We are pleased to present the 4th annual Exploring Difference workshop, an experiential group workshop in the Tavistock tradition. Join us for this three-day non-residential workshop as we work to make sense of difference, authority, and irrationality, developing a “curious regard” for rethinking equity. The workshop will take place from May 1-3 at the University of Toronto. Register by April 15, 2020 to secure your place.

Director's invitation - Barbara Williams

We live in a moment characterized by increased polarization, where identities and identifications are becoming more and more rigid, where our choices about who we are and our differences are becoming more constricted by anxiety and by authoritative ways of thinking. These can limit possibilities for exploration and learning. In this moment in Canada, we need new venues for engaging with one another  We need new ways to think about who we are and what we are trying to accomplish. And we need opportunities to practice what we call curious regard: to recognize systemic and structural inequalities while nonetheless pursuing connectedness; to grapple with the authorities that shape our unconscious and conscious selves.

On behalf of Insight for Community Impact (ICI)’s Exploring Difference 2020, I welcome you to our experiential 3 day learning event in the Tavistock tradition. It is a unique opportunity to study your own experience and that of other:  to explore our multiple belongings as well as the unconscious group dynamics which shape these in real time, with out everyday distractions.

The Workshop is not a therapy space but rather a learning opportunity. Neither is it a teaching space.  It is a space that offers immediate and direct opportunities to explore what’s going on - your own experience, feelings, and thoughts in relation to belonging, difference, and authority. It can be challenging. Its task is to allow for deeper insights into how we can make a different sense of the differences with which we must contend.

The conference fee of $450+HST covers all materials, lunch, and events. A 10% discount applies to previous attendees, sponsor organization employees, and registrations completed before March 6, 2020. Limited bursaries are also available. Withdrawals after April 1, 2020 will not be refunded unless the position can be filled from the waiting list. In event of a refund, a $30.00 fee will be withheld to cover administrative costs.

Nowadays, more and more men and women as “couples” and “pairs” take up roles in work life and organisations or work in family businesses or as entrepreneurs. This presents concerns about identities, authority dynamics, hierarchy, work-life balance, gendered division of work in families and in workplaces, and politics of organisational relatedness for coping with complexity, uncertainties and ambiguities.

Participants will have opportunities to deepen their understanding of how men and women can work together for engaging more effectively for outcomes from tasks and with greater satisfaction over processes.

The emerging insights are available for exploration and reflection and there is opportunity for developing skills to work with unconscious processes this makes the Conference experience different and valuable in mobilizing authority from personal and organisational roles for managing change.