Despite the importance of social and historical context for understanding organisational dynamics, organisational consulting and research continues to be dominated by cross-sectional approaches that focus organisational change efforts largely on the present and the near future. In this article, we describe a longitudinal approach to studying organisational change that maps change processes across time. We ground our conceptual framework in psychoanalytic object relations theory and a detailed case example that illustrates change over time as a consequence of changes in leadership. This approach provides practitioners and researchers with a framework for better understanding the historical context of current organisational problems and better crafting organisational change interventions.