A Personal Reflection on the Composium on Exploratory Constellations at the University of Bremen

In late September 2025, I spent a full week at the Composium on Exploratory Constellations hosted by Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ at the University of Bremen. It was more than an academic event - it was a space of inquiry, openness, and genuine curiosity. I left with the clear sense that this method has the power to move people, systems, and even entire fields of knowledge.

What is the Composium?

The Composium brings together practitioners, researchers, students, and people from different disciplines who are interested in working with Exploratory Constellations or learning how this method can be applied in complex contexts.

It is a space intentionally free from rigid agendas or predefined answers. Instead of offering solutions, it creates conditions in which questions can deepen and new perspectives can emerge. It is a gathering dedicated to learning through presence, reflection, participation, and embodied exploration.

What are Exploratory Constellations?

Exploratory Constellations are a systemic research method developed by Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ. Unlike classical constellations - which often aim for clarification or solutions - Exploratory Constellations focus on:

• approaching a topic openly and without judgment

• exploring instead of diagnosing

• making complexity visible in space

• including embodied, relational, and intuitive knowledge

• staying with uncertainty long enough for new insights to surface

It is a method rooted in not-knowing - an invitation to let curiosity lead the way and to truly listen to what emerges from the system itself.

Where does the method come from?

The method grew out of Pro. Dr. Müller-Christ’s long-standing work at the intersection of:

• systemic theory

• constellations practice

• sustainability and transformation research

• organizational studies

• and the question of how humans and systems learn in depth

He has published a comprehensive book on this work, which offers a framework for understanding Exploratory Constellations as a scientific approach to inquiry - one that integrates cognitive, relational, and embodied dimensions of knowledge.

What does Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ teach at the University of Bremen?

At the University of Bremen, Pro. Dr. Müller-Christ is a professor in the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics. He teaches and researches topics such as:

• sustainability management

• transformative and reflexive leadership

• systemic organizational development

• resources and responsibility in economic systems

• and innovative research methodologies, including the use of Exploratory Constellations in academic contexts

His teaching is deeply connected to real-world transformation processes, and he continually bridges scientific insight with embodied, participatory exploration.

Why I consider this method so important

Attending the Composium helped me understand why Exploratory Constellations carry such potential - not only for individuals but also for society, politics, and science.

1. They cultivate true curiosity.

In a world saturated with quick opinions and fast judgments, this method creates a rare space where “I don’t know yet” becomes a legitimate, even powerful starting point.

2. They help us ask new questions.

Often the limits of a system are not set by what we know, but by the questions we fail to ask. Exploratory Constellations reveal those hidden questions.

3. They move people, not only concepts.

Knowledge in constellations is something you feel and witness, not just something you think. This embodied quality creates shifts that written theory alone cannot provoke.

4. They can inspire change in society, politics, and science.

This method encourages deeper thinking, more open dialogue, and a more compassionate approach to complexity.It allows us to see what usually remains invisible - and to understand what our usual tools fail to grasp.

5. They support organizations in discovering new directions.

Schools, companies, institutions, and teams can use this method to explore unseen dynamics, new pathways, and hidden potentials. Often, what is stuck in everyday structures becomes visible when seen in spatial relation.

6. They embody lifelong learning.

Exploratory Constellations teach us to stay open, curious, and connected. They remind us that confusion is not failure, but an invitation: a moment where something new can emerge.

Closing Reflection

After spending a week at the Composium, I felt as if something inside me had quietly expanded. Those 5 days had been dense and alive with conversations that touched places I didn’t expect - reflections on aging and dying, on our capacity for self-healing, on the future of AI, and on what it all means for being human today. I kept finding myself surprised by how naturally these themes wove into one another, as if they were different doors leading into the same room.

What stayed with me the most was the openness in the group, the way people held space for each other without rushing, without needing to have the right answer. In that atmosphere, I noticed my own thoughts shifting, softening, becoming more curious. It felt as though the entire week invited me to pause and listen more deeply - not only to others, but to myself.

I realized how profoundly the experience had affected me. It was, in many ways, mind-blowing - not in a dramatic sense, but in a quiet, enduring way that continues to unfold even now.

The conversations, the teaching, and the presence of everyone there opened something in me that I am still integrating. I feel grateful, humbled, and inspired to carry this sense of connection and inquiry forward into my work and into my life.