Our

prayer is our labour

On incubation of and innovation in reflective spaces
An essay by Milena Stateva, PhD
Senior Researcher/Consultant

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-----
Popular definitions of an essay
noun
se/
1. a short piece of writing on a particular subject.
synonyms: article, piece of writing, composition, study, paper, dissertation, assignment, thesis,
discourse, treatise, text, tract, disquisition, monograph; More
2.formal
an attempt or effort.
synonyms: attempt, effort, endeavour, try, venture, trial, experiment, undertaking;

verb formal
se/
1. attempt or try.
synonyms: attempt, make an attempt at, try, strive, aim, venture, endeavour, seek, set out, do
one's best, do all one can, do one's utmost, make an effort, make every effort, spare no effort,
give one's all, take it on oneself; have a go at, undertake, embark on, try one's hand at, try out,
take on; (informal) give it a whirl, give it one's best shot, go all out, pull out all the stops, bend
over backwards, knock oneself out, bust a gut, break one's neck, move heaven and earth, have a
crack at, have a shot at, have a stab at
"many essayed to travel that way"

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Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Incubation of reflective spaces: the Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space as a contemporary
return to Platos academia .................................................................................................................... 7
The purpose ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Theoretical and methodological framework ..................................................................................... 8
The models of groups available at present and their background .................................................. 12
Discussion: inter-subjectivity, value and making the world a better place ......................................... 15
From inter-subjectivity to a shared value .................................................................................... 16
From adding value to making the world a better place ............................................................... 17
Everyday challenges between instrumental and value rationalities ........................................... 18
Next steps: from loose groups to a social intervention ....................................................................... 22
Future Search Conference for 50 artists and social scientists from two countries providing the
different project sites .................................................................................................................. 22
Design conferences in the two countries (for local teams) ......................................................... 23
Ten Action Learning Sets (ALSs) ................................................................................................... 23
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 24
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 25

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Acknowledgements
This essay is an introduction to the Learning Log on developing the Tavistock Institute Action
Learning Space a series of periodic thought pieces accompanying the development of my
thinking surrounding this project. The Learning Log is intended to ensure rigour via peer
review, but also to spread ideas among like-minded people.
I call like-minded people what in Bulgarian we call 1 those people with
whom we have the same thoughts, or perhaps the fellow travellers with whom we travel the
same road of thinking; a kind of thought-mates rather than just soul-mates. In developing the
project, I walked, I am walking and I hope to continue to walk the road with a number of
special like-minded people from all over the world.
Some of them, as peer reviewers, challenged me in a creative way. I have to mention most
notably Juliet Scott of the Tavistock Institute who was the main person to work with. Others
provided me with crucial inspiration by (not) being there when I needed them to produce I
should acknowledge the skillful (non) availability of Matt Gieve, Dr Lene Auestad, Martin
Ringer, Nick Preston, Dr Mannie Sher, and Sam Nightingale2. And of course, all of those who
were always there, with no questions not mentioning my family and friends who know who
they are, I should acknowledge (not necessarily in this order) Prof. Robert Fine, Tim
Dartington, Dr Alberto Hahn, David Drabble, Dr Lesley Brissett, Prof. Sasha Roseneil,
Karen Izod, John Mulryan, David Armstrong, Dr Eliat Aram and Dr Ravi Thiara.
I am particularly grateful to Colin Falconer for introducing me to the Japanese concept of
shishin helping me to make sense of the ways in which the inter-generational connects the
worlds of the private and the public, the worlds of life and when the reality of life is no longer
needed and how all of these plays a role in conceiving, nurturing and doing work for and on
behalf of society.
I hope I am not missing anyone and am looking forward to connecting with more friends and
colleagues. The intention behind this paper is to provide an initial conceptual and
methodological overview and to ensure peer review and feedback from like-minded
colleagues. The paper will be followed by a series of three-monthly learning logs enabling
trusted colleagues to provide feedback, share thoughts and enrich their own work. To
subscribe to receive the learning logs, please do send me an email on
m.stateva@tavinstitute.org

With thanks to Maria Tchomarova of Animus Association for identifying the word for the quality of people we
were looking for in our joint work.
2
(Not) being there is also a mode of thinking in groups and teams that I am currently elaborating in another
piece of work. In the group relations jargon, we often use a distinction between relationship (where we have
actual connection with others on a task or shared purpose) and relatedness (where our disposition is
connecting us to other people). (Not) being there seems to occupy a space in-between and describes the
position of the other people.

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The problem3
I like a church; I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowled churchman be.
Why should the vest on him allure,
Which I could not on me endure?
Not from a vain or shallow thought
His awful Jove young Phidias brought;
Never from lips of cunning fell
The thrilling Delphic oracle;
Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old;
The litanies of nations came,
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below,-The canticles of love and woe:
The hand that rounded Peter's dome
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome
Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Himself from God he could not free;
He builded better than he knew;
The conscious stone to beauty grew.

