Consultation and the Organisation: Psychoanalytic Approaches (ref. D10)
The Tavistock Centre is internationally renowned for its work with organisations, particularly for promoting collaborative work within teams and across whole organisational systems – a systemic approach. Our particular focus is on the emotional life of individuals, teams and organisations, exploring the underlying dynamics that cause many of the dysfunctions encountered at work.
Tutors from the course will be running D10 ‘taster sessions’ for potential students at the Trust Open Evening on May 24 6.30pm to 8pm. Contact ktrainor@tavi-port.org
"This programme taught me how to think in a crisis, and get my team to think too." Company Director
"This MA has enabled me to think about organisations in a completely different way. It has not only developed me as a consultant, but has changed me as a leader." Deputy Head Teacher
Course aims
Who is this course for?
Entry Requirements
Selection Procedures
Time Commitment
Structure of the Course
Assessment Summary
Qualification Awarded
Course dates
Course fee
Organising Tutor
Course aims
This MA trains participants to take up a ‘consultative stance’ which they can utilize from within an organisation as a manager, or when working externally as a consultant or coach.
We aim to help you achieve a greater understanding of yourself in a working context and have a greater capacity to understand the intra and intergroup processes that lead to functioning or dysfunctioning organisations and teams.
Who is this course for?
Managers, leaders, consultants, coaches and those in new leadership roles or taking new career challenges who want to develop consultative skills and insight into unconscious processes that effect organisational systems and working life.
Recent cohorts include middle and senior managers from Higher Education, Social Services, the NHS, FTSE 100 companies, the not-for-profit sector, and consultants and coaches in private practice. A strength of the programme is the cross fertilization of ideas and knowledge from such a wide variety of workplaces.
Entry Requirements
a) Applicants are expected to have a minimum of three years experience in their respective professions.In addition they will usually be directly involved in the management, training or development of other professional workers or engaged in consultative work. As such they will usually hold first degrees or equivalents, and/or have professional experience commensurate with that level of training.
b) Commitment to personal as well as intellectual development is an important factor. As the course's teaching methods rely considerably on learning from experience at many different emotional and social levels a capacity to work in this way is essential.
c) Applicants who completed the D10 course before it was accredited may apply for Assessment of Prior and Experiential Learning (APEL) credit and may if successful be admitted to year 2 of the course.
Selection Procedures
Following receipt of application forms, applicants will be invited to attend interviews where previous experience, expectations of the course and personal suitability will be discussed. As the course relies considerably on learning in a group situation, selection will involve group interviews. The application process is now open. Early application is advised. Interviews will be held from 2pm - 5pm on 9 July.
References will be taken up. Those who are accepted are expected to make provision for attendance at the course, and for completing the various assignments whereby they will be assessed. This may involve negotiations with employers. The Clinic has an Equal Opportunities policy where applications are considered on the basis of
suitability for the course irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religion, disability or social class.
Time Commitment
The taught course will take place in six 10 week terms over 2 years. It is held on a Tuesday afternoon from 2pm to 7pm. Students are expected to attend for all components of the course. A minimum attendance of 75% is required. Students are also expected to make adequate provision for various practical assignments e.g. observations of other organisations, and a consultation, which may require a considerable time commitment outside the hours of the taught course. Time should be set aside for personal study, and to prepare written assignments on which students will be assessed. On average, students report they spend an additional five hours a week outside of the taught course. As part of the course, all students also participate in a five day residential group relations conference which takes place between the 2 years in September. It is expected that most students will complete the course as a whole over two consecutive years. In some circumstances this may not be possible and a break between the two years can be negotiated. Students going on to the Masters Unit will require additional time between July and October of their second year to write the dissertation.
Structure of the Course
The course provides experiences for learning in four different modules:
Module 1: Theory
Module 2: The Development of Consultancy Skills
Module 3: Experiential Learning and its Applications
Module 4: Residential Group Relations Conference
Each week will include seminars from modules 1, 2 and 3. The modules are designed to inform and enhance one another, providing an integrated tapestry of experience for learning. It follows that all modules are compulsory given that each is designed to provide different learning opportunities all of which are considered essential
Module one: Theory
This module provides a developmental and cumulative introduction to psychoanalytic perspectives on consultation and the organisation. Students are introduced to the individual unconscious, the group unconscious and the institutional unconscious, via seminal papers, which cover the historical evolution of a psychoanalytic understanding of group and institutional life and its applications in a consultative way of working with organisational and systemic processes. Theory in the second year will introduce more contemporary papers. Practising consultants bring the theory alive through the presentation of Case Studies of consultation exploring organisational issues such as authority and power, the processes of organisational change and the politics of difference. Throughout there will be an emphasis on deepening understanding about unconscious process. Much of the teaching will be discussion based, in order to help the students develop critical skills and to link the theory to their own experiences. The seminar programme and reading lists will be provided at the beginning of each year.
Module two: The Development Of Consultancy Skills
This module will take place over the two years of the course. Students will be divided into smaller groups, each with a tutor, in order to provide a high level of individual attention. In the first year the students' home organisations will be the focus of attention. In the second year, students will undertake a consultancy project, which will provide the material for the seminar discussions. In this module organisational theory and a range of conceptual tools with which to study an organisation are introduced. This grounding will develop the capacity to think critically and systemically about your own and others' organisations, to develop well-informed hypotheses, and to design appropriate interventions. Students will be encouraged to think creatively 'across the boundary' between the conscious and unconscious aspects of organisational life.
