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 (AKRI); co-sponsored by The Fielding Graduate University, Towson University Department of Psychology and the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland
We live in a world that is too easily divided into "us" and "them." Knowing and working with people who seem different, "other" than us, is a major challenge of contemporary life. Beyond staying politically correct, understanding and appreciating what it means to think and experience from different points of view is a difficult process. Too readily we avoid this task by trying to smooth over differences and make others seem (or act) just like us - and are surprised and often chagrined later when covered-over differences erupt into conflict.
Groups create categories of people and then treat them as though they had inherent reality. Categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, social class, nationality and age are created through group life, and their formation and definitions are often influenced by unconscious processes. Even within these categories, people have different minds and their assumptive world contains views of reality that are astonishing in their diversity. Others can be a threat, but they can also be a resource that enriches the larger group. Transformation occurs through contact with the Other when the differences of the Other can be appreciated and understood.
Our emotional, intellectual and spiritual engagement with the world, through whatever roles we occupy in whatever groups we take part in, is always marked by our capacity to tolerate and explore what is uncertain, unknown or unthought in ourselves and in our situations. The Tavistock tradition of group relations conferences is a means to explore how anxieties affect group life and all the individuals within those groups and then to imagine together how the differences that create and reflect those anxieties might be transcended. In viewing group life through the anxieties that are structured both at conscious and unconscious levels, we can become more aware of how our perceptions, both rational and irrational, influence our ability to live and work with others. We try to go beyond the superficial statements of difference and category that we are all familiar with and delve into the deeper, harder-to-grasp roots of the spaces that divide us. Today, this means of analyzing group life has extraordinary relevance.
The purpose of the Conference is to create a temporary institution as a laboratory in which participants can experience and study group and institutional dynamics typical of organizations, broadly construed. The temporary institution thus created shares, at both practical and metaphoric levels, aspects of the larger social world in which we live, and insight gained is transferable to a wide variety of real world settings.
Conference participants will have the opportunity to
This group relations conference is open to people who have a serious interest in learning more about the dynamics of authority, leadership and organizations. It should be particularly relevant to organizational consultants, educators, mental health professionals, community leaders, business owners, social workers, clergy, and faculty and students in fields such as psychology, sociology, leadership studies, education or political science. It is often useful for two or more people from the same organization to attend.
Because the conference is designed to be educational as a whole and not simply in its parts, please apply only if you can commit to attending the entire conference. Also, because experiential learning events of this kind may be stressful, individuals who are ill or experiencing a period of personal difficulty should forego attendance at this time.