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This submission comprises a body of published works which update and extend the range of theories-in-use in the practice of Group Relations experiential learning, bringing a relational psychoanalytic framework to the understanding of groups and organisational dynamics, the practice of organisational change consultancy and the challenges of taking up complex professional roles.

The papers span a 15 year period, although the thinking that underpins them draws on a professional career of 40 years in social work, social work management, organisational consultancy and teaching for professional development. The past 25+ years have been in the context of small business management and ownership, which additionally allows for a perspective gained from fluctuating market and workplace practices. Throughout this career, I have worked extensively to create and promote conditions which can support professional judgement in challenging situations. I view this as a relational task which is both intrapsychic and interactional, and accessed through the making of links between inner world experiences of thoughts, feelings and fantasies, external world realities of organisational structures and processes, and the taking up of roles. I use psychosocial methodologies to help make sense of workplace dilemmas, and a broad repertoire of developmental interventions to effect change.

Accompanying the published works is a commentary which outlines the papers and their particular contribution to the field of professional practice. What emerges from meta-analysis of the publications are the foundations for a theory of interaction based on a new framework for understanding and working in organisations, and consulting to group behaviour. I have called this ‘The Relational Terrain’ and I expound and illustrate it with material from the papers, and from my consulting work.

I give evidence of the impact of these publications, of how and where ideas have been taken up, bringing fresh perspectives to established traditions, as well as practical value for clients attempting to effect change in themselves and their organisations. I suggest that there is now a groundswell of interest in the application of relational theories to group and organisational behaviour, and that this submission constitutes a body of knowledge which is ripe for a broader audience at this time.

A relational systems psychodynamic approach to the understanding of group and organisational processes: The construction of 'the relational terrain'

This article aims to provide insights into the vital role of cultural sensitivity when coaching international teams. The objectives of the article are to:
i)	share research findings on international team-member perspectives of Team Coaching (TC)
ii)	demonstrate the value to team coaches of greater awareness of cultural difference and working with cultural sensitivity during International Team Coaching (ITC);
iii)	suggest areas for further consideration by team coaches who wish to develop greater cultural sensitivity. 	
The findings reported here are based on the perspectives of 22 participants, who are senior leaders, working as members of international teams, for a single global business consultancy. The participants are based in Czechia, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Singapore, South Africa and the United States, so provide a wide geographic scope for the research. The study shares their varied perspectives on coaching, working in teams and how to approach cultural difference.

/pdf/coaching-culturally-different-members-of-international-3tmde0q7eh.pdf

Coaching culturally different members of international business teams - the role of cultural intelligence

This paper offers a reflection on the practice concerns brought into supervision and case discussion by local authority social workers and social work managers in the early twenty-first century in England. An emergent theme is ‘credibility’, which presents itself in questions such as: How trustworthy is my thinking, how does it stand up to scrutiny, and how can I justify the actions that I take or don’t take? We suggest that to be credible is to manage and account for both the creativity and the constraint of working with uncertainty and that these tensions produce system-wide dynamics which can be surfaced and worked through in supervision. Bringing experience and examples from our supervisory practices, we consider the nature of uncertainty to explore how knowledge is generated in relation to social work with children and families where neglect is prevalent. In the light of diminishing availability of resources, we explore the challenge of bringing a robust and creative approach to this work. We suggest...

Reflections from Practice: Supervision, Knowledge and the Elusive Quality of Credibility

Resource-ful Consulting: Working with your Presence and Identity in Consulting to Change. Karen Izod and Susan Rosina Whittle. London: Karnac, 2014The Introduction to this book opens with "This is a book about consulting to organisations ..." (p. xvii). It is clear from the outset that the authors' focus is on the "I" and the "me" within the change process, seeing "all consulting work is mediated through my sense of self" (p. xix). This requires attention to be paid to identities (who I am/am not at any time); presence (described as behaviour regulation when experiencing anxiety or complacency); and preoccupations (what I habitually latch on to, ignore, or avoid).The book has grown out of the authors' extensive experience as professional development consultants and practitioners, notably their time developing and leading The Tavistock Institute's "Practitioner Certificate in Consulting and Change" (P3C) programme and reads almost as a workbook for the programme. It is clearly written for a consultant-practitioner readership and wears its depth of scholarship lightly. Written in the first person, it is a slim volume, clearly structured and including a wealth of "analytic" checklists and questions about practice that invite the reader to put the ideas to which they have just been introduced into practice. Most of these are clearly explained and provide helpful templates for encouraging critical selfreflection in pursuit of sharpening our consulting practice.In identifying a perceived need for their book, Izod and Whittle suggest that "stuckness" is just as likely to be experienced by consultants as their clients. And since its offer of encouragement to work through consulting dilemmas in what they describe as an "asset-based approach to consulting" (p. xviii) is of practical value to consultants seeking to effect change. The text includes plenty of short, pithy vignettes that help to keep the focus on the "practical and vital" (p. xviii). Much of the book is written in the first person and to accord with its spirit and avoid "clunky" sentence constructions, I have stayed with the first person when summarising these sections.The book contains seven chapters, the first of which explores "potential space" (Winnicott, 1971), a playful place of transition between "reality" and "fantasy" where creativity and change can happen and where I am neither "me" nor "not me". "Play does not lose touch with reality, but creatively reinvents it" (p. 7), and is seen as a space to experiment free of judgement (phrases such as "I'm only playing at it" give me a licence to experiment without claim to striving for competence), but this space can quickly lose its "potential" in the presence of a judgemental figure. Games, in contrast to play, tend to have pre-established rules, and with them, offer less scope for creativity.The chapter goes on to outline how the authors use co-creation as a form of disruptive learning, encouraging both participants and facilita tors/consultants to "step out of their routines" (p. 8). Taking a risk and not being drawn into "over-designing", requires "real time" feedback between the course directors (and, Weick (1998) would argue, good levels of trust and shared experience of "playing" together) to keep open the "potential space".The notion of holding open "potential space" underpins the subsequent chapters, including Chapter Two, which explores how identities support and constrain the work of change practitioners and consultants, and outlines three dynamic aspects of identity-recognition; regulation, and revelation-that the authors have found typically preoccupy consultants.Identity signifiers may be descriptors of characteristics that I have little or no choice about-my gender, the colour of my skin, my ages, where I was born, etc.-or they may be signifiers that I have chosen how much to reveal for myself-for example, the age and sex of my children, the football team I support, or my political inclinations. …

Resource-Ful Consulting: Working with Your Presence and Identity in Consulting to Change

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Resource-Ful Consulting: Working with Your Presence and Identity in Consulting to Change