A Group Relations approach to the socio ecological dilemmas in the Peruvian Amazons.

An invitation to learn from the experience of leadership, accountability and love in order to promote a spirit of enquiry for a sustainable transformation in the Amazons’.
 
This presentation, given by Monica Velarde Lazarte (TIHR Senior Consultant and Researcher) and Lucia Abugattas Barboza at the OPUS International Conference – ‘Organisational and Social Dynamics’ (November 2011), starts by offering some context of the Peruvian Amazons and the Hope for the Amazonas Programme. After that they present the first Hope for the Amazonas; conference and introduce the rationale of the conference design, followed by an exploration of selected conference experiences related to the contribution, challenges and limitations of Group Relations methodology to the field of Corporate Social Responsibility. Based on Wilfred Bion’s statement (below), their hope was to engage the audience into co-creating and trying to mobilize the collective wisdom within the OPUS network in order to reflect on the role of Group Relations for the ecological and cultural sustainability of the Amazons.

“We like to think that our ideas are our personal property, but unless we can make our contribution available to the rest of the group there is no chance of mobilizing the collective wisdom of the group which could lead to further progress and development”. (Bion, 1980, p. 29)

The first ‘Hope for the Amazons: Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Culture’ was held in Iquitos, Peru in February 2011 introducing group relations methodology to enable young indigenous leaders in the Amazons to become entrepreneurs who, grounded in their own culture are able to exercise control over their own institutions, ways of life and economic development while taking up a liaison role between their tribes, the government and those Peruvian and international institutions of the Extractive Industries that play a role in the territories they live in.

You can listen to some learning testimonies below:

Hope for the Amazonas presented at Opus Conference 2011. Monica Velarde Lazarte, Senior Consultant and Researcher at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, Founder of T-Consult, Peru, Associate of the Grubb Institute, Candidate Doctorate at the Tavistock and Portman NHS and East London University, Faculty Director of the Group Relations Program of Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Peru.

Lucia Abugattas Barboza, Convenor T-Consult, Peru, Convenor Peru OPUS Listening Posts, Analista de Reconocimiento y Comunicaciones en Grana y Montero, Student of the 6th year of Organizational Psychology at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadad, Peru.