ABSTRACT
Cooklin Alan is a family therapist, doing family therapy, family therapy supervision, and teaching family therapy in different institutions. On occasion, he become a supervisor of organizations. With the closing of the mental hospitals in Italy and the development of the community programmes, in the face of the power of many traditional approaches to mental health care, the systemic approach has gained in prestige and power. In 1994 he was invited to supervise a group in their activity as family therapists in a public institution. Most theories of organization assume that efficiency of results is related to clarity of the hierarchical structure of the organization. Alan began to think that if he tried to clarify the usual organizational issues such as who was in charge, who makes decisions, or who is really responsible for what goes on, then he would be ejected as a consultant.
