The Leicester Conference has taken place every year since 1957 and is the flagship of all the other Group Relations conferences and institutions around the world. 

For those who are deeply invested in understanding their relationship to leadership and authority in complex, uncertain contexts, it is the home of learning by experience.

This is a 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

Designed for learning from — and through — experience, the conference is for those who wish to discover how to:

• 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.

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.

My Leicester experiences