We provide the student with the opportunity to study and develop the necessary practical skills involved in taking up a 'consultancy stance' e.g. the ability to listen and assess, to recognise conscious and unconscious processes and dynamics, to map organisational systems and understand the effects of organisational structure on organisational dynamics and vice versa, to formulate and test hypotheses about what is going on, to communicate these appropriately and to enable the client to understand more about their own organisational processes. The student should be able to differentiate between consultancy from a psychodynamic perspective and inappropriate psychotherapeutic engagement. Learning about the boundaries and limits of the consultant's role will be important. Students will be encouraged to make appropriate use of their personal experiences and feelings in the consultancy situation.
Module three: Experiential Learning and its Applications
The aim of this module is to develop the students' capacities to learn from and utilise their own individual experiences. The module provides a number of opportunities for experiential learning. Staff will be provided in role as consultants and managers as appropriate. Students are invited to study and learn at first hand about the processes that influence individuals and groups when they work together. Obviously the exact nature of the learning cannot be known about in advance but the experiential events allow for the study of such issues as leadership, followership, competition, rivalry, boundaries, anti-task phenomena, group defences, inter and intra group behaviour, the effects of gender, cultural and role differences etc.
This module includes the following three units:
1. Study groups (year 1 and 2)
2. Observation in organisations (year 1)
3. Event planning for an external membership (year 2)
Study Groups
Along with the general issues described above these groups will also allow for study of what happens at the beginning of a group's life, how group processes develop, what happens between groups, the contribution and roles of each member, how a group copes with breaks and with endings. The student will learn to observe the functioning of a group, attempting to understand the dynamics, both conscious and unconscious, that influence it, while remaining a participant.
Observation in Organisations
The aim of the unit is to provide an opportunity to observe a group functioning when it is engaged in its usual task. Maintaining the role of observer, and studying the effect this has on the student him or herself and on the group studied will be an important part of the learning experience, as will, observing how different organisations maintain their boundaries will be part of the learning experience. This unit helps to develop skills essential for the consultant including the capacity to allow a group to get on with its business without untimely interventions by an outsider.
Event Planning for an External Membership
Students will be expected to plan and staff an Event, of their own choice and design, for an external membership, the year 1 students, usually on an issue to do with consultancy and/or organisations. This unit provides particular opportunity to study issues such as authority, leadership, followership, management, delegation and competition. The focus is not only on the success or failure of the Event planned (although this obviously will have its own impact and can be studied) but on the opportunity provided for learning about group processes that emerge when a task has to be undertaken that involves engaging with the world external to the group.
Module four: Residential Group Relations Conference
This module provides intensive experience of group and institutional processes allowing the student to develop further the learning opportunities provided in the weekly course. There will be additional experiences including intergroup, managerial and institutional events, which allow the study of relatedness and relationships between groups, boundary dynamics, issues of delegated authority etc. in an institutional context. The conference as a temporary institution develops its own dynamics, rituals and culture. By examining and interpreting their experiences of this, members may develop their understanding of other organisations and their role within them. This module will take place from 3 - 7 September 2012 in Cambridge. The group relations event is designed as a separate conference, with a membership of year 1 students, as well as a small membership of other participants. It is possible to attend this conference without attending the course. A separate brochure: 'Working with Organisations' is available.
Students' Evaluation
Students will be asked for direct feedback and confidential/anonymous reports about the course and its tutors. Students will also be asked to nominate representatives to attend meetings of the Course Management Groups.
Assessment Summary
Students will be assessed throughout the course.
Assessment will be based on:
1. Attendance
2. Staff evaluation of practical work and
3. A portfolio of written work including essays and reports and, for the Masters award, a dissertation.
Qualification Awarded
Students who successfully complete Year 1 of the course will be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate. Students who successfully complete Years 1 and 2 will be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma. Students who successfully complete a Dissertation will be awarded an MA. Successful students with a pass rate of 70% or more may receive their award with Distinction. There is also a professional doctorate in Consultation and the Organisation to which successful graduates of this Masters programme can apply. Doctoral students consult to a wide range of clients as part of a supervised portfolio of practice as well as carrying out original research into an area of organisational consultancy.
Course dates
The programme is provided on a weekly basis in 10 week terms
Term dates for the academic year 2012/2013 are:-
| Term | 2012 / 2013 |
| Autumn | 1 Oct – 14 Dec 2012 Reading Week w/b 5 Nov |
| Spring | 7 Jan – 22 March 2013 Reading Week w/b 11 Feb |
| Summer | 22 Apr – Mon 8 July 2013 Reading Week w/b 27 May |
Year one course fee £3,500
Group Relations course fee £1,090
Year two course fee £3,500
Fees for registration with UEL are included. Fees are reviewed annually. Fees will not be refunded for late cancellations. Members withdrawing should do so in writing to the course administrator. Refunds will only be given in exceptional circumstances.
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Organising Tutor
Contact Kay Trainor if you would like to discuss the course with her or one of the senior tutors at KTrainor@tavi-port.org or the course administrator Paul Haviland at phaviland@tavi-port.ac.uk
