Imagine what it would be like to be an NHS Director. Dealing with the daily pressures whilst simultaneously trying to navigate multiple group dynamics — all the politics, systems and awkward bits of an organisation that can appear when people work together.

We created a leadership programme especially for them. It was about unconscious processes, the little, often hidden, reactions which show up everywhere and which can lead individuals to become entangled and defensive instead of understanding and positive. We showed the Directors how to recognise these unconscious processes and how to have influence on how events unfold — moving from defensiveness towards clearer understand and intervention. 

They told us it made them look at the Directorate with ‘fresh eyes’ and gave them an awareness of how ‘intense emotions’ have an impact. They told us it made them ‘uncomfortable but in a necessary way’ and that the effects have been ‘team building and healing’.