Group Relations Conferences: Tradition, Creativity, and Succession in the Global Group Relations Network(The Group Relations Conferences Series)

This book is a compilation of chapters based on presentations at the third Group Relations (GR) international meeting in Belgirate, Italy in November 2009, plus a number of pieces from participants reflecting on their experience of the meeting. The book takes yet another step in continuing the discourse, which began in 2003, articulating the relevance of the GR conference method and the timeliness of its application globally. The chapters in the book deal with the personal as well as the organisational journeys of GR practitioners and examine these through the lens of tradition, succession and creative application. The authors are experienced Group Relations practitioners internationally and together they enrich further the tapestry of GR model and its application and potential.

Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Exploring Personal, Institutional, and Cultural Journeys in Group Relations Conferences -- “Climbing fast up the ladder?!” The lived experience of directing -- Experiential learning: the Indian experience from the proto-historic period to the present -- Administration and creativity in the Leicester conferences: dancing on the drudge -- Journeys of Conferences: Grappling with Tradition, Succession, and Application -- Germans, Jews, Israelis, Palestinians, and Others today: thoughts on the “Nazareth” conferences -- Robben Island as a container for diversity dynamics: the directors’ experience -- Beyond the family psychic template -- Learning Through Experience: Wrestling with Creativity and Innovation in Succession and Application -- Learning from experience and the experience of learning in an academic setting -- Leadership: a song of mentoring and power -- Beyond succession: learning from experience of being the board of Group Relations Nederland -- Leadership and innovation in management and consultancy -- Post-Conference Reflections -- A church with no followers: a split of knowledge and power in the group relations community -- Intimacy and detachment: working relationships in a temporary institution -- Belgirate as the crossroads: discovering the essence of the work elsewhere -- Manliness in the era of female leadership -- The chains of tradition: escaping, endorsing, or exploring? -- How envy, fear of envy, and manipulation of envy can paralyse healthy competition and healthy succession -- Some reflections on the experience of Belgirate III: tradition, creativity, and succession in the global network from a lateral perspective -- Boundaries, connectedness, and networks: reflections from Belgirate III -- Remnants, Quakers, and group relations

About the Author :
Eliat Aram, PhD, is currently the Interim Director of the Tavistock Institute which she leads through a new phase of change and growth. A practicing chartered psychologist (BPS) and a UKCP registered psychotherapist and supervisor. Robert Baxter, MD, is a retired Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Louisville where he was Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Executive. He currently chairs the A.K. Rice Institute's Training and Certification Committee. Avi Nutkevitch, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and organizational consultant. He is a full member of the Israel Psychoanalytic Society and teaches at the Israel Psychoanalytic Institute. He is a founding member and former Chair of OFEK, the Israel Association for the Study of Group and Organisational Processes. He is currently Co-Director and Faculty of the Program in Organisational Consultation and Development: a Psychoanalytic-Systemic Approach.

Review :
'As Group Relations has evolved into an international network of practitioners, the Belgirate Conferences have become its largest and most important hub. The sites of multiple intersections for those who plan, direct, consult, and think about conferences, they bring us together and provide invaluable help as we try to find our way into the future. Their influence and value is vastly extended by the publication of these papers.'- Kenneth Eisold, author of What You Don't Know You Know'The Global Group Relations Network looks forward eagerly to the Belgirate series, with its contributions of experience and reflection, as a fascinating container for insights we jointly create in our search for the unknown within the known. Creativity often seems like "the bridge that cannot be crossed" between tradition (legacy and what must be preserved) and succession (the going forward and the letting go). The theme is universal and speaks to those beyond the Group Relations Conference community - to those in leadership in organisations, institutions, and systems of different kinds, as well as a range of cultural and geographical contexts.'- Rosemary Viswanath, group and organisational consultant, India