2019 marks a significant point of transition for Leadership in Trinidad and Tobago in particular, and the Caribbean in general.

Nature is throwing ever increasing challenges in the shape of flooding, earth-quakes, hurricanes and melting of ancient ice caps. These natural challenges are compounded by man-made tsunamis, changes in technology and working practices, the flattening of hierarchies and the 24:7 availability of work across the globe. These conditions mean that we are now ready for a new realm of learning about how to survive and thrive in our contemporary working contexts.

The type of learning that will really make a difference, is one that challenges the leaders of tomorrow to face themselves today: especially their assumptions about leading and following in organisations. A type of learning that goes below the surface of what we know, and courageously faces “what we yet don’t know” is needed now more than ever.

 A Group Relations Conference is a space to inquire into the nature of leadership and followership dynamics, and how we collectively make sense of what is occurring so that we can find new resources to make new decisions.

Since 1952, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations has been providing a unique framework within which senior and aspiring senior leaders are able to learn about themselves and the ways that groups and organisations affect them in taking up their roles. You are invited to join a global network of those who have had the courage to lift the lid of leadership and study how and why things are the way that they are, here in the Caribbean. There are issues of power, faith, belief, history, skin colour and class that have left scars and challenges in people in all over the world. How can these scars be harnessed as resources to transcend and expand our capacities to lead and follow?

Trinidad and Tobago is the host nation for this whole Caribbean inquiry – the islands have great infrastructure and natural resources that have created conditions for a national resilience unique in the Caribbean. I look forward to working with you in this, the 2nd Group Relations Conference delivered by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations with Caribbean Group Relations Consulting, where we will collaboratively inquire into the new Leadership Opportunities for the Caribbean (and beyond).

The Future is now…

Dr. Leslie Brissett, JP
Conference Director

A Group Relations Conference is an educational event which is based on learning through experience – the design has been developed by pioneers from the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) and other Group Relations organisations around the world, since 1957. The strategic and structural dynamics of organisations can be studied and understood and the knowledge acquired can then be applied. By working through the conscious and unconscious dynamics of leadership and management in organisations members learn by doing, not by being told. The learning is deep and long lasting.

In a Group Relations Conference, we create a temporary organisation that is set up to study its own behaviour as it happens. The temporary organisation is headed by a Director and the staff team that is appointed by the Director to work with the members of the organisation. The staff do not manage the members, they work to provide consultancy in the form of working hypotheses about what may be happening in the conference events. These hypotheses are available for testing and review. In this way, we create a “Working Conference” where members are actively engaged in exploration, not sitting back being filled up with the opinions and findings of speakers, as they are in a traditional “conference”.

As an active inquirer, members of the organisation will have the opportunity to explore their own assumptions, feelings and attitudes towards leadership in general, and the leadership of this Working Conference in particular. As a member encounters their own feelings and assumptions during the conference, they are equipped with first-hand experience of the ways that their staff and colleagues in their organisations back home may encounter them. This insight gained in the working conference provides a platform for transformations in role taking and leadership.

This Conference is for anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of managerial and leadership processes in organizations. The Conference provides a structured context of different systems and sub-systems in the “here and now”. It explores the dynamics of leadership, presence, authority, change, dissent, collaboration and transformation as they arise and unfold.

Participants may come from private and public organizations and includes Business Leaders, Consultants, CEOs, Managers, Clinicians, Administrators, HR, Marketing, Production and Financial Professionals, National Security. Public Sector Managers, Local Authorities, Political, Diplomatic, NGOs, Religious, Educators, Activists, Researchers, Team Leaders, Medical Professionals.

Benefits to Participants include:

• Identifying personal characteristics while exercising leadership and the effect on others
• Understanding how you influence or are influenced by others and the ensuing consequences-intended or unintended
• Locating and managing resistance to change in yourself and others
• Developing skills and sharpening insights into how strategies take shape when groups function
• Recognizing how phenomena such as alliance and coalition formation affect the understanding of the group, by the group; and how it shapes motives and power bases
• Exploring competition, rivalry and what lies beyond immediate awareness that remain hidden in everyday interaction
• Developing a capacity for creativity and interpersonal relationships and building better team performers
• Inspiring strategic thinking and improving the capacity to lead in turbulent times

Benefits to Organisations include:

