A Non-Residential Group Relations Conference in the Tavistock Tradition

35th Annual Learning Conference
Authority, Leadership, Integrity, and Learning in Organizational Life

April 1-3, 2005, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Sponsored by
The Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, an Affiliate of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems

The James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland

The 21st century is filled with fast-paced events. We are constantly being challenged to understand, manage, and implement change in various aspects of our personal and professional lives. Embedded within this challenge is the challenge to conduct our personal and organizational/professional lives with some measure of integrity. The word integrity originates from the same Latin root as "integer," or whole number. Like a whole number, persons of integrity are presumed to be undivided, complete, and consistent in all aspects of their life. Moreover, organizations and people who are presumed to have integrity are thought to be competent, honest, and trustworthy. We are living in an environment where the integrity of those who are in positions of leadership and authority (governments and government officials; CEOs; university administrators, faculty and students—to identify a few) as well as those who decide to follow can and should be questioned. Though life provides no clear-cut “how to” operational change manual, life does provide opportunities for learning.

Consequently, to be effective or successful “change agents” both organizationally and individually and to live both our organizational and/or personal life with any measure of integrity require that we increase our effectiveness as learners. Learning and adaptation to change are fundamental processes evident in all living systems from the single-celled microorganisms, to the small family-owned business, to the international mega corporation. Be it our family, our school, our faith/spiritual/religious community, or our workplace, our learning and adaptation occurs in the context of others, often around a specified task. Most of our learning is informal, built upon our spoken and unspoken reflections about the work, the workers, the technology, and the organization in which the task occurs.

Mentors and role models are great resources for helping us learn because we can learn a great deal from observation of others. The authority invested in individuals as well as the exercise of their own authority impacts their ability to work, learn, and adapt in groups and organizational life. The many ways in which authority is perceived and used affects not only individual adaptation and learning, but also that of others in the organization and of the organization itself.

Primary Task
This conference is designed to provide members with opportunities to experience, examine, and learn about systemic processes – overt and covert, conscious and unconscious – encountered in the exercise of authority, leadership, and power. The conference design and staff consultation will focus particular attention on the multi-layered process of interdependence and consequent issues of leadership, authority, and learning within the context of a temporary organization. Members learn primarily through experience and reflection on their experience during the conference.

Purpose
The underlying purpose of the conference is to promote increased learning and understanding and leadership and followership competence in personal, work, and community arenas.

Conference participants will have opportunities to:

• Learn about group processes from participation in groups that vary in size, structure, and task.
• Learn and experience ways in which systems maintain integrity.
• Discover aspects of group life that create vitality and those aspects that create resistance.
• Observe the impact of individual characteristics such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and age on leadership, learning, and integrity.
• Recognize personal and collective reactions to crisply defined authority and frankly delineated boundaries.
• Discern the variations between authority formally delegated by a superior, the authority sanctioned by subordinates, colleagues, or clients, and the actual or imputed power that an individual brings to his or her role.
• Experiment with behaviors of collaboration, competition, coalition building, and commitment.
• Identify underlying patterns of group interaction by forming groups, establishing governing structures, and relating with other groups.
• Understand the difference between the stated task of the group and the task it actually appears to be pursuing.
• Apply conference learning to situations in their personal lives, work lives, and professional development.

Learning Model for this Conference
As the group relations conference unfolds, it creates a temporary learning institution that provides opportunities to study experientially the conscious and unconscious elements that affect systems and organizational life, paying particular attention to concepts such as authority, leadership, tasks, roles, and boundaries. With certain factors held constant (task, role, time, and place) members may become participant-observers who make meaning of the institution they are in the process of co-creating. This temporary organization inevitably mirrors the patterns and relationships of our work and personal lives, allowing us to progress on intellectual, emotional, political, and even spiritual levels. Consultants provide observations and interpretations to promote awareness of emerging themes regarding authority, leadership, task, role, and boundary formation. While intellectual learning about groups and organizational behavior is available in many different forums, group relations conferences are rare enterprises that allow members to learn experientially.

This model of working and learning evolved from the work of pioneers in group relations theory: A. Kenneth Rice, Wilfred R. Bion, Gordon Lawrence, Pierre Turquet, Eric Miller and others associated with The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London in the 1950s. Their ideas have since been adopted throughout the world. (Additional references may be found at: http://www.wbcgrouprelations.org/bibliograhy.htm)

Conference Events
The conference offers a series of events to provide opportunities to learn through examining one’s experiences in a variety of contexts. Experiential learning events of this kind may be stressful, so individuals who are ill or experiencing a period of personal difficulty should forgo attendance. The events begin and end promptly at the times designated. Since the conference is designed as a whole, persons who know they will not be able to attend all events are encouraged to find another conference they can attend in its entirety.

