Learning from Group Relations and how that is applied to the inspection process.
Earlier this year we welcomed Stephen Otter, HMIC, to our Food for Thought lunchtime talk series.
During Stephen’s fascinating talk he spoke about how his experiential learning through the Tavistock Institute’s Group Relation tradition is offering insight to the way he approaches the police inspection process.
Stephen’s talk draws on his experience of working both as a member and as a consultant at the Leicester conference and spoke to us about some of the questions this raises for him in this emotionally charged organisational setting, such as:
- How should the police inspectorate avoid the danger of making inspection the end in itself
- Understanding that inspections are mostly associated with guilt and wrong-doing, what should we do to make sure our inspections lead to a constructive facilitation towards improvement
- Understanding that police officers often invest much of themselves in their roles, how could we diminish their feeling that they are being personally challenged
- How do you avoid criticism leading to learning shutting down and defensiveness
A podcast of Stephen’s talk Inspecting the Police can be found at Lectures and Presentations.
Every third Wednesday at the Tavistock Institute, staff, associates, trustees and partners have come together for these informal talks. Now in its sixth year we are looking to widen this community and to explore the possibilities for development and new thought through engaging with a wider audience. For more information on upcoming and previous talks, how to book or get more involved go to the dedicated Food for Thought webpages.