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A Non-Residential Group Relations Conference
June
25-27, 2004
Primary
Task This conference is designed to provide participants with opportunities to experience and examine systemic processes—overt and covert, conscious and unconscious—encountered in the exercise of authority and leadership in diverse groups, organizations and communities. Framework A fuller understanding of what we do with diversity—of what
we do with differences such as color, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual
orientation and other variables—requires that we examine
the intersection of at least three currents. One of these is the
current of power and access to resources. We humans struggle fiercely
for power, which includes the ability to access and control material,
social and emotional resources such as food, shelter, opportunity,
recognition, affection and love. The fierceness of our struggle
has many roots including an enduring belief that there is “not
enough” to meet the needs of all. The related but often unstated
belief is that if everyone could access and control these resources—if
everyone had power—no one’s needs could be met
adequately. Paradoxically, the fierceness of our struggle is
also rooted in
a preferred view of self that makes it difficult to acknowledge,
let alone manage, our very human self-interest. In diverse settings then, it is the interaction of the struggle for power and resources, of systemic dynamics, and of the meanings we attach to our differences, that plays a large part in determining who is authorized to act, who is authorized to congregate, who can lead, who can edit history, and indeed, who can define reality. It is this interaction that plays a large part in determining the colors, genders, ages and other characteristics of those authorized and of those authorizing. By attending to concepts such as task, role, authority and boundaries, this conference will enable participants to learn more, both experientially and intellectually, about this interaction in our organizations and communities. Model and Learning Opportunities As it unfolds, this conference will create a temporary learning organization that will provide opportunities to explore through experience the conscious and unconscious elements that affect the system and its parts. Temporary organizations of this sort inevitably mirror the patterns of our work and community life, allowing participants to engage, reflect and learn on psychological, political, and other levels. Using a whole systems approach, participants and staff will experience and examine aspects of the system as they occur in the “here-and-now.” Participants will have opportunities to:
This model of working and learning flows from a tradition begun fifty years ago at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (London) and since adapted worldwide. In the United States, the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI), together with its regional affiliates, sponsors these conferences and other learning events. The Executive Committee of the Washington-Baltimore Center, an affiliate of AKRI, has authorized this conference. Learning Events Opening and Discussion Events will be held three times during the conference. The first two introduce the conference and the Institutional Event. The third is toward the end of the conference and enables participants and staff to review together the conference as a whole. The Small Study Group, made up of no more than twelve conference participants and one or two staff consultants, provides opportunities for participants to experience and learn from small group processes as they occur. The Large Study Group, made up of all conference participants and a team of staff consultants, provides opportunities to explore and reflect on dynamics that arise in the total conference membership. The Institutional Event provides opportunities for participants and staff together to examine the relationships between and among participant groups and the staff group. Major issues available for exploration include participant roles, boundary formation, emergence of leadership, and delegation of authority. During this event the staff conducts its work in open session. Role Review and Application Groups are designed to facilitate understanding of the roles participants adopt within conference events, and encourage application of the learning gleaned from conference experiences to participants’ workplaces and communities. Conference Staff Throughout the conference, staff members serve in a variety of roles designed to encourage awareness, analysis, reflection and understanding of the emergent conference dynamics. Working from specific but varied roles, the staff works with the participants to learn about the processes evident in this particular temporary organization. The staff’s analysis and interpretation of emergent dynamics is conducted at the organizational level, but the experiential nature of the conference allows significant opportunity for learning about how individuals affect and are affected by themes, myths and actions in the whole system and its parts. Staff also collectively constitutes the management of the conference and takes responsibility and authority for managing its task, role, space and time boundaries. Administrative Staff Director Associate Director for Administration Administrator Consulting Staff Omowale
T. Elson, PH.D. Betsy A. Hasegawa, Ed.D. Dannielle Kennedy, LICSW, PhD Shelley J. Korshak, M.D., C.G.P. David Luna, MBA, JD Joseph Schmidt, M.Div. Practical Information
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