The aim of this paper is to explore and discuss the links between a psychoanalytic account of meaning and its relevance to the practice of psychoanalytically informed consultancy or ‘system psychodynamics’. It argues that the disclosure of meaning in this practice cannot be separated out from the process of working at meaning with the client. Two examples are offered to illustrate the ways in which meaning can be either found or lost in the course of engaging with clients. The examples are then used to address a number of broader issues concerning limits on the applicability of a psychoanalytic approach to the study of organisations, in the absence of any sustained process of engagement. A concluding section briefly speculates on the wider implications for any account of meaning at work of the challenge now being posed by the erosion of familiar organisational paradigms.