Group Relations Conferences: Leadership, Authority and the Human Condition
Share
Subscribe
Show Notes
In this episode, Simon Western is joined by his long-time colleague, Leslie Brissett, to explore the history, purpose and enduring relevance of Group Relations Conferences. They trace the roots of this pioneering methodology from the early Leicester Conferences and the Tavistock Institute tradition to its contemporary applications in leadership, organisations and society. They discuss how Group Relations creates a temporary learning organisation where participants study authority, leadership, membership, and the unconscious in real time. They reflect on why these conferences can be deeply moving, often revealing hidden assumptions, internal constraints and patterns carried from our earliest relationships.
Simon and Leslie also discuss the changing nature of leadership, the growing prominence of identity and systems thinking and the need to reconnect questions of soul, embodiment and spirituality with organisational life. Along the way, Simon shares how a Group Relations Conference helped him discover a different path to leadership - one that emerged not from hierarchy, but from working at the edge.
This is a conversation about learning, freedom, authority and what it means to become more conscious participants in the systems we inhabit.
Key Reflections
- Every Group Relations Conference is a unique, temporary learning organisation that can never be repeated in exactly the same way.
- Authority is not simply something exercised by leaders; it is shaped by how each of us relates to systems, roles, and early life experiences.
- Experiential learning can reveal aspects of ourselves that remain hidden in traditional education, coaching, therapy, or leadership development.
- Freedom often exposes the internal constraints and assumptions that unconsciously shape our behaviour.
- The origins of Group Relations are rooted in post-war efforts to understand authority, democracy, and the conditions that give rise to authoritarianism.
- Leadership does not only emerge from formal positions of power; it can arise from the edge of a system through connection and influence.
- Identity has become a more visible and important aspect of organizational life, inviting deeper reflection on both self and system.
- The future of Group Relations may lie in integrating embodiment, spirituality, and ecological ways of thinking with its psychoanalytic foundations.
Keywords
Group Relations, Leadership, Authority, Tavistock, Systems Thinking, Identity, Organisational Learning, Soul, Work
Brief Bio
Leslie has worked in organisational and community leadership for over 30 years. He is on the advisory board of the Eco-leadership Institute. He is the former Group Relations Programme Director at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, and is currently serving as the Board Secretary for the International Psychoanalytical Association. Leslie has studied human dynamics in experiential settings in many countries and acts as an adviser and consultant to boards, nations, groups and individuals seeking to improve the quality of life and deepen what it means to be human and humane. Leslie holds multiple degrees including master's degrees in Health Education from Kings College and Organisational Psychology, Social Policy and Non-Profit Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as a PhD in Unconscious Decision Making from Trinity College.