Table of Contents

1. What is the benefit of attending a Conference?
2. Why study these concepts?
3. What is a Conference?
4. What happens at a Conference?
5. How is a Conference organized?
6. Who attends these Conferences?
7. What does the Staff do?

What is the benefit of attending a Conference?   [BACK TO TOP]

An experiential conference will provide opportunities to:

1. Further your understanding of the complex dynamics that impact our work in groups and organizations
2. Examine the relationships among the concepts of authority, leadership and followership
3. Consider the interplay between conscious intentions and covert, unconscious dynamics and the impact of that interplay on organizational success or failure
4. Develop an awareness of the dilemmas inherent in both collaboration and competition in and among work groups
5. Enhance your understanding of managing yourself and others in work roles and within and across work boundaries

Why study these concepts?  [BACK TO TOP]

As never before, our organizations - whether those are corporate, academic, government, religious or not-for-profit organizations - are being challenged to examine and transform the ways they carry out tasks and conduct business. Technological advancements have enabled communication and transactions to occur across an ever-expanding set of boundaries, opening new opportunities and creating new dilemmas to be managed. Organizational leaders and managers are working with an increasingly diverse workforce, again offering new potential as well as new possibilities for misunderstanding and conflict. The current economic climate is unfavorable to most organizations, diminishing growth and raising questions about survival. And all of this is occurring in the midst of increasing skepticism about organizational integrity and ethics due to the widely reported abuses and failures of those in positions of authority and responsibility.

These trends and concerns have created a renewed interest in issues of authority, leadership and responsible followership in groups and organizations. This conference is designed to provide opportunities for us, individually and collectively, to examine our expectations and assumptions about authority and to study and reflect on how we participate in the exercise of that authority and leadership in our organizations and communities.

What is a Conference?  [BACK TO TOP]

The conference is designed as a temporary learning organization that exists for the purpose of studying itself; it has many characteristics of more permanent organizations and social institutions. The conference provides a setting in which to study what happens within and between groups in the "here and now". Participants may explore, discuss and reflect on the complex and often covert, unconscious processes of organizational systems as they experience them directly. This educational model is based on experiential learning; lectures and didactic presentations are not part of the design.

The conference, like other group relations conferences in the Tavistock tradition, is based on the idea that groups take on meanings for participants that influence their thoughts, feelings and behavior. These may be powerful, but often unrecognized, forces that govern the identities, roles and authority that individuals are able to take on in groups or organizations. While seldom examined, group process at this level may profoundly impact a group's effectiveness in achieving its goals. Therefore, it is the focus of study in this conference; the aim is to increase awareness of those processes in order to assist participants in managing themselves, and perhaps others, effectively in their work roles.

What happens at a Conference?  [BACK TO TOP]

In order to provide appropriate learning opportunities, the conference is organized as a sequence of group and inter-group events. The structure and sequence of events are designed to provide opportunities to study the conscious and unconscious group dynamics that emerge and contribute to our experiences in groups and organizations. Conference events include experiences in relatively small, face-to-face groups, experience in a larger group with more of the qualities of a crowd, and experiences with group formation and inter-group interaction. There also are opportunities for review, reflection and discussion with other participants.

During the conference, staff members take up several roles. First, they act collectively as management, taking responsibility to provide the boundary conditions - task, time and territory - in such a way that all participants (members and staff) can engage the work of the conference. Second, individual staff members take up specific directorial, administrative and consulting roles. It is the role of the staff, on the basis of their experiences and observations of events, to offer working hypotheses about what is happening in the "here and now". The ways in which the staff, individually and collectively, take up their roles and exercise their authority are explicitly available for study by conference participants.

How is a Conference organized?  [BACK TO TOP]

The primary format for learning is experiential, rather than didactic, although opportunities for reflection and discussion are included. As the conference unfolds, participants, along with staff, essentially co-create a temporary institution as they work to explore and understand the group and organizational dynamics operating within the developing system. During the following conference events, participants may directly experience, examine, and reflect on the complexities of groups, organizations, and institutions from a variety of perspectives.

Plenaries: The conference opens in plenary session, as does the Institutional Event. The Conference Discussion at the end of the conference provides opportunities for participants and conference staff to reflect together on their experience.

Small Group: Each participant will be in a small group of not more than 12 individuals. Assisted by a consultant, the Small Group has the task of studying the behavior of the group as it occurs.

Large Group: The Large Group is composed of all participants. Assisted by consultants, the Large Group has the task of studying the behavior of the group as it occurs, in this situation where the size of the group precludes face-to-face interactions.

Institutional Event: The purpose of the Institutional Event is to study the conference organization as a whole. Participants have the opportunity to form groups among themselves in any way they choose and to study group formation, roles and representation, boundary management, and interaction with other groups, including the conference staff which will work in open session during the Institutional Event. Consultation will be available to groups which are formed.

Review/Application Group: Each participant will be assigned to a small group of individuals with similar professional backgrounds and work roles. Assisted by consultants, Review/Application Groups provide an opportunity to review conference experience and learning and to consider application to actual “back-home” group, organizational, and institutional roles.

Who attends these Conferences?  [BACK TO TOP]

The conference is open to individuals who wish to study the exercise of authority in groups and organizations. It might be of particular interest to those in positions of leadership and responsibility and to those who aspire to such positions. The conference is not designed for individuals from any one profession, occupation or work setting. Rather, individuals from business, education, health/mental health, law, government, religion, the media, and social services have attended similar group relations conferences in the recent past.

What does the Staff do?  [BACK TO TOP]

Collectively, staff serve as the management of the conference and maintain appropriate boundary conditions - time, task, and territory - so that participants can work and learn. Individually, they have designated roles as director, administrator, and/or consultant. How staff take up their various roles will differ depending on the particular conference event. Throughout this conference, however, staff will work in ways they believe best support learning. In whatever capacity - director, manager, administrator, or consultant - the manner in which staff take up their roles and exercise their authority is explicitly available for study.