Stories from the 80th Leicester Conference

I chose to arrive knowing very little about what awaited me.

I didn’t want to decide in advance what I was there to learn. I wanted to give up some control and allow the experience to happen before I understood it.

We entered a room in which the chairs had been arranged in the shape of a snail.

A crowd of people looked at empty chairs, not knowing where they would sit.

The formation curved in on itself. Depending on where you sat, you could see some people clearly, glimpse others across the spiral and lose others almost entirely from view. Necks sticking out, people staring at each other.

The temporary organization did not remain separate from the world outside it.

Race entered the room. So did gender, war, nationality, colonial histories, privilege, exclusion and the unequal consequences of events taking place beyond the conference.

I like to throw myself in at the deep end. It’s the best way to learn, and learn I did.

Two intensive weeks. 64 of us from all over the world. 

Psychotherapists, analysts, OD consultants, a few of us from the business world. 

No agenda, no slides, just one task: notice what happens between people when you put them in a room together. 

Explore, in real time, who takes up authority, who gives it away, and what happens between individuals and groups when you’re left to work that out yourselves.

Leadership.

My strongest impression from Leicester is that leadership begins less with having answers than with developing the capacity to think while participating.

Authority.

Rather than authority being experienced solely as something located outside and potentially threatening, the group gradually developed the capacity to provide something of a holding environment for itself.

There was nowhere to hide behind theory. I experienced what I have spent years studying.

I discovered my projections, assumptions and unconscious biases, and saw myself taking up roles I might not have occupied before. The group became a mirror, challenging my assumptions about leadership, authority, culture, belonging and relationships.

Leicester taught me that leadership is not simply about position. It requires tolerating uncertainty, thinking when anxiety is high, remaining curious and taking responsibility for one’s contribution to the system.

I also came to see organisations differently: not simply as structures and procedures, but as emotional and relational systems shaped by visible and invisible processes. This has deepened my interest in system psychodynamics.

Perhaps the greatest gift was the people. I leave with beautiful friendships and connections across countries, cultures and professions.

I leave Leicester not with all the answers, but with better questions.

My Leicester.

Everyone had their own Leicester… everyone is watching their own “movie”.

My Leicester was like living my life all over again.