A Blended Study Programme of Connected Residential and Zoom Workshops
Approved by the IGA as a short course and in association with the Group Analytic Society International
“The day will come when whole communities and nations will deal with their affairs in this way.” SH Foulkes, founder of Group Analysis (1975)
Since Patrick de Maré began his pioneering study of large groups at the IGA in the 1970s it has become clear that real dialogue in a large group can release enormous potential for individual and collective creativity.
This has been demonstrated in management consultancy, management development/training, peace negotiation, prisons, local government, community architecture, schools, higher education, therapeutic communities, reflective citizens projects, youth and community work and in psychotherapy training.
This series of workshops is the first opportunity to bring together the potential of the large group with our work on management and leadership. It will not only enable participants to facilitate dialogue in any setting of their choosing but it will also place them at the leading edge of sophisticated approaches to management and organisational development.
The intention is to gather a community of practice that will meet every two months over a weekend to develop these ideas together. Our aim is to provide a place of support for participants to initiate and work through a project of their own choice, using the theoretical input and experience of the group to inform their action. It may include conducting an actual formal group but the idea is to hold the knowledge of larger group dynamics in mind in order to understand what might be happening on the ground and to think through how to work with it.
Each participant can choose to join, either sequentially every time, or now and then. It depends on what each person wants from the sessions. This approach replicates what so often occurs in this kind of applied work. We will have the opportunity to learn to cope with uncertainty and a different kind of continuity.
MATCHING LEARNING with PRACTICE
Our aim is to make this course inspirational and transformative. Learning will be through seminars and group experiences each weekend, and through live ‘action research’ based on each participant’s own working or living environment.
WHO FOR?
Anyone from any background wishing to include people in decision-making, peace making, consultation processes, bridging racial, cultural and religious divides, or tackling local or global challenges.
If you are working in a school or higher education, local government, prison or probation service, social work or trade union, with youth and community development, as a management consultant, in a therapeutic community, or struggling to survive in the NHS, or as clergy, politician or civil servant, you can expect this course to give you quite new perspectives.
WHERE?
On a combination of Zoom and residential at Roffey Park, which is one of the foremost colleges for management training in the UK set in beautiful countryside only 15 minutes by taxi from Gatwick airport or by train to Gatwick or Horsham.
At Roffey Park, the course will be residential with accommodation and all meals included.
WHEN?
WEEKENDs in 2023: 20-22 January; 10-12 March; 5-6 May; 7-9 July; 6-8 October
Start and finish times, 17.00 on Friday to 16.00 on Sunday, are designed to encourage participation from anywhere in the UK or elsewhere in the world.
FEES
Registration: £150 (non-refundable)
for RESIDENTIAL WEEKENDS at ROFFEY PARK
£1600 if paid in full in advance for five weekends or
£380 per weekend payable one month in advance or five Instalments of: £380 – £1900 in total.
FULL BOARD AND ACCOMMODATION in Addition
£160 inc. VAT per weekend payable in addition to delegate fees.
For ZOOM WEEKENDS: £200 per weekend
PAYMENT
Cheques or Online banking to account details to be sent on application.
NEED FURTHER INFORMATION?
Please contact Teresa von Sommaruga Howard on [email protected].
FURTHER READING
Click on the links below to read more about using the ‘large group in the mind’: