Dear Prospective Participant,
Disruption and uncertainty, resulting from the global impact of Covid-19, continue to wreak havoc on the stability of economies and the health and safety of citizens.
Caribbean countries have been commended by international institutions for containing the spread of the virus while citizens remain uncertain on an economic recovery plan and the acquisition and timing on rollout of vaccines, and leaders and organisations struggle to deal with the socio-economic impact and fallout from the pandemic.
Consider the continued rising debt, the scarcity of foreign exchange and challenges from nature such as Hurricane Dorian in Bahamas in 2020, the present devastation from the La Soufrière volcano in St Lucia and its effect on neighbouring islands plus the impending early 2021 hurricane season. These are all opportunities to harness our diversity and acknowledge our connectedness and the resilience of our people with straight talk as a way to move forward in this turbulent time.
Whether it is political leadership challenges, economic collapses, organisational and professional change, many are wondering:
- How can I survive in this situation?
- When is it OK to say what needs to be said?
- What is the best way to lead and motivate my team?
- How do I manage my anxiety and the stress caused by the uncertainty?
- When is the right time to take new action?
This experiential conference is specially designed for those keen on developing a deeper understanding of leadership and authority. Leadership in terms of how to work more skilfully in role presence, how it is experienced and what it means in the context of leadership roles in organisations. Authority, in its exercise and how diverse groups affect an individual in role.
We look forward to working with you in the 4th Group Relations Conference delivered by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations with Caribbean Group Relations Consulting in November 2021 where we’ll explore what is unthinkable and unsayable in Caribbean Leadership with Authority, Diversity and Presence.
Leslie Brissett and Mary Fullerton Co-Directors Caribbean Conference, 2021
“You mustn’t say that, dear!”
The mother chide the child.
“People in this world don’t know how other people does affect their lives.”
– Sam Selvon, The Lonely Londoners, 1956.
About
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”.
Primary Task
To study the exercise of leadership and authority and the dynamics of what may be Unthinkable and Unsayable within the conference, as a temporary organisation in its wider context.
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.
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?
Benefits
This Conference is for anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of managerial and leadership processes in organisations.
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 organisations and includes Business Leaders, Consultants, Board Members, CEOs, Managers, Clinicians, Administrators, HR, Marketing, Production and Financial Professionals, Public Sector Managers, Local Authorities, Political, Diplomatic, NGOs, Religious, National Security, Educators, Activists, Researchers, Team Leaders, Medical Professionals.
Benefits to participants include:
- Identifying personal characteristics while exercising leadership and the effect on others
- Exploring competition, rivalry and what lies beyond immediate awareness that remain hidden in everyday interaction
- 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
- Recognising 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
- 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
- Recognizing the barriers to communication
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
Registration
Authority Diversity Presence:
What is Unthinkable and Unsayable in Caribbean Leadership
Dates
25th to 27th November, 2021
Venue
Online
Caribbean Participants
TT$2,800.00
Early Bird Discount:
Less $TT500.00, if paid before 25th October, 2021
Former Caribbean Conference Participant Discount:
Less TT$500.00
Discount for two or more persons from the same organisation:
Less TT$300.00 per participant additional
International Participants
US$475.00
Early Bird Discount:
Less US$50.00, if paid before 25th October, 2021
Former International Conference Participant Discount:
Less US$50.00
Closing Date for Applications
Wednesday 10th November, 2021
Register Now
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.
Refunds & Cancellations
50% Refund for cancellations made before 30th September, 2021
No Refunds for cancellations made after 15th October, 2021
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.
