The invisible trap of isomorphy: how to break free from repeating patterns in Higher Education

What is isomorphy and why it matters in organisations

There is a principle – known as isomorphy – that patterns repeat across different levels of a system. What happens at the top, especially in leadership teams, is often mirrored across departments, faculties, and functions – even if no one realises it.

Put simply, isomorphy means that patterns at one level of an organisation often mirror themselves at other levels. It’s like the way the patterns in the fjords of Norway look the same no matter how much you zoom in.

Recognising isomorphy in your organisation

To understand isomorphy better, it helps to look at the current challenges facing the UK Higher Education sector such as leadership culture. When looking at these we often see repeating patterns across our Higher Education clients. These patterns repeat across different institutions and they reverberate up and down organisations with the power to both energise and diminish agency and effectiveness.

More than one head of service has complained that their teams are struggling to juggle competing priorities, or to react to sudden changes of direction, or are afraid of provoking a negative reaction from somebody senior.

When we hear these stories, the first place we look is up, to try to find the source of the pattern.

All too often it’s present right at the top. Senior leaders competing with each other rather than working toward the broader interests of the institution. Or a charismatic VC who will brook no challenge.

The isomorphy of these behaviours is powerful.

Case study: the University of Dundee

The recent Gillies report into the financial woes at the University of Dundee was highly critical of weak governance and a culture that discouraged challenge, and how that particular pattern contributed to its failure. The inability of the University Court to provide sufficient challenge was echoed in the executive and senior management levels and almost certainly in the levels below that.

That’s the thing about isomorphy: what happens in one place is happening everywhere.

If a senior leader feels the need to protect themselves from a capricious boss, they won’t challenge, they won’t make proposals, they won’t back up their peers or receive back up in return. Their isolation might lead to overwork and burnout, or behaviours damaging to others. Their teams will get frustrated when plans suddenly switch, and when their well-reasoned proposals get rejected on a whim they’ll start to spend more energy on trying to manage the politics than solving the problems. Worse, they’ll stop raising concerns.

They’ll stop taking the initiative and wait to be told what to do rather than waste their efforts.

Ultimately, they become passive, slow to respond, and focused on survival.

It’s not anyone’s fault – but it is everyone’s opportunity.

The domino effect of isomorphy: how patterns cascade through teams and leadership

A few years ago, we were called into a faculty where tensions between heads of teams and the leadership felt as though they had reached breaking point. Trust had collapsed. When we sat down to explore what was going wrong we found a repeating pattern.

The team leads were complaining they were experiencing:

▶️ Lack of clarity
▶️ Poor communication
▶️ Poorly wielded power
▶️ Conflicting interests and priorities
▶️ No time to manage properly
▶️ Mistrust
▶️ No space to talk about what’s difficult

And when we spoke to the managers above them, they explained that they were going through exactly the same thing. They were also unclear, stressed, overworked and unsupported. They were also frustrated and operating with lack of clarity, using their best guesses.

Each level was frustrated and irritated at the levels above and below them. Everyone was blaming everyone else. Everyone believed someone else had the power to fix things.

Everyone was looking up for a solution.

Once it became clear that everyone was trapped in the same pattern – and that no one person had the power to fix it – they realised they had to find a solution together.

That wasn’t easy, especially with a lot of bad feeling that was so hard to let go of. But it was possible, with patience and effort.

Breaking the pattern with relational leadership

This experience highlights a key point: If you notice what’s hard for you – the confusion, the anxiety, the lack of transparency, the powerlessness to address it – there’s a very good chance your team is experiencing the same thing. There is a good chance it feels worse for them.

And in fact, they might be experiencing it because you are.

So what helps? In our work, we’ve found the simplest – and hardest – answer is: listening.

Really listening.

By slowing down and creating space to hear what’s happening beneath the surface, you can take a relational approach that helps teams recover. If you get good at it and do it repeatedly, you can prevent things from getting bad in the first place.

Real-world example: a faculty group rebuilds trust

It was only when the faculty group we supported stopped blaming each other, realised they all cared and discovered they were all trapped in the same pattern, that they could start to find their own solutions and enough clarity to operate effectively together.

The power of listening differently

Effective listening goes beyond simply hearing words. It’s about:

i. Listening to understand

To find out what’s actually going on for people – what they are seeing, how they interpret that, what it makes them feel and their underlying needs. This is an important part of including and enabling people, and can reveal differences in understanding that create opportunities.

ii. Listening to draw out those differences

Everyone experiences things slightly differently. These differences can feel like a challenge or a threat, but they are actually a chance to find new solutions.

And yes, it is difficult. Everyone’s under pressure to deliver. Time is tight. When you’re working remotely, spreading your time across multiple priorities. You don’t bump into each other in corridors anymore. And when you are face to face it’s still hard to go deeper.

But if you don’t find time to really understand each other, or the relational skills to have conversations in the right way, misunderstandings can multiply. For example:

• I think I’m being inclusive and open, but you experience me as unclear and indecisive.
• I believe I’m as transparent as I can be, but I don’t actually understand what you need.
• You expect support, but I’m also struggling to stay afloat.

What feels like conflict is often just misaligned intent, unclear expectations and unspoken assumptions. And without seeing the patterns of isomorphy, you risk replicating them.

Small actions that can shift the system

The good news is that these patterns can be broken. If you pause, you might discover that the things that feel like differences are actually commonalities, and the things that you’re craving are shared.

If you’re a leader who can slow down, listen differently, and communicate with more clarity, – you can shift the dynamic not just in your team, but across the entire organisation

This is because isomorphy works both ways. If suffering can replicate, so can care. If confusion cascades, so can clarity. By intentionally trying to shift the pattern, you will have an impact far beyond your immediate sphere.

Practical steps for leaders to disrupt repeating patterns

🧭 1. Spot the pattern
Take five minutes to notice what’s frustrating you. Then ask yourself: is this also showing up in my team? What might I be unintentionally passing on?

👂 2. Listen differently
In your next one-to-one or team meeting, try asking: “What’s one thing you wish was clearer right now?” Then just listen, without fixing or defending.

📅 3. Explore it further
If you’d like help making sense of the patterns in your team or leadership group – we have tools we can recommend – and are always happy to have a chat. It might just shift something important.

At ThenSomehow we help universities and other HE organisations build emotional literacy, increase empathy, and help you see the world differently, giving you practical tools to shift the stuff that’s stuck.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help your organisation develop leaders and perform better, get in touch here.