Chaos, creativity and roles; some reflections after the 2021 Latin American Group Relations Conference (GRC)
Last March I had the opportunity to participate in the Latin American Group Relations Conference (GRC) organized by the Tavistok Institute of Human Relations with the central theme of redefining leadership here and now. So far, everything sounds very normal and my dear readers may ask themselves: "why is it so important to write about a conference?" Well, if you have not had the opportunity to be in a GRC I can understand the doubt. For me it is indispensable to write it down and share it in order to make sense of everything that happened and what I was able to apprehend and learn.
It can be said that the GRC was a pure and completely experiential learning space. There are no classes, no syllabus, no exercises or techniques, no review of theories (although there are many and very deep theories on the subject) and no high theoretical justifications are given or asked to be shared because it is about the here and now.
Facing a space and a group that is being taken to this experience generates, in principle, a great bewilderment; we have many years being schooled through a model (the vast majority of systems) in which there is a teacher who dictates a subject and, with some luck, some practice is done. However, in the traditional model, the object of learning is experienced as something foreign, as something external that must be analyzed, understood, studied and, perhaps, internalized. In the environment generated in a GRC, the object of learning is a subject, or rather, there are many of them, since each member, the conference as a whole and the environment are part of the study. Let's say we were like those photons in Thomas Young's* famous experiment in which he reached the paradoxical conclusion that they were completely particles and completely waves at the same time... So, being and living the paradox we went to the conference.
There was a goal, of course, very well stated and very well said. However, although the conference chair clearly specified it in the introductory dialogue, I had to read it, reread it and turn to it repeatedly to be halfway sure what we were doing there. I repeat it because it is no secret, the objective was: to learn from the experience of exercising leadership, authority, responsibility and trust in the digital world in the context of Covid-19.
Had I mentioned that all this was happening online?
Well, the territory in which we were moving was a set of images transmitted by the network, recreating a mosaic composed of those small windows that are generated in videoconferences and that, while taking you elsewhere, bring into your own space, the space of others. I said windows but perhaps I should say portholes because it seems to me that my ship was moving in the preconscious seas and that as it swayed, it was allowing me to see a little part of the world of my confreres as we sailed through the conference. As we approached, we entered the world of the others and they entered ours, influencing each other and the environment.
Another reflection that seems to me applicable to this new everyday life refers to teleworking and distance relationships: we see only a small portion of the other's world through the camera. What the sender has decided to show, what he cannot avoid showing (since it is a space often shared by other physical persons, such as the family) and that sneaks in and affects others but is also affected by what happens in the other dozens of realities. It occurs to me that it is like compacting reality and bringing it closer (in an imperfect and incomplete way) to the reality of the other, gluing the windows of the ships (which collide, attract and repel each other according to the swell) and breathing the air and influencing and being influenced by the others (participants and families).
In this hybrid existence between what happens in the virtual world and the material world, our mind travels from its space to that of the other(s), generating temporary virtual territories, which feed each other and inevitably influence each other. The ships sway with the tide anchored by the physical body of each person who keeps their senses interacting in an expanded way. It is not easy to be here and now when that place and is multiplied by internet connection, amplified by gadgets while our body continues in its constant vital and perceptive cycle.
Returning to the conference, through the different groups and subgroups, we interacted, related and learned in an environment worthy of the tower of Babel. As is our American continent, so was the conference, in Spanish, English and Portuguese. We were translating and striving to understand not only the words but the context and the subconscious languages of others. We were talking about what was being and that many times is not spoken, we were building something that then fell and something different emerged again, as in the fractals, always constant and always different.**
We are used to thinking in a linear and somewhat mechanistic way, it would seem that if we could know all the given variables then we could explain and then predict exactly what happens and will happen. However, this type of thinking, while rewarding because it gives us a good level of control, is nothing like reality outside the laboratory.
There are so many variables involved at any given moment that understanding them, even with hindsight, reveals layers and layers of analysis and interpretation that seem infinite. Fortunately, good reason (as Paul Watzlawick would say) is not the only tool we have. In times of great uncertainty and constant change we have many others: intuition, our own body, dreams, metaphors, poetry, symbols, humor, everything that connects us with our subconscious world and that of others. When we manage to open ourselves to these languages we re-discover that we are all connected, that the sea in which our ship navigates is part of the subconscious but also part of the inner world of all the others, as individuals and as a whole.
