TRANSFORMING SYSTEMS Exploring the place of compassion

in the exercise of leadership  

February 8th to 13th 2015 Bengaluru, India

The Seventh Group Relations Conference

Offered by

Group Relations India

& Human and Institutional Development Forum

Dear prospective member,

Transforming Systems: Exploring the place of compassion in the exercise of leadership  

Group Relations Conferences are intensive experiential temporary organisations, which offer unique opportunities to explore your role as leader, manager, and follower as well as the habitual patterns that influence individual and group identities and collective behaviour, both conscious and unconscious. There is a growing recognition that current ways of valorising what creates value and what gives meaning are failing us, calling for paradigm shifts in ways of looking at oneself, relationships, organisations, and society.

The idea of paradigm shifts however throws up all kinds of fears and anxieties – what does this imply, are we ready for it, will it really help, who will make this happen, what kind of leadership does it call for ? This conference focuses on the themes of transformation and leadership and offers the opportunity to explore through direct experience the assumptions and nature of effective leadership with particular attention to the place of compassion.

As our world grows more chaotic and unpredictable, we tend to turn more and more to those in leadership to control chaos and make us feel safe. Leaders, in their bid to be popular, often lose sight of the fact that their primary task is to enhance individual, group, and systemic capacity to ‘see’ the realities that people face and enact. It is only through one’s ability to develop a ‘relationship with uncertainty and the unknown’, the competence to more ‘deeply attend to reality’, and the conviction about the interconnectedness of all things, that one can open space also for the possibilities of transformation. This requires not only a deep sense of compassion but also an unflinching faith in the basic capacities of people. These may seem like soft or weak stances in a world that celebrates aggressive and even arrogant leadership, but on deeper reflection we realise that these stances are what make us deeply love and admire those leaders who demonstrate them in their way of being.No wonder that leadership and followership for transformation also needs to be spiritual work.

This conference on Transforming Systems invites members from a range of work settings and roles from the corporate, development, and public sectors both nationally and internationally to focus on these issues in an open atmosphere of experiencing exploring reflecting and making sense of one’s experience . Note that we use the word conference in the sense of to ‘confer’ – to bring together – in conversations, dialogue and exploring together. The setting is not a series of lectures or speeches to a passive audience. Far from it!

If learning from direct experience and a methodology of learning based on one’s own authority is appealing to you then this ‘conference’ is likely to be of immense value to you. This year we are offering a Furthering sub conference within the conference, for those who have attended a GRC before but wish to deepen and widen their learning this time. We look forward to hearing from you.

Rosemary Viswanath & Gouranga Chattopadhyay

Conference Directors

What are Groups Relations Conferences?

Group Relations Conferences (GRC) are designed as temporary organisations for learning through direct experience. They are designed to provide a variety of opportunities for members to exercise leadership and authority in here and now situations, unravel and deal with the problems and resistances encountered in doing this, and manage oneself in role. These explorations, experiences, and insights, then have the potential to lead to transformed ways of being and relating in a range of interpersonal, institutional and societal spaces.

GRCs provide an exemplary opportunity to experience and study how authority is held and worked with in reference to its conscious and unconscious determinants. Taking up authority and acting based on one’s authority involves risk as well as recognizing ones accountability to an “other”, or a group of others, and indeed is often the only way of learning.

The focus in a GRC is on one’s conscious behavior, thoughts and emotions but more significantly on unconscious processes - those that take place beyond one’s normal awareness within one’s self and in the groups that one works with. The primary focus in the GRC is also on groups as systems and how they develop a conscious and unconscious life.

Group Relations Conferences (also known as Working Conferences) were started by The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London, in 1957, based on the pioneering work of W. R. Bion. Over time the design and structure of the conferences have undergone many changes as they were offered the world over. However, the focus on unconscious processes in groups and systems, and learning through experience, has remained intact. In India, GRCs were introduced in 1973. Participating members thus far represent a wide range of interests - the corporate sector, civil services, government organisations, the churches, academic institutions, consulting organisations, NGOs, networks and people’s movements, among others.

Theme - Transformation, Leadership, Compassion

The problems of poverty, racism, intolerance, oppression and militarism have assumed new forms in the context of economic globalization. Mounting ecological crises threaten to overwhelm our ability to meet the world’s needs for food, clean air and water, basic health and fuel. Surely leadership should be concerned with core questions of what makes the world a better place, what makes this planet sustainable, what contributes to greater well-being?

