A face to face working conference based on the Tavistock experiential learning methodology, hosted by LITHUANIAN GROUP RELATIONS SOCIETY, VILNIUS UNIVERSITY & THE TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RELATIONS
Introduction
To dare to be aware of the facts of the universe in which we are existing calls for courage.
Wilfred Bion
Humanity faces threats on many fronts in our living world. Accelerating disruptions related to climate change, artificial intelligence (AI), pandemics, and war followed by economic restructuring and shifts of political alliances are the realities we are living in.
Do we dare to face these realities, or do we seek comfort in denial and fantasy?
There is a temptation to fall back to familiar forms of absolute leadership and autocracy even in liberal democracies. Can democracy, with its complexities and vagaries, hold its value and compete with the growing discourse of authoritarianism? How do leadership and authority link people to respond to existential challenges? In some cases, iron chains have been used to forcibly link people. The Gulag, slavery, and secret prisons are examples. In other cases, human chains link people who self-authorize and hold hands to connect with purpose. The Baltic Way, Singing Revolution, and women linking hands to resist in Belarus and Britain are examples.
This conference is an opportunity for you to learn about the roles you take in relation to leadership, authority, and power in groups and organizations.
You can learn to recognize the tension between attraction to the new and unknown and desire for the security of the familiar. Both exist in all of us. You can recognize moments of your courage and moments of your timidity. Both exist in all of us. You will gain awareness about how you work with authority and how you exercise your own authority. Your engagement with the task of the conference will help you to navigate the profound challenges we face at this moment in history.
A group relations conference is a method for exploring these and connected questions such as: What forms of leadership best meet current challenges? Whom do we authorize to take leadership and how do we work with their authority? To whom do we assign authority, both formal and informal? Why and how do we do so? Who takes leadership roles? How do we use leaders? What are sources of power in the social system we create? What roles do each of us take in shaping the living world?
A conference examines the conscious and unconscious dynamics existing in each of us and between us as we live and work together in groups, organizations, societies, and nature.
This conference will do so by creating a temporary organization designed to study questions relevant to how we organize ourselves collectively as a system.
More details
For information about the theme, staff and to book, please see the Brochure
