View Event

Surviving & Thriving

A new dawn for Caribbean Leadership

Wednesday 25th September 2019 - Friday 27th September 2019

Seminary of St John Vianney, Trinidad & Tobago

Caribbean Group Relations Consulting
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

Introduction
Primary Task
Methodology
Membership
Role of Staff
Staff
Info & Fees
Payment Terms
Web Sites

Introduction

Dear Prospective Member

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, earthquakes,
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...

top of document

Conference Aims and Primary Task

To study the exercise of authority and leadership, through inter-personal,
inter-group and institutional relations that develop within the conference as
part of its wider context.

top of document

The Learning Aims:
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

top of document

The Development Aims:
  • 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
top of document

Methodology

What is Learning in a Group Relations Conference,
and what makes it so powerful?

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.
THE

top of document

Membership

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

top of document

Role of Staff

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.

top of document

Staff

Conference Director
Leslie Brissett JP, PhD  
Group Relations Programme Director,
TIHR; Magistrate, FE Governor, ISAAC
member, BPC; UK

Associate Conference Director
Mary Fullerton EMBA,TIHR (P3C), TIHR (DBL)  
Organizational Consultant;
Director of Caribbean Group Relations
Consulting Ltd.; Director of The Buzz
Limited; Founder/Director of non-profit
ADHD Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago

Conference Operations Manager
Mrs Krisal Gorin BSc, MSc  
Mrs. Krisal Gorin BSc, MSc
Vice-Principal at Providence Girls'
Catholic School

CONSULTANT STAFF Will be drawn from the following list
Anne Benson MA  
Principal Consultant Tavistock Institute of
Human Relations (TIHR); Head of Professional
Development Programmes (TIHR); UKCP
accredited psychotherapist; Accredited coach

Helen Carrington MSM  
Organizational Consultant at Syntegra Change
Architects Ltd.; Accredited Leadership Coach;
Team Coach

Mary Fullerton EMBA, TIHR (P3C), TIHR (DBL)  
Organizational Consultant; Accredited Leadership
Coach; Director of Caribbean Group
Relations Consulting Ltd; Director of The Buzz
Limited; Founder/Director of non-profit ADHD
Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago

Urban Hudlin OP, MSc, MA, TIHR (P3C), TIHR (DBL)  
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, Dublin;
Dominican Priest; Director of Veritas
Consultancy; Director of Caribbean Group
Relations Consulting Ltd.

Keith Lequay PhD  
Organizational Psychologist; Associate and
Director, AKRice Institute (USA); Former
President T&T Association of Psychologists

Kathleen Stroud MA  
Leadership and Organizational Analyst;
Director Leadership Core Ltd.

top of document

Info and Fees

DATES
26th to 28th September, 2019

VENUE
Seminary of St. John Vianney
Mt. St. Benedict
St. John’s Road, Tunapuna
Trinidad & Tobago

Note: 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:
Mary Fullerton
E: mary@caribbeangroupconsulting.com
T: 868 681 3483

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS
Friday 23rd August, 2019
Cancellation incurred before 30th July, 2019: 50%
After 30th July, 2019: No refund

HOW DO I APPLY
For more information and an application form:
http://caribbeangroupconsulting.com
or contact Mary Fullerton, Associate Conference Director
E: mary@caribbeangroupconsulting.com
T: 868 681 3483

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.

top of document

Payment Terms

TT$3950.00 / US$643.00

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

top of document

Web Sites

The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations: http://www.tavinstitute.org
Caribbean Group Relations Consulting Ltd: http://www.caribbeangroupconsulting.com

top of document