Ever since we started to harness the power of machines in the early years of the industrial era, we started to see life as well as machine-like. In fact the metaphor of the machine has insidiously influenced how we see everything, including ourselves, as an elaborate set of mechanisms. Our institutions also

embody this mechanistic way of being that is so out of touch with who we are and the nature of living phenomena. Central to this nature is the awareness of the continuous change called life, and that chaos and uncertainty is part of life.

We forget that organizations are embodiments of the human desire to affiliate, be together and work for common purpose. This desire also brings us face to face with complex, multiple dimensions of our existence including our vulnerabilities to being in collective. While organisations aim to bring people together for meaningful purpose, when we probe deeply into the ways we organize- we find ourselves and find how our own fears anxieties and beliefs play out in creating these organizations, which in turn influence individual behaviour. In the hypercompetitive world we have created there seems to be no space for pause and reflection on the vicious cycles we have triggered. Instead, we look up to our leaders to save us from uncertainty and assure us that everything is under control.

Leadership is in some ways an act of faith. It believes that human nature is the blessing, not the problem, and that we are really sufficient. This ability to truly see and believe in the potential of others is the root of compassion. This is a radical compassion – moving away from the egocentricism and control that is often associated with leadership. At the heart of compassion is the Golden Rule which recognizes “what is hateful to you do not do to others” – and this in turn comes from a deep awareness of others suffering and the wish that they be free of it.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than to “Try to be a little kinder”. ~ Aldous Huxley

A leader thus is the one who calls people together, who supports them with resources, who keeps the field clear, so that people can do the meaningful work that they desire to do. This is possible only when leaders recognize and truly believe in the reality of interdependence, to see and care for the system as a whole, and have the courage and compassion to support this. Leadership therefore is both deeply personal and inherently collective. That is a paradox that effective leaders and followers need to embrace.

Conference Design

The conference is designed as a temporary learning organization that provides several opportunities through various events to differentiate how much the experience of the ‘here and now’ is influenced by fantasy, (i.e. unchecked assumptions based on both conscious past experience and experience stored in the unconscious). Designed as it is, away from the busy-ness (and business!) of day to day life, and with a minimum of predetermined structure, it offers a fresh and different space to see the same things, but with new eyes. Each event is designed to offer the possibilities of a varied view from which one perceives oneself and others, through the taking up of multiple roles, which invariably reflect roles and stances in our day to day life.

The stance of the conference is one of developing a spirit of enquiry into one’s experience through attention, exploration, reflection and the capacity to wonder. Since there is no preset curriculum or evaluation of performance, members accept or reject learning and insights based on their personal authority. They are therefore, likely to achieve different kinds of learning.

Conference Primary TaskThe term Primary Task refers to the reason for the existence of any organisation or institution - its most important task –that defines its nature and core purpose. If not worked at, the organisation would lose its meaning.

This Group Relations Conference has a dual primary task: • To explore the dimensions of leadership and followership that emerge and contribute to

transformation of self, group and system through the taking up of roles and exercise of authority within the conference.

• To experience processes of learning how to learn, particularly focussing on how unconscious material can shackle oneself to repeated dysfunctional patterns or free oneself to experience one’s potential more richly and fully.

This year we offer two sub-conferences within the conferenceEntry sub-conference: This is for those experiencing a Group Relations Conference for the first time.Furthering sub-conference: This is for those who have had prior experience of a Group Relations Conference and wish to further their learning this time.

Some of the events and plenaries will be common to members of the Entry and Furthering sub-conferences. The Furthering sub-conference will be offered subject to adequate number of members applying for it to be feasible as a learning experience

The Role of StaffWhile staff and members are both participants, the conference accords them different roles. The staff members of the conference are not in roles typically expected of teachers or faculty. They 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 by constantly trying to make sense of their own and members’ experiences. 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.

In their Collective Management role staff also manage the conference boundaries of task, time and territory. It is expected that the membership will also use its managing capacities to manage these boundaries.

Conference Management and Staff:

Conference Directors: Rosemary Viswanath and Gouranga ChattopadhyayConference Administrators: Gunjan Zutshi (also pre-conference administrator) and Kushal Banerjee

Consultants will be drawn from among:

Ganesh AnantharamanKushal BanerjeeGouranga Chattopadhyay Zahid Gangjee Ilana Litvin Brigid Nossal Anuradha Prasad Haritha SarmaRosemary ViswanathGunjan Zutshi

Staff Profile: Ganesh Anantharaman, M. Phil. Political Science (Mumbai University); Professional Member and President (2014-16), Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science (ISABS); Member, NTL Institute of Applied Behavioural Science, USA; General Manager, Corporate HRD, Wipro Technologies Limited. Ganesh has been on the staff of Group Relations Conferences in India since 2003.

