Exploring the potential for new applications of STS thinking and practice.

In this talk Camilla Child looks to the Tavistock archives and takes us briefly through STS history and current practice. She looks at recent work with fresh eyes to see if we can uncover new understandings for future practice.

Eric Trist said of Socio Technical Systems (STS) that he “found them down a coal mine by people who were already doing them.” This seminal work took place in the post war period but the influence of STS theory continues to lie at the heart of our thinking at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. The surfacing of our archives from the salt mine to the Wellcome Trust and into the daylight has stimulated my interest into thinking more about the contemporary relevance of STS to our project work and in particular how we also incorporate our systems psychodynamic practice into the theory and practice of it.

Presentation

Recording of the talk

Camilla Child is a Principal Consultant and Researcher at the Tavistock Institute. She worked first in the evaluation and research team at the Institute and for several years the main focus of her work is in organisational consultancy. She is most happy when bringing these two strands together to help individuals and organisations develop and change.

Mining the archives: Exploring the potential for new applications of STS thinking and practice was presented by Camilla Child as part of the Tavistock Institute’s Food For Thought series.