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An Experiential Learning Event in the Group Relations Tradition
May 20-22, 2005
Ambivalence: The existence of mutually conflicting feelings or thoughts, such as love and hate together, about some person, object or idea. (American Heritage Dictionary)
One idea that we will explore together in this experiential learning event is that, no matter what we believe or profess, we are actually quite ambivalent about diversity in the organizations and communities to which we belong. It is difficult to admit our ambivalence and it is even more difficult to wrestle with it. In part, our ambivalence is a reaction to how challenging it is to work with diversity in an authentic and effective way, as this requires working with a complex mix of factors without ignoring or minimizing any of them. These factors, which are in almost constant clash in our organizational and community lives, include:
The constant clash of these factors is sometimes readily apparent and other times outside our immediate awareness. However, whether the clash is apparent or unseen, its continually emerging result determines the colors, genders, ages and other characteristics of those authorized and of those authorizing, of those leading and of those following. Its continually emerging result determines who can congregate, who can act, who can write and edit history, and indeed, who can define reality. In this experiential learning event we will be in, struggle with and learn more about the constant clash of these factors and its continually emerging result. What We Will Learn As it unfolds, this event will form a temporary learning organization that will enable us to explore through experience the conscious and unconscious elements that affect the organization and its parts. Temporary organizations of this sort inevitably mirror the patterns of our work and community lives, allowing us to engage, reflect and learn on psychological, political, and other levels. Using a whole systems approach, we will experience and examine aspects of the system as they occur in the “here-and-now.” In doing so, we will increase our capacities to:
Who Should Participate This learning event will be especially useful for leaders and aspiring leaders at all levels who are faced with issues of diversity. In the past, events like this one have attracted executives, directors, managers, advisors, consultants, coaches, trainers, educators, clergy, psychotherapists and students. Participants have come from business, government, religious and spiritual organizations, health care, academia, arts organizations, the non-profit sector, the military and other sorts of organizations. Our Primary Task Our primary task in this event will be to experience, reflect on and learn more about systemic processes—overt and covert, conscious and unconscious—encountered in the exercise of authority and leadership in diverse groups, organizations and communities. Learning Structures Opening and Discussion Sessions will be held three times during the learning event. The first two will introduce the event itself and the Institutional Sessions. The third will be toward the end of the event and will provide an opportunity to discuss the event as a whole. The Small Study Group, made up of no more than twelve participants and at least one staff consultant, will provide opportunities to experience and learn from small group processes as they occur. The Large Study Group, made up of all participants and a team of staff consultants, will provide opportunities to explore and reflect on dynamics that arise in the total group. The Institutional Sessions will provide opportunities to examine the relationships between and among participant groups and the staff group. Major issues available for exploration will include participant roles, boundary formation, emergence of leadership, and delegation of authority. During this event the staff will conduct its work in open session. Role Review and Application Groups will provide opportunities to explore in greater depth the roles that participants adopt within the learning event, and to enable application of the learning from the event to participants’ workplaces and communities. Roles of the Conference Staff Throughout this learning event, staff members will serve in a variety of roles designed to encourage awareness, analysis, reflection and understanding of emerging dynamics. The staff will join participants in analyzing and interpreting dynamics at the organizational level. However, the experiential nature of the event will provide significant opportunity for learning about how individuals affect and are affected by themes, myths and actions in the whole system and its parts. Staff will also collectively constitute the management of the event and will take responsibility and authority for managing its task, role, space and time boundaries. Administrative Staff Director Associate Director for Administration Administrator Administrator Consulting Staff Laura Dorsey-Elson,
Ph.D. Betsy A. Hasegawa,
Ed.D. Spedden A. Hause, III, Ph.D Ruth En-Jen Kuo, M.Div. David Luna, MBA, J.D. Kimberley
A. Turner, Ph.D. Mark Virshbo Practical Information
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