Kushal Banerjee, a postgraduate in HR Management from IISWBM, Kolkata, having over 34 years in-depth exposure in strategic and tactical HRM in diverse industries. Partner, Value Consultancy Services an Organisation Development & Change consultancy. Currently empanelled as an external consultant with Ernst & Young. Has been member of GRCs and in staff role in workshops based on group relations framework for BIM, Trichy. A certified NLP practitioner and trained in Belbin Team Role evaluation, DISC and FIRO B profiling. Engaged in Assessments, Counselling and Coaching.

Gouranga P. Chattopadhyay, M.Sc., D.Phil.Sc. (C.U.), FAScT (W.B.), FRAI (London), FAISA & FCSA (Melbourne) Emeritus Professor, Academy of HRD (Ahmedabad); Professional Member, ISABS; Independent Organisational Consultant. Has directed and been on the staff of Group Relations Conferences since 1973 in the UK, India, France, Australia, Israel, the Netherlands and Trinidad. Authored 110 journal articles, 5 books, 6 vols. of poems in English and English translation of a Bengali novel. Also in press selected English translation of poems by Tagore. 

Zahid Hoosein Gangjee, B.Sc. Psych. Hons., M.Sc. Applied & Psych. (Calcutta University); Fellow (IIM, Ahmedabad).   Since 1995, Chief Executive, „Zahid Gangjee & Associates, Organisation and HR Consultancy“, Kolkata which has been helping organisations in India & abroad manage change at the total organisation, group & individual levels. He has directed and been a staff member at Working Conferences/GRCs since 1977 mainly in India but also in Israel, France with IFSI & in the U.K. with Tavistock Institute. He has also been a Faculty Member in Behavioural Science at IIM, Calcutta & ASCI, Hyderabad.

Ilana Litvin, MA, English Literature, teaching literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; retraining as a Clinical Psychologist, MA, Psychology; Psychotherapist, specializing in adult psychotherapy. Since 1996, involved and deeply invested in Group Relations work, serving as consultant and director of national and international GR Conferences in Israel and abroad; Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach; member and previous chairperson of OFEK; Member of OPUS and ISPSO; Israel

Brigid Nossal, BA (Psych), Dip Ed, M.Ed, PhD (Systems Psychodynamics, RMIT University), Vice President and Faculty National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA), FAISA, founder and member of GRA, member ISPSO and OPUS. Brigid works as an organisational consultant, mainly in the public sector and also as a researcher and academic supervisor at Masters and Doctoral level. She has worked on staff of Group Relations Conferences since 2005 in Australia, the UK (Tavistock and Grubb Institutes) and China (Oezpa).

Anuradha Prasad, M.Sc (APAU,Hyderabad), Ph.D Agri. Extension, (IARI New Delhi). Process and Institutional Development Consultant to groups and organizations in the social development sector. Transformational Coach, certification from Leadership that Works, USA. Anuradha has directed and taken up staff roles in Group Relations Conferences in India, Australia, Israel and Thailand since 2005. Professional Member and President (2011-2013), Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science.

Haritha Sarma, MSc Geology, worked as a hydro geologist before moving in to engaging with gender justice and organisational change issues. Haritha is a process facilitator and Organisational Development consultant. He is involved in the arena of social change for past 17 years in various roles. Haritha is passionate about designing and facilitating learning processes towards empowering individuals and organisations and has been involved with GRCs in staff role.  Executive Director of HID Forum, Bengaluru, India.

Rosemary Viswanath, B.Sc. (Hons) Mathematics (Delhi University), P.G.D.M. (Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru), Involved with organizational strategy and change processes primarily with social development, social justice, and human and environmental rights organisations in India and internationally ; Managing Trustee, Group Relations India; Professional Member, Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science; and Director, Learning Network, an organisation change consultancy organisation. In the Group Relations arena, Rosemary has directed and been involved as consultant staff in several Group Relations Conferences and related workshops since 1989 mainly in India as well as with the Grubb Institute and the Tavistock Institute in the UK, IFSI France, Group Relations Nederland, the Netherlands and OFEK, Israel.

Gunjan Zutshi, MBA (Jiwaji University), Certified Organization Development & Change Practitioner from Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Science and Transactional Analysis Psychotherapist. L&OD consultant working with individuals, teams and organizations to enhance effectiveness and create capability for sustainable change.

Venue and Application detailsConference VenueSAIACS CEO Centre BOX 7747 Gubbi Cross Road, Kothanur Post Bengaluru 560077 INDIA

http://www.saiacs-ceocenter.com

This is a residential programme and accommodation is on twin-sharing basis. A few single room accommodation can be considered subject to availability and payment of additional costs, for which you need to contact the Conference Administrator prior to applying. Detailed information on how to reach the venue will be sent to participants on confirmation of their applications.

