Authority, Leadership & Organisation | LIFE | Learning In Fragmented Environments

For many decades, we have offered this two-week unique opportunity to explore eternally relevant questions about Life at Work. 

We ask:

What kinds of authority and leadership are needed in contemporary organisations? 

How do you exercise authority and leadership when organisational structures and relationships are subject to continuous change? 

About the Conference

The conference helps leaders and managers:

• to manage themselves more effectively in their roles
• to understand and work with below-the-surface dynamics in groups and organisations
• to develop vital leadership and management skills in thinking - in moments when it seems impossible to think
• The conference is designed for learning from — and through — experience.

Read the Leicester 2025 brochure

Private LinkedIn Group

Join The Tavistock Group on LinkedIn for news about this Leicester conference and to share news on all things group relations. 

For past and future Leicester participants and anyone interested in group relations and systems psychodynamics.

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What happens at the Leicester Conference?

A temporary organisation is created, in which all members and staff co-create the culture and practices of the organisation as it unfolds. We look at everything that happens within the organisation and surface what meanings are embedded within the behaviours as they happen.

The Groups are formed, and events are consulted to by the staff. The conference is designed to surface our assumptions and myths about organisational and social life. As the conference is fully residential, we have the experience of immersing totally into the life of the organisation, eating sleeping and working together consistently for 14 days. There is nothing quite like it.

What it is like arriving at your first Leicester Conference

Your FAQs

We suggest that if you are living through particular personal difficulties that you consider postponing your attendance to next year as the conference is designed as a learning event and is not a substitute for personal psychotherapy.

What the Directors say about the Leicester Conference

Dr Eliat Aram

Rachel Kelly

Listen to Rachel’s podcast introducing group relations.

Conference staff

Directorate 

Eliat Aram PhD is the CEO of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London, UK, and an avid Group Relations practitioner with nearly 30 years of experience. She has shaped, influenced, and often directed the Tavistock Institute’s flagship Leicester Conference since 2007. Eliat has had the privilege of staffing GRCs around the world, working across cultural and geographical boundaries. 

This year’s theme – Learning the dynamics of authority, leadership, and organisation in Fragmented Environments (LIFE) – is both exciting and energising for her, as it offers the space to explore how we can be in the world, much like a bee perhaps? Buzzing, working, living, meandering, and ultimately, learning from what we discover, uncover, and create together in the Leicester Conference hive. 

Rachel Kelly (BA, mSTAT) is a Principal, OD & Group Relations consultant and Employee Trustee at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. She has worked on the group relations Leicester Conference almost continuously since 2005. She is the representative of TIHR in the Social Dreaming international Network, on the Faculty of Deepening Creative Practice with Organisations PD programme at the Institute and facilitates a reflective practice group at the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology. 

Rachel is involved in range of projects on leadership development, consultancy for change and empowering the disempowered. She has developed an online learning course: Team Working: How to succeed describing Tavistock methodologies in an accessible way, aimed at leaders, managers and those working in teams – it has been described as “eye-opening and nourishing”. She is a practitioner of the Alexander Technique – a psychophysical discipline towards balance and efficiency in the use of the self, and brings this into programmes and projects at the Institute. 

Nasrin Amiri MD is a child, adolescent, adult psychiatrist. Nasrin writes: “I am delighted to be joining The Leicester Conference 2025 Directorate, as an assistant administrator for first time. My interest in GRC began at The 2013 LC, I have experienced LC three times as a member and a trainee. The conference theme provides the opportunity to explore learning in fragmenting environment. Integration and fragmentation, they are everywhere – in me and out there”. 

Milda Autukaitė (MSc Organizational Psychology, Cert. TIHR, P3C) is a Principal Consultant at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and Teacher and Supervisor in the post graduate Group Dynamics course in Vilnius University. Milda is the co-founder and member of Lithuanian Group Relations Society, and member of Lithuanian Group Analytic Society. Based in Vilnius and London. 

Milda writes: “Group Relations has had a significant impact on my life. It nurtured me in various leading roles I have been holding for almost 20 years in the Financial Sector, it gives me the energy now to step into the unknown while consulting to groups, leaders and organizations. I am very happy to be back in LC 2025 and take up the Lead Admin role. I hope we in the Admin team will take care of all practicalities, enabling a powerful learning journey for all of us”. 

Consultant Staff

Consultant Staff will be drawn from the following:

Leila Djemal is an Organization Development Consultant and Executive Coach. She is Founder and past Co-Director at TouchOFEK Professional Development Courses where she currently teaches. She has directed Group Relations Conferences and participated as a member of the staff team in Europe, UK and USA. Leila is an Associate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Group and Organizational Processes, USA, a Member and past Board Member of OFEK – Association for the Study of Group and Organizational Processes, and a Member of OPUS - An Organisation for the Promotion of Understanding in Society, UK. 

Saleem Khliefi (BA social work) is a group therapist, Organizational consultant and a member of OFEK. Born and raised in Nazareth, Saleem studied Social Work, worked as Psychotherapist at different psychiatric clinics for children and adolescents psychotherapy and served as professional team advisor and trainer at ELEM training department (ELEM is a non-profit organization for children and youth in distress). He worked as a project coordinator at ‘Al-Qaws’, an organization for the Arab LGBTQ community. 

Nowadays he is working as a Social Worker at the National Prison Services, with decades of working internationally in the Group Relations field. Saleem writes: “The ability to continue on keeping a learning stance in fragmented environments is a subject that I would love to explore and learn more about. Considering the events on the local and global scale,  this ability is much needed, more than ever”. 