3

Louis Comfort Tiffany, Design for a window,

Purchase, Walter Hoving and Julia T. Weld Gifts
and Dodge Fund, 1967, OASC, available online at
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/searc
h/17499 (l.a. 31/05/2016)

Knowst thou what wove yon woodbird's

nest
Of leaves and feathers from her breast?
Or how the fish outbuilt her shell,
Painting with morn each annual cell?
Or how the sacred pine-tree adds
To her old leaves new myriads?
Such and so grew these holy piles,
While love and terror laid the tiles.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon,
As the best gem upon her zone,
And Morning opes with haste her lids
To gaze upon the Pyramids;
O'er England's abbeys bends the sky,
As on its friends, with kindred eye;
For out of Thought's interior sphere
These wonders rose to upper air;
And Nature gladly gave them place,
Adopted them into her race,
And granted them an equal date
With Andes and with Ararat.
These temples grew as grows the grass;
Art might obey, but not surpass.
The passive Master lent his hand
To the vast soul that o'er him planned;
And the same power that reared the shrine
Bestrode the tribes that knelt within.
Ever the fiery Pentecost
Girds with one flame the countless host,
Trances the heart through chanting choirs,
And through the priest the mind inspires.
The word unto the prophet spoken
Was writ on tables yet unbroken;
The word by seers or sibyls told,
In groves of oak, or fanes of gold.
Still floats upon the morning wind,
Still whispers to the willing mind.
One accent of the Holy Ghost
The heedless world hath never lost.
I know what say the fathers wise,-The Book itself before me lies,
Old Chrysostom, best Augustine,
And he who blent both in his line,
The younger Golden Lips or mines,
Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines.
His words are music in my ear,
I see his cowled portrait dear;

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And yet, for all his faith could see,

I would not the good bishop be.

----Ralph Waldo Emerson

Introduction4
The Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space is an action research project aiming at
adjusting and democratising what I loosely call reflective spaces." The project originates in
my frustration with contemporary ways of working in the social field. Processes in society
over the last years have unfolded and colluded to create a research and practice characterized
by an increased bureaucratization. The norm in the world of work, as much as in the private
lives of those doing such work, has become hectic rush to meet tight deadlines paired with
increasingly diminishing resources. Consequently, work processes routinely ignore meaning
and sense-making at the expense of control, monitoring, evidencing, procedures, rules, and
regulations.
At the same time, my
experience at various levels
of research and application
has taught me that precisely
the work in the social field
requires sophisticated
opportunities for meaningand sense-making. The ability
to make sense is a key
building block of a purposeful
action. By purposeful action I
mean an action that has the
capacity to address pressing
issues and painful problems.
Skillfully facilitated reflective
spaces mobilise the group
dynamics that is charged with
emancipatory potential and
unlock members capacities to
be autonomous yet together.
This paper is an overview of
the current state of the
project, followed by a discussion of the experience so far and an outline of next steps to
upgrade the initiative. The next iteration of refining the project will aim to turn the project
into a social intervention. The first section, on incubating reflective spaces, summarises the
purpose, the theoretical and methodological framework and the current models of groups.
The models of groups are flexible and dynamic, and their design is shaped by loose minimum
specifications. The minimum specifications outline just the boundaries within and with which
the group and its host can play. Playfulness does not imply that things are taken lightly or
with no understandings of the risks. It is more a concept that refers to the joy, creativity and
purposefulness that comes with the awareness of what is the right thing to do.

4

Photograph by Milena Stateva, PhD, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

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The second section, the discussion, traces the ways in which inter-subjectivity links to value
in such a project of mobilizing the collective wisdom to make the world a better place.
Despite that the project often gets stuck in the very dynamics it seeks to address, I
deliberately do not evaluate as yet the experience. Instead, the focus is on unpacking the ideal
and what are the threats. The third section of the paper looks at the next steps as a way to
replicate and scale up the groups. They are designed with a view of using them as a social
intervention in areas of problematique or social fields in which individuals, groups, and
organisations get stuck. The Theory of Change of the project is presented, acknowledging
limitations of the approach and ways to use it as a dynamic tool rather than a rigid framework
to achieve goals.
The paper is not just a report but aims to develop arguments in defense of opening spaces and
creating opportunities to think. It outlines an ambitious project that goes beyond but originates in
organizational studies. Reflective spaces were originally designed as components of organizational
design. They served the function of enhancing the processing, problem solving and team building
capacities of organisations. The proposed approach merges advance in this field with recent

developments in understanding the importance of third spaces" - spaces that do not belong to
work nor private life, especially in the light of those shrinking and some even disappearing.
The paper, therefore, can make a wider contribution to enhancing techniques and designs of
third spaces as much as to incorporating reflective spaces in private, community and
organizational lives and the ways in which they are inter-connected. I am not fully
developing this line here.