Timings & Registration Registration of members to the conference is from 09:00 to 10:30 hours on February 8, 2015 and members are expected to arrive at the venue that morning . The conference will open with a Plenary at 10:45 hours on February 8, 2014. The conference ends at 16:30 hours on February 13, 2015.

Conference Fee• Individuals from Corporate Organisations / International Development Organisations /Individuals

primarily working with these sectors: Rs 55,000. (Early Bird fee is Rs 50,000)

• Individuals from Non-Profit Organisations / Movements and Networks / National and Local Development and Social Justice Sectors /Universities/Schools: Rs 25,000. ( Early Bird fee is Rs 22,000)

• International applicants: USD 1400. ( Early Bird Fee is USD 1200)

The conference fee includes accommodation which is booked from the morning of 8th February until 13th February afternoon. Any extra stay needs to be negotiated separately.

GRI and HIDF are organisations committed to ensuring that group relations work is accessible to a wide membership – which has enabled people from a range of economic and work sectors and representing many other important diversities to attend. The diversity of members has been the hallmark of conferences in the last many years and been a critical factor in the depth and richness of the learning as well. Also Group Relations India and HID Forum have taken on the further commitment to make Group Relations opportunities available to those in the social justice and development sectors but lack the means to pay the full fee of Rs 55,000/- .

The fee for non-profits is thus a highly subsidized fee. Further to that, a few bursaries are available for participants from small under-resourced NGOs or community based organisations and movements which is supported by contributions from well wishers and some institutional supporters of both the sponsoring organisations. Those applying for bursary may please mention the justification for their application and the amount of bursary they need and we will revert back to you on the amount we can offer.

How to ApplyApplications will be accepted on a first-come first-served basis, provided they are accompanied by the member application form filled by the applicant and the conference contribution in full. You could also email your application form to us and effect a bank transfer of the fees.

Contributions for participation by bank transfer/demand draft/cheque payable at Bengaluru in favour of Group Relations India have to be made by January 25, 2015. Last date to avail the Early Bird Fee: November 31, 2014Last date for bursary applications: January 15, 2015Last date for all other applications: January 25, 2015

Refund PolicyThe entire amount will be refunded if an application is not accepted for want of available place. Refund after deducting 25% towards administrative expense will be made to those who withdraw before January 25, 2014. For withdrawals after that timeline refunds will not be possible.

Conference Fee by Bank TransferAccount Name: Group Relations IndiaAccount Number: 50200002769010Type: TASC Current AccountBank/Branch: HDFC Bank, Indira Nagar 100 ft Road (Branch No 1755), Bangalore, India IFS Code: HDFC0001755 (applicable for domestic transfers)SWIFT Code: HDFCINBB (applicable for international transfers)

DD/Cheque /application form may be mailed to:Group Relations India# N 48, 9th B MainSector XI Jeevan Bima Nagar, Bengaluru 560075 IndiaEmail: grouprelationsindia@gmail.com

Note: 1. Please also send us the details of your transfer or courier on email to enable us to track it.2. Applications are not automatically accepted. Please wait for a confirmation of your application from

the Conference Administrator 3. If seeking a bursary, please read the rationale stated above and send us a case for seeking bursary

in writing.

About the Sponsoring Organisations

Group Relations India (GRI)GRI promotes experiential learning of individual group and organizational processes. It uses group relations and socio-analysis approaches which pay particular attention to unconscious processes and group dynamics. Group Relations India offers a variety of educational programs and workshops for the enhancement of skills and competencies in this area. It also networks with like minded professional bodies and organizations to further this aim. www.grouprelationsindia.org

Human and Institutional Development Forum (HIDF)Founded in March 2000, HID Forum works towards developing and strengthening Human and Institutional Development capacities in individuals and organisations who work to  empowering disadvantaged communities. The key strategies of HIDF are a) Facilitating Organisational change through accompaniment b) Building competencies of individuals in their role as change agents and c) Research, knowledge building and dissemination. The Forum conducts, among others Group Relations Conferences (GRCs) to enhance the awareness and competencies to understand unconscious process at self and organizational levels and a 13 month Certificate Programme on Organizational Change Facilitation. www.hidforum.org

 

For further discussions and to assist your decision to join the conference we would be happy to speak to you. Call Gunjan Zutshi (+91 9845679362) or Rosemary Viswanath (+9198454 03773)

We look forward to hearing from you!