Suma Jacob is Professor and Della Martin Chair at the University of California, Los Angeles. As the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, she draws from over twenty years of group relations experience to co-create innovative educational and healthcare programs that are focused on improving mind-brain-body wellbeing across the lifespan.  Suma completed her AB, PhD, and MD degrees at The University of Chicago and residency or fellowship training at UCLA, UChicago, and the University of Illinois.  Her research has been in the field of social neuroscience, where she has investigated hormone-pathways and how chemosignals act as modulators to influence the self or other’s biology, mood, and unconscious behaviors. 

As a child-adolescent-adult psychiatrist, she has expertise in neurodevelopmental conditions and has led biomarker/genetic investigations as well as clinical trials. Her current work is focused on data-driven approaches and novel technologies to study biobehavioural differences that predict developmental outcomes. Suma’s innate curiosity about social systems and group behaviours inspired her to be a member of group relations conferences and later work as staff, director or administrator in the US and internationally. In addition to participating in A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (certified consultant 2013+) and Group Relations International, she is motivated to enhance experiential methods of learning within traditional teaching organizations. 

Jean Cooper lives and works in South Africa, where he founded The Institute for Leadership and Transformation (TILT). He consults to leaders and organisations and provides training and supervision to consultants and coaches. He directed two Group Relations Conferences in South Africa, in partnership with the Tavistock Institute. Jean recently travelled from South Africa to Spain by motorcycle. His work and adventures continuously remind him of the complexity and importance of learning and adapting to the ever-shifting and fragmented environments within and across which we live and work. 

Dr Michael Jarrett is a Professor in Organizational Behaviour at INSEAD. He is based on the Singapore campus. He is the Academic Programme Director for INSEAD’s international Executive Masters in Change. Michael is the next chair of the Academy of Management’s Organizational Development and Change Division. He has been involved with the Tavistock Institute for a long time, having been a graduate and staff member of group relations conferences. His research publications, teaching and consulting explore the systemic and psychological dynamics of top management teams, intergroup relations, and organisational change during disruptive times. 

Michael writes: “I am looking forward to the conference. I also expect to take on (and receive) several engaging roles, as we learn together over the two weeks”.

Lennox Joseph is a native West Indian, working internationally as an educator, executive coach and Organization Development and Change specialist. With over thirty-seven years’ experience, he is admired for recreating the “managerial mind” of corporations and forging new identities for individuals, groups, and organizations seeking to re-invent themselves. 

Dr. Joseph works across a variety of organizations including being on loan to governments, appearing on their negotiation teams and advising with their strategic renewal efforts. His professional positions include the Organizational Development and Effectiveness Advisor of The World Bank Group (Washington, DC) and twice President and CEO of NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science (Alexandria, VA). 

His most recent publication is The Art of Strategic Change, National Institute for Applied Behavioral Science (2024), co-edited with Daniel A. Fremion. 

Haritha Sarma (MSc in Earth Sciences) is Organisational Development Consultant, leadership coach gender and diversity trainer. He has worked with the social justice sector for over 25 years. He has extensively worked with diverse groups, organisations and networks, addressing themes related to structural poverty, marginalisation and deepening democracy. Associate Member of Group Relations India, he has been on the staff at group relations conferences in India and internationally. 

Haritha writes: “The conference calls us to connect with the flow of life and be aware of the many islands of inner existence. The invitation is to explore the dynamic of breaking up and coming together as an interconnected process of life and learning.” 

Monica Rocio Velarde Lazarte is a socioanalyst and psychologist with a deep background in the Tavistock Tradition. Her international collaborations span various disciplines, cultures, and languages. From 2023 to 2024 she served as a psychologist in the Mobile Team OEJ-HUG at the Service of Psychiatry of Children and Adolescents at University Hospital Geneva. 

Recently, Dr. Velarde Lazarte relocated to the United Kingdom, where she co-founded Wild Thoughts UK. She is also an co-founder of The Territory, an innovative online platform dedicated to the study of group processes. Additionally, she is the founder of T-Consult Socioanalytic Practice. Dr. Velarde Lazarte is a Professional Partner of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and a member of both the New York Center and the A.K. Rice Institute. In 2024, she was appointed as the Conference Director of the New York Center for the term 2024-2027.

Venue

CIM Moor Hall, Cookham, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 9QH

Located in an idyllic village, within close proximity of Heathrow Airport and Windsor, Moor Hall is an elegant 19th century manor house. All bedrooms come with ensuite and guests can take advantage of the lounge bar, quiet work area and gym. 

Moor Hall is one hour out of central London, 30 minutes from Heathrow Airport, easily accessible by public transport and situated on 9 acres of peaceful Berkshire countryside. 

Representing outstanding value, the fee includes 13 nights accommodation, all meals and refreshments and the consultancy of world leaders in the field of systems psychodynamics, organisational consultancy and coaching.

Further Discounts for joint applications from the same organisation, or joint applications from those affiliated to the same national group relations sponsoring organisations. For severe financial hardship, bursaries and scholarships are available on application and further supporting statement.

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Next steps

To apply for the conference please complete the online application form and pay the deposit. 

If you have any questions about the conference or would like to schedule a chat with one of the Directors, please contact Hafija Bibi, Professional Development Administrator: h.bibi@tavinstitute.org