Are you serious?

How ready is the Caribbean to lead in its own unique way? Many have talked about the nature of the Caribbean construction of identity and commerce as an ongoing difficult project.

Martinique psychoanalyst, Franz Fanon, once said that “The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country’s cultural standards”. These are potent and distasteful thoughts to face, but the Caribbean has to lead in a new way, one that draws from the inside out, mapping out its own journey towards prosperity, peace and development.

There are those who have said that the future of the leadership struggles in the Caribbean will be fought and won in the USA. If this is true, then the old models of learning for leadership should continue: Harvard-style learning, everyone in a suit and tie, women dressed like they are working in USA law firms, and management speak about “forecasts, long-range plans, critical masses and bottom-line imperatives” continuing to dominate conversations in staff meetings.

Or is there another way? 

Can we imagine a way in which the Caribbean leaders and followers navigate their working relationships in a style and manner that are tinged with Caribbean flair and creativity? 

The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and the Caribbean Group Consultingare working together to offer a learning opportunity to anyone in a leadership role, whether in the public, academic, non-profit and community as well as government and private sectors.

The Group Relations leadership intensive, “Surviving and Thriving: A New Dawn for Caribbean Leadership” will take place on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad & Tobago from 26 – 28 September 2019. Anyone interested in the development of leadership in the Caribbean is invited to attend this unique event.

A Group Relations conference is really a learning laboratory, not a conference in the way we usually think of it. But it is called a conference because the members are studying the nature of leading and following in an organisation in a way that surfaces the many hidden facets of working in groups.

The learning happens as you face your own hidden assumptions about leading and following. The feelings that followers have toward leaders, often unexpressed verbally, but which manifest in behaviours that often de-rail change initiatives, can be named and studied so that on return to the working world, members are better able to spot and work with the dynamics when they see them.

This is no easy learning journey, but those that will have a role in the New Dawn for the Caribbean Leadership will relish the journey as they face, head on, Surviving and Thriving in the Caribbean of 2020 and beyond…..

For more information, if you would like a chat or would like to book your place, visit Caribbean Group Consulting or contact Mary Fullerton, Associate Conference Director: mary@caribbeangroupconsulting.com