Have I managed to confuse you? I guess so, because I felt that way too. Let me say it in the language I allude to through a poem I wrote on day-3 of the conference:
Walking, a little hesitant
I look at what I have ignored
a worker
a teacher
a disjointed dream
I take my cane and bless this dream:
exorcise the nightmare
embrace once again my reflected shadow
I don't want to be isolated!
I say, like the other one: give me the connection or give me death.
Then I sit down again in front of the machine, letting my dream rejoin the current, with the cane still in my hand.
with the cane still in my hand
and the thirst for the road in my eyes.
Do you understand a little more now? I hope so, because I am still missing an idea that I want to share:
The sequence in which roles are organized in this new reality.
I think that before the pandemic we visualized the roles we were taking as a sequence of events, in my case more or less like this:
Wake up (R0. Husband)
Eat breakfast (R1. Father)
Drive to work and drop off children (R2. Driver)
Working (R3. Executive, R4. Teacher, R5. Coach)
Living together at lunchtime (R6. Friend)
Driving (R2. driver)
Coming home (R1. parent)
Couple time (R0. Husband)
As a series of more or less constant arrows with little splicing.
The pandemic compacted us at home and by compacting the territory, something altered about time and roles. I think it works more or less like that now:
As the sequence was lost, so were the psychic system's replenishment spaces, the daily buffers that allow for smoother transitions between roles. This lifestyle/work style that has blurred boundaries can become a cause of very great stress. Looking at the picture, now so chaotic I think I understand a little better why anxiety, burn-out, intra-family quarrels, depression, among other ills have risen so high.
This chaos, with all its associated ills is also a time when creativity and renewal can flourish. By working flexibly, simplifying rules and structures, encouraging participation and collaboration, and placing ethics, social responsibility and interpersonal relationships at the forefront, both the organization and the individual will emerge from this turbulent era greatly strengthened and renewed.
At the conference, groups met, disintegrated, confused and supported each other. A wide range of emotions and concerns arose, for that is the human spirit, diverse in its orography and changeable in its climate. The Latin American Group Relations Conference was much more, but it does not fit in these lines that I am writing to make sense of my own experience.
In summary:
No matter how many years we have been working with groups, each one is new and unique because of the mix of its members and circumstances; every group is different exciting and represents new territory to explore.
Technology interacts with individuals and asks for new levels of trust.
We are never outside the group, we are in a play in which there are no spectators and in which it is impossible not to influence, even if we stay down.
When physical freedom is curtailed, inner freedom resurfaces with new colors and hopes, redefining the moment and promising a better future.
Flexibility, adaptability, compassion, ethical creativity, self-organization and congruence are irreplaceable competencies in turbulent times.
The reality we live in has made me more aware of my integrity as a person, it confronts and unifies me and yet, multi-presence (virtual, physical, role splicing) makes the definition of the here and now more complex.
I have reflected in a very subjective way on my experience and I have mixed it with the experiences of the moment. They cannot be separated, we are beings that tend to unity and integration. It seems to me that today, more than ever, it is essential to search for the meaning of our existence, taking advantage of our emotions, reasons and intuitions and if, in spite of all this, we have doubts, we should opt for the most compassionate, ethical and loving way out that we can.
Faced with the challenges of this era that requires us to broaden our perception and connect to many miles away while we continue to live physically in our homes, it is essential to find a reliable handhold so as not to fall into despair or anxiety: the safe harbor is within, towards our own heart. It is a time that has led us to live inward, let's take advantage of the journey and trust in that spark that the Creator placed in each of our centers to guide us, that is the compass of inner consciousness, which connects to everything else. If we listen to it carefully, we will see that it does not fail.
With love,
Francisco Monterrubio
Please suscribe below to get the last news:
* https://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/light/Lesson-3/Young-s-Experiment
** https://www.tavinstitute.org/projects/an-introduction-to-complexity-theory/
*** Watzlawick, Paul. El lenguaje del cambio. Herder. 2012
****La Teoría del Caos en las Organizaciones.María Jesús Pidal González. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3998894