology and subsequent leadership experience inside major organisations was followed by intensive learning in personal development, values systems and multiple intelligences. Brought together, these create a transformational perspective for understanding and developing organisations as living systems.

Jon is a master trainer in Spiral Dynamics, a founder director of the UK chapter of Conscious Capitalism and a certified Spiritual Intelligence coach. He is the author of several books and articles and is developer of Relational Being, a visionary whole-systems approach to evidence-based spirituality, complexity science, human emergence, societal change and conscious business. This breadth of experience and deep understanding informs his work as a consultant, coach, trainer and facilitator
Jon Freeman, UK

Jon’s early career designing applications led to him becoming IT director for a market-leading multinational. His systemic perspective, allied with a background in psychology and subsequent leadership experience inside major organisations was followed by intensive learning in personal development, values systems and multiple intelligences. Brought together, these create a transformational perspective for understanding and developing organisations as living systems. Jon is a master trainer in Spiral Dynamics, a founder director of the UK chapter of Conscious Capitalism and a certified Spiritual Intelligence coach. He is the author of several books and articles and is developer of Relational Being, a visionary whole systems approach to evidence-based spirituality, complexity science, human emergence, societal change and conscious business. This breadth of experience and deep understanding informs his work as a consultant, coach, trainer and facilitator.