On the Fault Line: Authority, Leadership and Values

This Group Relations Conference, organised by OFEK, is based on the Group Relations model first developed  at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London during the 1950s by A.K. Rice and Eric Miller. The structure combines deep concepts and ideas from Psychoanalytic Theory (primarily Freud, Bion, and Melanie Klein) with Open Systems Theory (Bertalanffy and Kurt Lewin).

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We are delighted to share this invitation to the 38th Group Relations Conference organised by OFEK in the Tavistock tradition

What is the fault line? What does it mean to be on the fault line? Is this an area where thinking, reflection, and action become possible? And how does the fault line connect to questions of Authority, Leadership, and Values?

The fault line is not merely a geological metaphor. It is the place where familiar structures break down, where certainties collapse, and where individuals and groups find themselves without a map or guiding lines.

Within the cracks, anxiety arises — anxiety about the loss of what is known, the disintegration of identity, and the disappearance of meaning — and in response, defenses are mobilized. These defenses may take the form of splitting and attributing evil to the other group or groups, of self-blame and accusation, or of the search for “solutions” that will ease the pain and uncertainty through the espousal of absolute truths and adherence to ideology. And sometimes the fault line also generates despair and loss of hope.

When we look at the world at this time, we can see numerous areas of fracture and disintegration. These range from ongoing bloody conflicts, through cracks in democracies and the structures meant to protect them, to fractures within societies and between groups. We see states of polarization and hatred emerging. In such a fractured landscape, truth and reality become fragmented into contradicting perspectives.

To be on the fault line is to exist in the liminal space between rupture and the potential for repair and regeneration, raising questions about our role and degree of involvement we want to take in these processes.

At times our position does not permit thinking because we are in a stance of survival and contraction, while at other times the space is more ‘aerated’, and even when we are involved, we still retain the capacity to think in relation to the fracture, and to view it from multiple angles.

But the fault line is not only about vulnerability and defenses; it also opens up space for questions and change, creating an opportunity to explore our values and bringing the potential for new thinking, new learning and new leadership.

A Group Relations conference offers an opportunity to observe ourselves and others within a changing reality and to examine the roles we take up when faced with surprising and unexpected events in a group. Do we stand aside ‘until the storm passes’, or do we engage and take action? Are we better suited to working in teams or independently? And under what circumstances do we thrive?

The conference invites us to stand on the fault line of this time, not as outside observers but as active participants – to explore what transpires between us and within us, to sense the overt and covert dynamics operating upon us, and to work with them.

The conference will be held in Cyprus again this year, providing a space where participants from around the world can easily gather to engage in our shared inquiry and learning, even amid these challenging times.

I invite you to join us at the conference, to seize the opportunity for experiential learning, and to allow yourself to pause, experience, think and return to daily life with new insights about yourself and the groups you are part of, in your own communities and in the wider circles that surround you. 

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Hagit Shachar-Paraira, Conference Director
together with the Conference Staff

Information and registration