Conference Staff
Conference Directorate
Leslie Brissett
JP, PhD
Conference Director
Group Relations Programme Director, TIHR; Magistrate, FE Governor, ISAAC member, BPC; UK
Mary Fullerton
EMBA,TIHR (P3C), (DBL
Conference Director
Director of Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd; Organisational Consultant/ Accredited Leadership
Coach; Partner of The Buzz Limited; Founder/Director of non-profit ADHD Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago
Nyasha Lucas
BSc
Conference Operations Manager
Entrepreneur; Owner Educator at iTutor; Certified Event Planner /Coordinator
Consultant Staff
Mary Fullerton
EMBA,TIHR (P3C), (DBL
Director of Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd; Organisational Consultant/ Accredited Leadership Coach, Partner of The Buzz Limited; Founder/Director of non-profit ADHD Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago
Urban Hudlin, OP, MSc, MA, TIHR (P3C), (DBL)
Director of Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd.; Director of Veritas Consultancy; Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Dublin; Dominican Priest
Keith Lequay, PhD
Organisational Psychologist; Former Executive Member and Certified Group Relations Consultant with the AKRice Institute (USA); Staff Consultant at Leadership and Group Relations conferences located in the USA, and the Caribbean.
Coreene Archer
Organisation Consultant and Executive Coach. Co-director of Coaching for Leadership Programme. Architect of Launching Young Leaders, a leadership development programme.
Augustine Sagoe
Independent Organisational, Leadership and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Consultant, UK ; Trustee / Board Member of OPUS UK; Visiting Lecturer in psychosocial interventions at the University of Bedfordshire. Group Relations Learning, Leadership and Psychodynamic Coaching / Executive Consultancy Services in the UK and in Ghana, West Africa; Staff member on Group Relations Conferences nationally and internationally.
Saleem Khliefi
B.A social work. Group Therapist and Organisational Consultant. Former OFEK Management and Former head of the interior learning committee. Works in Prison services, social, business and non-profit organisations.
How staff work in the Conference
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.
The staff work 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.
Previous Participants
- Office of the Prime Minister – Trinidad & Tobago
- Catholic Education Board of Management – Trinidad & Tobago
- Heritage Petroleum Company Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs – Trinidad & Tobago
- COTT – Trinidad & Tobago
- R.C Archbishop of Port of Spain – Trinidad & Tobago
- University of Richmond- USA
- Odyssey Consultinc Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- A. K. Rice Institute – USA
- ACNJ – UK
- Antilles Episcopal Conference – Trinidad & Tobago
- Archdiocese of Port of Spain – Trinidad & Tobago
- Arrow Group – Abu Dhabi
- Broadcasting Commission – Jamaica
- Independent Researcher/ Consultant – UK
- iTutortt – Trinidad & Tobago
- Jacobs & Jacobs – Peru
- New York University – USA
- Prins in Communicatie – The Netherlands
- Private Practice – USA / Trinidad & Tobago
- RtL Consultancy – Hungary
- Schenectady City School District – USA
- Society of African Missions – Afrikahuis
- Society of St Vincent de Paul – Trinidad & Tobago
- Tavistock Clinic – UK
- The Nursing Council of Trinidad and Tobago – Trinidad & Tobago
- The Second Chair – UK
- University of Pennsylvania – USA
- University of South Africa – South Africa
- C.F. International Marketing – Trinidad & Tobago
- Caribbean Catalyst Inc. – Barbados
- Dr. Bob LLC – USA
- FT Farfan Ltd – Trinidad & Tobago
- Guardian Shared Services Ltd – Trinidad & Tobago
- Piarco Air Services Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- Providence Girls’ Catholic School – Trinidad & Tobago
- Sandstone Consulting Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- St. Joseph’s Convent, St. Joseph – Trinidad & Tobago
- St. Joseph’s Convent San Fernando – Trinidad & Tobago
- Synapse Psychological Services Inc. – Barbados
- TECU Credit Union Co-operative Society Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- The University of Trinidad and Tobago – Trinidad & Tobago
- TRINRE Insurance Company Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
- UWI School of Business and Applied Studies Limited – Trinidad & Tobago
Sponsoring Institutions
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a not-for-profit, UK based organisation which applies social science to contemporary issues and problems.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.
Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd.
Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd. was created to provide services in the areas of, organisational change and transformation to organisations, consulting 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.