October 20, 2025

5x5 Leadership - with Matthew Adam

26 minutes

Lucinda is joined by special guest Matthew Adam, to look at the concept of systemic psychotherapy, exploring how its principles, rooted in understanding the interconnected nature of relationships within a system, are highly relevant to organisational leadership.

Using a 5x5 model framework—which balances five essential team functions against five common team dysfunctions—they examine the active, proactive process required to foster a healthy, high-performing organisational culture.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Systemic psychotherapy focuses on relationships and the interconnected nature of elements within a system, similar to how an ecosystem or a family operates, and this thinking is highly applicable to improving organisational systems.

The 5x5 model addresses the "five dysfunctions of a team" by balancing them against five essential team functions, providing an active, hands-on framework for improving team dynamics and performance.

Working on the model creates a positive, multi-modal, and circulatory impact across the organisation, meaning that strengthening one area simultaneously enhances all other areas due to the interconnected nature of the system.

The starting point for implementing the model is encouraging a reflective space where leaders address questions about how they can improve and what they would like to do differently, moving from a problem-saturated focus to a strength-based position.

BEST MOMENTS

"Systemic psychotherapy is really about relationships. It's about how do we understand the interconnected nature of the elements that comprise a system and how they interact with each other."

“Dysfunction doesn't have to mean dysfunctional"

"Working on one particular area, you're positively impacting all of the others simultaneously."

"We sometimes have to define our structure so that not only are we addressing team dynamic, but we're also introducing agility and flexibility."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The HR Uprising Podcast | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Stitcher⁠

⁠The HR Uprising LinkedIn Group⁠

⁠Mastering Motivation with Rob Lion (The HR Uprising)⁠

⁠How To Be A Change Superhero - by Lucinda Carney⁠

HR Uprising Mastermind - ⁠https://hruprising.com/mastermind/⁠

⁠www.changesuperhero.com⁠

⁠www.hruprising.com⁠

Get your copy of How To Be A Change Superhero by emailing at ⁠[email protected]⁠

CONTACT MATTHEW

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-adam1/

5x5 Website - http://www.the5x5model.com/

For Consulting - http://www.systemicsolutionsconsulting.co.uk/

ABOUT THE HOST

Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles and a further 10 as CEO of Actus Software where she worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. It was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.

“If you look up, you rise up”

CONTACT METHOD

Join the LinkedIn community - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13714397/⁠

Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Linked In: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucindacarney/⁠

Twitter: @lucindacarney

Instagram: @hruprising

Facebook: @hruprising

This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. ⁠https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

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By Lucinda Carney

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