Center for the study of groups and social systems
Residential Conference
#A.I.
Authority
& Intersectionality
Creativity @ Work
The Connors Center – Dover, MA
January 18th-22nd, 2023
An Experiential Conference in the Tavistock Tradition
SPONSORED BY THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF GROUPS AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Illustration by Kylie Bernard
Welcome from the conference director
Director
Dr. Candice A. Crawford-Zakian
A headline becomes national or global news overnight. Stakeholder opinions divide and factions rise. Pithy hashtags trend, shaping and reshaping perspectives all before you finish your morning coffee. As boundaries between social, political and organizational life appear to further dissolve, your stakeholders want to know - Where do you and your organization stand? What does your leadership mean in light of ‘hashtag now’?
Regardless of your formal position in an organizational system, these tensions have a high impact. Understanding more about group dynamics and unconscious social algorithms between the intersections of role, social identity, and authority can increase your capacity to meaningfully navigate the demands of ‘hashtag now’ - at work, in your communities and beyond.
This conference explores two primary layers of organizational life – one that we think we see and know, and another that is hidden beyond awareness yet driving much of our activity. The ability to exercise leadership, mobilize roles and make decisions is significantly impacted by dynamics that are unconsciously held within groups.
Examining dynamics beneath the surface and learning how they take shape in organizations can help to regain clarity in the wake of our rapidly changing landscapes. Yet the opportunity to examine the nature of organizational life - what we import into it and our collective influence on it - is rare or non-existent. This conference is your opportunity to creatively explore that work.
Working together over five days we will create a temporary institution to explore authority, intersectionality and creativity at work.
"Hands down, this was the best (and toughest!)
professional learning I’ve experienced as a senior leader."
- Matthew Randazzo
President & CEO, The Dallas Foundation
Learning method
#A.I. Authority & Intersectionality: Leading Across Difference is a residential, group relations conference in the Tavistock tradition, designed to help participants learn first-hand about unconscious activity in social systems and its impact on organizational life.
The primary task of this conference is to provide opportunities to learn about authority and intersectionality in relationship to the exercise of leadership across difference in organizational life.
Rather than learning in the traditional format from teachers or experts, the approach is based on learning from experience itself. This conference offers direct experience of the challenges of managing the complex forces that impinge on the work of groups and organizations, and how these interact with the experience of individuals. It is a setting in which these dynamics can be experienced and explored, within groups, between groups, and within the system as a whole.
"The conference is an extraordinary opportunity to tune
into a frequency of group and organizational life that is
always operating but virtually never accessible."
- Robin Ely
Diane Doerge Wilson Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Who is this conference For?
Anyone wanting to develop their ability to act effectively within groups, networks and institutions, no matter age or walk of life. No prior experience is necessary. A wide variety of organizations and industries have been represented in the conference membership, including but not limited to:
Non-Profit
Creative Arts
Health Care
Business
What you
will have opportunities to learn
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Understanding your leadership style, how it is shaped by groups and how it affects groups.
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Exploring "out of awareness" dynamics related to intersecting elements of social identity that have a significant impact on people, groups and institutions and the work they are trying to accomplish.
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Recognizing the relationship between authority, identity and leadership.
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Developing your leadership capacity in uncertain and less inspiring environments.
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Improving strategic thinking through a deeper understanding of how organizations are related to their social, cultural, economic and political environments.
DIRECTORATE & Administration
Psy.D. Clinical Psychology, The George Washington University
Co-Founder & Principal, HumanStudio, LLC; Lecturer, Executive Coach & Lead Instructor for flagship course series - Practice Leadership Inside and Out (PLIO), Harvard University Graduate School of Education EdLD Program; Affiliate Consultant, Konu, LLC; Senior Fellow for flagship Interpersonal & Group Dynamics course, Yale School of Management; Leadership Development Consultant, INSEAD (France); Member, A.K. Rice Institute
Candice Crawford-Zakian, Psy.D.
Director
Associate Director
Ph.D. Counseling Psychology, New York University
Fellow, Yale University School of Management; Member, A.K. Rice Institute; Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems
Sheri-Ann Cowie, Ph.D
Consultants
Aarti Kapoor, LLB. LL.M
Executive Director, Embode; Barrister (England & Wales), US Attorney (New York), LL.B (Law), LL.M (Law & Econ.), University of Manchester, UK, MA (Systems Leadership and Organisational Analysis), Crossfields Institute, UK /Alanus University, Germany. Leadership Consultant, The Global Leadership Practice (TGLP), IFSI TransformaCtion Conference, Visiting Lecturer, Business & Human Rights.
Sarah Hedlund, Ph.D.
Sarah L. Hedlund, Ph.D. is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at George Washington University's Professional Psychology Program. Additionally, she has a private practice where she sees children, adolescents, and adults in individual therapy and psychoanalysis, with a particular focus on serving those with severe and persistent mental illness. She is Chair of the Washington School of Psychiatry's Supervision Program. She is also a member of NTL and the AK Rice Institute.
Sheri-Ann Cowie, Ph.D.
Ph.D. Counseling Psychology, New York University
Fellow, Yale University School of Management; Member, A.K. Rice Institute; Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems
Candice Crawford-Zakian, Psy.D.
