Cooperation or Conflict:
Leadership and Accountability
in a Confusing and Perilous World
Confusion is a word we have invented
for an order which is not understood.
-Henry Miller
October 7 – 9, 2005
SimmonsCollege • Boston, Massachusetts
A non-residential group relations conference on leadership and authority in the Tavistock Tradition
Sponsored by The Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (CSGSS),
the Boston Affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI)
Hosted by the Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change and
the SimmonsCollegeSchool of Social Work Urban Leadership Program
Swift change in our organizational and political environments confronts us with a bewildering array of choices. We can intensify our differences, conflicts, and sense of alienation, or we can create new possibilities, partnerships, and coalitions. Responsible leadership is an exercise in identifying and working across differences, while deepening our understanding of our roles as members of groups. The capacity to learn from our experience is the key to navigating our confusion.
The primary purpose of the conference is to provide an experiential learning event that promotes increased awareness of the leadership-followership competence that is essential to moving beyond confusion and building bridges that enable us to work across our differences in organizational and community life.
Conference participants will have the opportunity to:
- Learn about group processes from participation in groups that vary in size, structure and task
- Observe the impact on leadership of individual characteristics such as race, class, nationality, gender, age, and other social differences
- Explore the overt and hidden anxieties that often shape and paralyze members of organizations and community groups
- Experiment with social behaviors such as isolation, autonomy, affiliation, expressing differences and building coalitions
- Understand the difference between a group’s stated task and the actual task it appears to be pursuing
- Experience how vulnerability affects leadership and the capacity to exercise authority
- Apply conference learning to roles they take up in their personal and professional lives
- Expand their understanding of the abuse of their own and others’ authority
- Explore the differences between accountability and blaming behavior
A Systems Learning Model
While intellectual learning about group and organizational behavior is available in many different forums, the group relations conference is a rare enterprise that gives its members the opportunity to learn through their own experience.
The group relations conference is a dynamic, experiential laboratory. The staff and participants create a temporary institution that allows for opportunities to study the obvious, and not-so-obvious, dynamics of organizational life. By keeping certain factors constant (task, role, time, and place), while observing others that emerge in the “here and now”, conference members become participant-observers: They are in the process of co-creating an institution, at the same time that they are studying the impact on their own and others’ behavior as all of this is happening. This process is accelerated by the consultants, who provide observations that promote awareness of emerging issues and themes regarding leadership, authority, task, role, and boundaries.
The temporary organization often mirrors the patterns and relationships in our work and personal lives, so the insights we gain at the conference frequently support us in our intellectual, emotional, political, and even spiritual growth.
Conference Structure
The conference is comprised of a series of events that provide opportunities to learn through examining one’s experience in a variety of contexts. The events begin and end promptly at their designated times. The conference schedule will be provided to members with their registration materials, and will include the following events:
Plenaries
Each plenary brings the entire staff and membership together to discuss various questions regarding the conference and its components.
Small Study Groups
These events provide an immediate experience of how issues concerning leadership and authority occur in a small system. Staff serves in the role of consultant to the small study group, offering interpretations about the dynamics of the group when they believe their interventions will facilitate learning. Small study groups are designed to maximize diversity, usually with no more than 12 members per group.
Large Study Group
The large study group provides an opportunity to explore and reflect on dynamics that arise in the entire conference membership. Two to four staff members may consult to the large study group. This event, like the small study group, is a “here and now” event based on participants’ experience, rather than a pre-arranged agenda.
Institutional Event
The institutional event provides an opportunity for staff and conference members to collaborate across their respective roles, and to learn about the evolution of authority and leadership within and among systems. In this event, conference members create their own subsystems. The staff functions in a variety of roles, and conducts its own work in open sessions as part of the management function of the event.
Review and Application Groups
Review and application groups are reflective events, designed to facilitate members’ understanding of the roles they adopt within the conference and the application of conference learning to their professional and personal lives.
Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (CSGSS)
The mission of CSGSS is to further the understanding of groups and organizations as social systems, with particular attention to unconscious and covert group processes in group and organizational life.
Using the Tavistock group relations tradition of open systems and psychodynamic theories, CSGSS develops group relations conferences, meetings, and other events to further learning about group processes.
Conference Staff
Conference members and staff create the temporary learning institution together, with staff members serving in a variety of specific roles. The staff’s function is to encourage awareness, analysis, reflection and understanding of the emerging conference dynamics, and to facilitate application of this learning to group dynamics in other institutions and organizations. The staff conducts its analysis and interpretation at the organizational level. Due to the experiential nature of the conference, individuals, on the other hand, have significant opportunities to learn about the ways in which they are personally affected by themes, assumptions, myths, and actions present in the whole group or in subgroups.
