Memory and memories
The impact of Alzheimer’s disease
I regularly visit a family member who has, from my birth, always played a very significant and meaningful role for me. She’s led a vibrant life, both professionally and personally, and has been a source of support, nourishment, connection, wisdom and enabling for dozens and dozens of people. The most noticeable thing about her for me these days is the impact of the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, which are getting more and more cruel and serious as time goes by (although thankfully she isn’t aware of them).
Identity
And I notice that her identity is changing – her identity as it comes across to me (she’s now someone who seems increasingly detached from her former vibrancy and capability, and from those who know her and love her, separated from them by losing touch with who they are and how she’s connected to them), and her identity as she experiences herself (she’s interested in less and less of what goes on around her or participating in it).
Somatic experience
Of course, so far I’ve been referring to cognitive memory and memories. Those memories come from what has been laid down over many years, and, for the two of us in this particular relationship, are rooted in the nature of our relationship, and how we feel and have felt about each other. Although I know that she has very little, if any, short-term memory (so the second I leave her, she will have no memory that I have been with her), I also know that because of the nature and closeness of our relationship, she will be left with some kind of emotional and somatic experience which I dare to hope gives her something positive in what I imagine is a life lived only in the present, since the past – in terms of conscious memories – is no longer a part of her life.
The somatic nature of memory
When I step back from the immediacy of the sadness and my awareness of exponential loss inherent in this specific situation, I find myself curious about not only the somatic nature of memory and memories, but also about the memories that exist in organisations because of, for example, individuals’ relationships with previous leaders and colleagues, and how important it is to take account of them: these memories carry significant power in terms of having shaped some of the attitudes, motivations and expectations that people bring to work. This is the stuff of systems, revealed often in a facilitated engagement with systemic constellations.
Leaders
In the same way that memory for an Alzheimer’s sufferer will reside more in the body and the emotions than in the mind, my experience of working with leaders has shown me that so too does the somatic impact of memory in their work contexts, translating into loyalties, attitudes, emotional responses and even values, and, in turn, behaviours and the performance (or what is perceived or interpreted as performance), of individuals at work.
The embodied impact
New leaders, and leaders coming into roles in organisations that are new for them, seem to do well in the medium and long term when – rather than making uniquely cognitive judgments – they approach their new contexts with a humility that allows them to reflect on the meanings behind the behaviours they’re seeing, the power balances they’re experiencing, and what may be the apparently inexplicable ways in which judgments seem to be made and decisions seem to be taken. This is the territory of somatic and emotional memory. It can be useful and revealing for a current leader to reflect on the imprint of previous leaders in their role, and to respect it rather than being tempted to dismiss it (and be the ‘new broom’), simply because that leader was in the past. The memory of past leaders may be very alive today because of their embodied impact on the team and the organisation – just as the Alzheimer’s sufferer embodies the impact of memories from the past (albeit in ways that are different from the impact of conscious memory). These memories might show up as feelings of love, safety, connection, caring or concern, for example.
The organisation’s history and memories
The new leader’s skill and effectiveness will be tested in part by the way they integrate the impact of a team or organisation’s memories and history (and that team or organisation’s consequent sense of identity) with their own individuality, beliefs, values, insight and behaviours – and particularly their relationships.
The recently-arrived leader does well not to trample on memories nor to impose organisational Alzheimer’s.
Photo by