Psy.D. Clinical Psychology, The George Washington University
Co-Founder & Principal, HumanStudio, LLC; Lecturer, Executive Coach & Lead Instructor for flagship course series - Practice Leadership Inside and Out (PLIO), Harvard University Graduate School of Education EdLD Program; Affiliate Consultant, Konu, LLC; Senior Fellow for flagship Interpersonal & Group Dynamics course, Yale School of Management; Leadership Development Consultant, INSEAD (France); Member, A.K. Rice Institute
Edward Shapiro, M.D.
M.D. Harvard Medical School; M.A. (Anthropology) Stanford; Distinguished Faculty, Erik Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy; former Medical Director/CEO, Austen Riggs Center, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Yale Child Study Center; Board Member, International Dialogue Initiative; Advisory Board, Partners Confronting Collective Atrocities; Principal, The Boswell Group; Author, Finding a Place to Stand: Developing Self-Reflective Institutions, Leaders, and Citizens (Phoenix, 2020)
mak wemuk, JD
JD, University of Chicago
Principal, Luna Consulting & Coaching; Executive Committee member, Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations (WBC); Co-Creator, Group Relations International (GRI); Certified Consultant, Director Development Mentor, and Reparations Committee member, AKRI; Past-President, the National Association of Latine Healthcare Executives (NALHE). Member: OPUS, CCSGO, and the National Lawyers Guild.
Yaro Fong-Olivares, MA
(she/her), M.S.
Executive Director, Center for Women and Business, Bentley University; Leadership Psychology PsyD candidate, William James College; M.S., The New School; B.A. Barnard College. Organizational Development leader with a focus on racial justice, equity, and inclusion; Past President, Executive Committee, New York Center; Member, Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems; Co-Creator, Group Relations International; Certified Consultant, AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems.
Zachary Gabriel Green, Ph.D.
PhD (t/he/y)
Director of Leadership Development, The Nonprofit Institute and Professor of Practice, Department of Leadership Studies, University of San Diego; Co-Founder, IMAGO Global Grassroots; Founding Lead Faculty, RISE Urban Leadership Fellows Program; Adjunct Faculty/Executive Coach, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Founding Circle and Board of Directors, Group Relations International; Associate and Wells School, Washington-Baltimore Center; Fellow and National Conference Director, A. K. Rice Institute.
Covid19
Precautions & Requirements
Given the overall public health context and our resolve to create as Covid-safe an experience as possible at this conference, the following protocols will be upheld. Registration for this conference constitutes an agreement to adhere to the following:
Requirements:
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All staff and conference participants be fully vaccinated against COVID-19
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All staff and conference participants receive a negative COVID test result, no more than 48 hours before arrival to the conference.
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If you have had a recent exposure but are testing negative, please wear a well-fitting N95 mask, with a minimum of 3 ply layers. No cloth or gator masks will be permitted. The conference administration team will have N95 masks for those whose masks do not meet these criteria.
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If you become ill, suspend further participation in conference events and report any Covid-like symptoms immediately to the conference staff.
Recommendations:
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All staff and conference participants receive the most recent booster dose recommended by the CDC to protect against variants that are currently causing most COVID infections.
These guidelines may change should local or national Covid conditions change.
Head Administrator
MA, Higher Education Leadership, University of San Diego; Vice President of Programs, Montana Conservation Corps; Instructor, Leadership Fellows Certificate Program, Montana State University; Doctoral Student, College of Education, Health, and Human Development, Montana State University; Facilitator for Interpersonal Group Dynamics course lab, Yale School of Management; Co-Creator, Group Relations International; Consultant Candidate, A.K. Rice Institute (AKRI); Board Member, Grex (west coast affiliate of AKRI)
Stacey Williams, MA
Assistant AdministratoR
M.S. Organizational Leadership, Columbia University
MBA, Webster University
B.S., United States Military Academy, West Point
U.S. Army Veteran
Member at Large, New York Center
Project Manager, Meta
Nina Traylor, MS, MBA
“The conference is an intense, unconventional and practical learning environment. It provides unique opportunities for the most valuable kind of learning – the kind that enables and frees one up to be more present and deliberate in different roles.”
- Gianpiero Petriglieri
Associate Professor, INSEAD
Pricing & Registration
$3,500 - Early Bird Corporate Rate
Individuals sponsored by their employers who register by Dec 2nd receive a $400 discount ($3,900 standard rate).
$3,000 - Early Bird Self Pay Rate
Individuals who are not being sponsored by their employers who register by Dec 2nd receive a $500 discount ($3,500 standard rate).
$2,200 - Early Bird Self Pay w/plus 1
Register with one other person from your organization or professional network for a $800 discount. If registered before Dec 2nd, receive an additional $300 early bird reduction ($2,500 regular rate).
$2,500 - Early Bird AKRI Member
Members of AKRI or an Affiliate Center receive a $500 reduction with an additional $500 off before Dec 2nd ($3,000 standard rate).
$2,500 - Early Bird Non-Profit Rate
For individuals sponsored by a non-profit organization, fees are reduced by $1000. Register by Dec 2nd and receive an addition $500 of the regular price of $3,000.
Discounts may not be combined.
Conference Sponsors & Endorsements
We are a group of people who are inspired by and passionate about group relations work, social justice and spirituality. The three are intimately connected with each other.
Contact & Brochure
Have questions or need more information?
Send an email to CSGSSLeadershipInfo@gmail.com.
Download the brochure (includes pricing information)
If you are interested but the cost prohibits you rom attending, please write to discuss and identify a fee that is mutually feasible. CSGSS is a non-profit organization and we work hard to make conferences available to anyone interested regardless of their current financial circumstances.