Plenary Events
There are two plenary events scheduled, the Opening and Concluding Plenaries. Each Plenary will bring together the entire staff and membership to discuss questions regarding the conference and/or its parts.

Small Study Group
The task of the Small Study Group is to learn about and to study its own behavior as it occurs in the “here-and-now,” with special attention to authority, leadership, and learning issues. No more than twelve members will be assigned to each group, and one or two consultants will aid in the task.

Intergroup/Institutional Event
Intergroup and Institutional Events, also conducted in the “here-and-now,” provide members and staff the opportunity to learn about the dynamics of authority, leadership, and learning occurring among and between groups within the temporary organization. Members develop groups. Staff functions in a variety of roles during these events, and, as part of the management function of the event, it conducts its own work in open session.

Reflective Learning Event
Reflective Learning Events are not “here-and-now” events rather, “there-and-then” events. Reflective Learning Events provide members space and time to reflect on the dynamics of the conference-as-a-whole and within the context of conference. Events occur at the beginning of the second and third day of the conference. Reflective Learning Events do not occur in the presence of staff.

Role Analysis and Application
Role Analysis and Application Groups are designed to facilitate understanding of the roles members “take up” within the temporary organization and encourage direct application of the learning gleaned from conference experiences to the workplaces and professional lives of the members. Staff attempts to create relatively homogenous groups, based upon members’ professional roles.

Staff’s Function
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 members to learn about the processes evident in this particular temporary educational institution and to facilitate application of this learning to other institutions and organizations. The staff’s analysis and interpretation of emergent dynamics are conducted at the group and organizational level, but the experiential nature of the conference also allows significant opportunity for learning about how individuals affect and are affected by themes, myths, and actions in the subsystems and whole system.

Authorization
The Executive Committee of the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations authorized this conference.

Administrative Staff

Director
Rufus L. Barfield, II, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Nicholson School of Communication, University of Central Florida; Principal, Barfield and Associates, Organizational Communications Consultants, Inc.; Associate, Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations (WBC); Associate, A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI).

Associate Director for Pre-Conference Operations
Michael Speer, Ph.D.
Organizational and Group Relations Consultant and Trainer, Washington, DC; Senior Fellow, The James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership; Associate, WBC and AKRI, and Immediate Past President, WBC.

Associate Director for Conference Administration
Charneta C. Scott, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty, Trinity University; School Mental Health Clinician, District of Columbia Department of Mental Health; Therapist, Coordinator of Court Services, Francis and Associates, P.C.; Member, American Psychological Association; Member, The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

Conference Administrator
David Dulin
Executive in the global travel agency industry, recently retired and pursuing an interest in the study of social systems. Business management portfolio included meeting planning and conference management.

Consulting Staff

Rufus L. Barfield, II, Ph.D.

Diane A. Forbes Berthoud, Ph.D.
Faculty, Communication Program, Trinity University, Washington, DC; Former ombudsperson and consultant, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC; Past Secretary, Executive Committee, WBC; Associate, WBC and AKRI.

Michael Speer, Ph.D.

Mary W. Wright, RN, MS, MPH
Psychotherapist, Organizational Consultant; Vice President, AKRI; Fellow, AKRI.

Staff may be subject to change.

Practical Information

Place	Taliaferro Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Dates	April 1-3, 2005
Times	Friday, April 1	Registration 3:30 pm, Taliaferro Hall, First Floor Lobby
		Events from 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
	Saturday, April 2	Events from 8:30 am – 9:00 pm
	Sunday, April 3	Events from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Conference Fee	$300.00
	Employees of non-profit agencies, government, students (with current ID), school teachers and administrators, and two or more individuals attending from the same organizations are entitled to a discounted fee of $150 per member. A few scholarships may be available
	Non-profit Organization Employee $150.00 Please specify Organization Students $150.00 Enclose copy of your Student ID School Teachers $150.00 School Administrators $150.00 Groups of 2 or more $150.00
Campus Map	http://www.parking.umd.edu/themap/
Hotel Info	http://www.uga.umd.edu/visit/hotel.html
Directions	http://www.cvs.umd.edu/visit/directions.html
Readings on Group Relations	http://www.wbcgrouprelations.org/bibliograhy.htm
Email	LearningConf05@aol.com
Phone	202-887-8955