Administrative Staff
Earl T. Braxton, Ph.D., Director
President, Edge Associates; Board President, Innovative Cultural Education and Training Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; Fellow, AKRI; Member, Midwest Center and Boston Center Affiliates of AKRI; Faculty, AOC, Tavistock Institute, London, England; Adjunct Faculty, Chatham College, Pittsburgh, PA.
W. Mason Smith III, M.Arch., Associate Director for Administration
Past President, Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott Architects, Boston MA; Board Member, Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge MA, and Marino Foundation for Integrative Medicine, Cambridge MA; Former Board Member, CSGSS; Associate Member, AKRI; Member, International Forum for Social Innovation.
Consulting Staff
The consulting staff roster will be provided to members upon receipt of their conference application. The staff list and conference information also will be available at the CSGSS website,
Who Should Attend
This group relations conference is open to people who have a serious interest in learning more about the dynamics of leadership, accountability, and organizations. It should be particularly relevant to organizational consultants, educators, social workers, mental health professionals, community leaders, businesspersons, clergy, and faculty and students in the fields of leadership and human development. It is often beneficial when two or more people from the same organization attend.
Since the conference events build on each other to create the optimal learning experience, we encourage you to apply only if you are prepared to attend the entire conference.
Learning events of this kind may be stressful, so individuals who are ill or experiencing a period of personal difficulty may wish to forego attendance at this time.
This conference is approved for 18 Continuing Education Credits (CECs) for Social Work.
Logistical Information
All events will be held at SimmonsCollege, MainCollegeBuilding, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA. A map of the campus is available at .
Conference participants are responsible for arranging their own lodging, meals, and transportation. Snacks and refreshments will be provided during breaks. Contact information for area accommodations can be obtained from the administrative staff.
For more information, or to register, visit
or contact W. Mason Smith, M.Arch., Associate Director for Administration, at (617) 864-0974. Email: .
Conference Application Form
All registration materials must be postmarked/received by September 28, 2005.
Mail or fax to: W. Mason Smith, M.Arch., Associate Director for Administration,
26 Hubbard Park Road, Cambridge, MA02138. Fax: (617) 354-9470
Title*______Name*______
Mailing Address______
City*______State/Province*______Zip/Postal Code______
Email______Phone______Fax______
Employing organization/affiliation*______
*indicates information which will be given to all members of the conference. The information below will be used only by conference staff and administrators for the purpose of forming groups:
Work role______Age______
Gender______Race/ethnicity______Other aspects of identity______
Names of close associates attending the conference______
Previous A.K. Rice/Tavistock experience (check one): __None __One __Two __Three or more
Conference Fees (check the applicable items to compute your payment)
Basic Tuition
$395, if received/postmarked by September 14, 2005
$425, if received/postmarked after September 14 and by September 28
No Fee required – currently a Student or Faculty Member in the Simmons College School of Social Work [must be approved by the Director of the Urban Leadership Program; numbers will be limited.]
Reductions to Tuition
$25 reduction for members of A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems
$25 additional reduction for members of CSGSS, the Boston Affiliate of AKRI
$25 reduction for SimmonsCollege students, faculty, and alumnae/i.
$25 reduction for three or more persons applying as a group from the same institution
Tuition Deposits
$75 non-refundable deposit to reserve a place; balance due September 28, 2005
$75 refundable deposit with completed application form and letter requesting reduction of fees. Letter must be received/postmarked on or before September 14th. [Letter may be submitted by email to or by fax to (617) 354-9470]
Other Items
$7.50 X ______number of copies of A Tavistock Primer [will be mailed on receiving order; other AKRI publications available at ]
This conference is approved for 18 CECs for Social Work. CEC cost is $10.
Social Work License #______
Total fees / deposits / payment enclosed:_$______
Method of Payment
Check (payable to CSGSS) enclosed in the amount of $______Visa___ MasterCard___
Name on Card______Card Number______
Expiration Date______Amount______
Signature ______Date______
Withdrawal Policy
An administrative fee of $75 will be retained if the application is withdrawn on or before September 28, 2005. No refunds will be issued after that date.
Reference Letter
Applicants must provide a written recommendation, due no later than September 28, 2005, from someone who can vouch for the applicant’s capacity to participate in an intense learning experience. [Letter may be submitted by email to ]
I have read the brochure for this conference and hereby apply for membership. I understand that my application authorizes the organization to conduct the conference in the manner described. My conference fee, deposit, or full payment, and reference letter accompany this application. I understand and agree to all policies stated on this application form.
Signature______Date______