• Increased capacity to lead and manage in a rapidly changing and complex environment
• Enhanced leadership and communication culture, inspiring higher levels of responsibility, accountability productivity and profitability
• Inspiring healthy interpersonal communication among the leadership and general staff
• Assisting department leaders to align their departments’ goals with the macro objectives of the organisation

Caribbean Group Relations Consulting & The Tavistock Institute present

Surviving & Thriving: A New Dawn for Caribbean Leadership Conference 2019

Date

26th to 28th September, 2019

Venue

Seminary of St. John Vianney,
Mt. St. Benedict,
St. John’s Road,
Tunapuna,
Trinidad and Tobago**

Cost

TT$3,950.00 / US$643.00

Discounts

TT$400.00 / US$65.00 book by 15th June, 2019
The conference fee includes lunch and evening snack.
On registration, payments can be made through bank transfer or cheques.

Payment Options

Remit payment by Bank Transfer to:
Account Name: The Buzz Ltd.
Bank Name: First Citizens Bank Limited
Bank Address: 44-46 Maraval Road, Port of Spain
Bank Account No.: 1654712

Remit payment by Cheque to:
22 DeVerteuil Street,
Woodbrook,
Trinidad and Tobago
Make cheque out to: The Buzz Ltd.

Cancellations

Cancellation incurred before 30th July, 2019: 50% Refund
Cancellation incurred after 30th July, 2019: No refund

**This is a non-residential conference. For travellers outside Trinidad and local participants seeking accommodation at the Seminary, information can be received from the Associate Conference Director.

Please note: 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.

While staff and members are both participants, the conference accords them different roles. The staff members of the conference are allocated to each of the events in the role of consultants or in the role of collective management to work to the primary task of the event and to the task of the conference as a whole. This they do through the offering of working hypotheses and other forms of interventions. They work by constantly trying to make sense of their own experiences and what is happening for members.

It is expected that staff hypotheses and interpretations will also create the possibility for individual members to reflect on what they represent to the group, what they are taking in from the group, and what they are contributing to the group, particularly in terms of what may be happening unconsciously and in ways that are more hidden.

Leslie Brissett, JP, PhD

Conference Director

Group Relations Programme Director, TIHR; Magistrate, FE Governor, ISAAC member, BPC; UK

Mary Fullerton, EMBA,TIHR (P3C),TIHR (DBL)

Associate Conference Director

Organizational Consultant; Director of Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd.; Partner of The Buzz Limited; Founder/Director of non-profit ADHD Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago

Mrs. Krisal Gorin, BSc , MSc

Conference Operations Manager

Vice-Principal at Providence Girls’ Catholic School

While staff and members are both participants, the conference accords them different roles. The staff members of the conference are allocated to each of the events in the role of consultants or in the role of collective management to work to the primary task of the event and to the task of the conference as a whole. This they do through the offering of working hypotheses and other forms of interventions.

They work by constantly trying to make sense of their own experiences and what is happening for members. It is expected that staff hypotheses and interpretations will also create the possibility for individual members to reflect on what they represent to the group, what they are taking in from the group, and what they are contributing to the group, particularly in terms of what may be happening unconsciously and in ways that are more hidden.

The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a not-for-profit, UK based organisation which applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was formally founded as a registered charity in 1947 although its work started before the War, together with the Tavistock Clinic.

The Institute is engaged with evaluation and action research, organisational development and change consultancy, executive coaching and professional development, all in service of supporting sustainable change and ongoing learning.

Our staff works creatively with people involved in innovative activities, working across boundaries or in difficult situations. We combine research and analytical skills with practical help in devising solutions and in following through to implementation and are particularly known for our capacity to work with issues that are otherwise hidden, and sometimes unconscious.

Our professional development opportunities include the Certificate in Dynamics at Board Level, the Certificate in Coaching for Leadership and Professional Development, the Practitioner Certificate in Consulting and Change (P3C) and a portfolio of Group Relations tailored events.

www.tavinstitute.org

Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd. was created to provide services in the areas of consulting, organisational change and transformation to organisations in public and private sectors. Our members work as Consultants, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists, and Organisational Psychologists. Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd., is working to develop and apply the field of Group Relations and Systems Psychodynamics in the Caribbean.

www.caribbeangroupconsulting.com