Incubation of reflective spaces: the Tavistock Institute Action

Learning Space as a contemporary return to Platos academia
The purpose
The purpose of the project is to craft and install new sense-making opportunities for building
what Bourdieu calls cultural capital. The Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space
provides the framework of reflective practice by opening spaces to mobilise the collective
wisdom to think and solve problems. Such opportunities can help society think about itself,
and even to re-invent itself, in challenging times. The research consolidates (into a conceptual
framework, methodology, and techniques) professional practice with groups over the last 15
years. The purpose is twofold:
a) adjusting the approach of delivering reflective spaces a popular term used in this
context to refer to work groups, study groups, and experiential learning groups
[1,2,3] - so that they better fit the contemporary agile ways of living and working, and
the increasingly diverse settings of that living and working today;
b) the democratisation of these reflective spaces, which are used conventionally by
high-risk businesses, mental health practitioners and in leadership development
mainly.
The project is a developmental work aiming to conceptualise and create opportunities for
thinking. The purpose is to assist professionals, decision makers, citizens, artists, and activists
who work or live in areas concerned with contemporary societal challenges. They can then in
turn reproduce such opportunities for others in their public and private lives. Areas that
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constitute societal challenges are social, cultural and political fields that are of significance to
all, strategically and in their everyday lives. Key to this definition is that they affect wellbeing, citizenship and the fulfillment of personal potential negatively. Such challenges are
often characterised by (inter) organisational dynamics causing intervening teams,
organisations, and groups to get stuck in what Trist called problmatiques, meta-problems or
messes [4]. In this sense, the Action Learning Space is a reference organisation for making
sense of the problmatique and for bringing back to life the joy of doing.
The 2008 economic crisis faced us - as human beings, citizens, and professionals - with
shrinking opportunities; hectic work life, even pathological busy-ness; increasingly agile
work and personal lives; and overall difficulties addressing everyday pressures. The pressures
from the economic crisis built on earlier dynamics: growing awareness of the limits of
existing policy frameworks to address issues arising from diversity [5], living in a risk society
[6, 7] paired with disappearing containers in turbulent times [8], and preoccupation with
violence and its consequences [9]. The 2008 crisis thus gave a rise to a new wave of
catastrophic rhetorics, a re-awakening of apocalyptic messages and frameworks as the new
collective interpretations of our shared being [10], with little options for containing and
working with the arising survival anxiety.
There is a growing recognition of the powerful potential of bringing together political and
psychoanalytic change, with cutting edge initiatives such as Politics and Psychoanalysis and
the Political Mind in the UK becoming increasingly popular in making the point. The two
approaches do not come easily together. Psychoanalysis is concerned with what is driven by
individual unconscious while the political is more clearly concerned with social and
economic influences that exploit individual dynamics [11]. Unless we assume, together with
the Frankfurt School [12], contemporary critical theory and recent mainstream social
psychologists [13], that the self is powerfully shaped by its social sources and the
surrounding politico-economic processes and is then, in turn, influencing its environment.

Theoretical and methodological framework

The research focuses on alternative branches of psychoanalysis that study selves in a role in
groups, organisations, and society [14, 15, 16]. These approaches originate in Tavistock
research into inter-subjectivity that goes beyond the individual and the psychotherapeutic [17,
18, 19]. Informed by the clinical, the method that provides the foci for the study has greater
potential for emancipation than group psychotherapy and involves work groups or study
groups. These groups form a part of psychoanalytic sensitivity training, organisational
interventions and leadership development. They are at the core of experiential learning Group
Relations Conferences [20, 21] and other Large Group Interventions [22, 23].
The research focuses on strengthening those by blending these approaches with applied
critical theory and the arts in three main areas:

leadership and community development;

working with people in their political roles;

empowering marginalised scholars.

The aims are to foster people in a role to function as containers and inspiration that are more
suitable for the challenges of our times. The first group includes leaders who, as a result of
this work, will be better equipped to deal with inherited and contemporary difficulties. By
"leaders" we mean senior practitioners, middle-tier managers and above and informal leaders.
The purpose of working with them is to help them stay true to their organisational purpose
and their social promises despite adversity. Secondly, the project works with self-selected
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community members by opening a space for getting in touch with their capacities to
contribute to society, economy, culture and politics. Thirdly, an important purpose is to
facilitate processes of fostering democracy by participation, social justice, and social
cohesion via interpolating those parts of selves that connect to the political. Finally, the
project impacts culture, in a context that favours simplicity, objectivism, and bureaucracy. It
works to free a context constrained by consumerism and marketization. This consumerism
and marketization leave little breathing space for the original social, educational, political and
enlightenment functions of artists and cultural scholars.
The concept of the Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space is a contemporary return to
Platos academy. Plato established the academy as a containing and reflective device before it
evolved, within Humboldt University, into a context dedicated to the transfer of knowledge
and skills [24]. This return to the origins of learning is informed by advances of setting up
and hosting groups as reflective spaces which form the first theoretical pillar for the work [cf.
25, 26, 27, 28]. To compensate for the resource intensity of running groups, the project
explores, as a second theoretical pillar, the potential of arts as legitimate research and
communication modes. The premise is that by blending group dynamics techniques with art
techniques, we can accelerate in a rigorous way the group dynamics and can move group
outputs from the domain of aesthetics to the domain of production [29]. The third theoretical
pillar links to the concept of space. It introduces a critical perspective by working with what
Derrida called gramme or trace to emphasise the multi-layered nature of our work within the
social domain a constraining as much as channeling framework for meaningful action [30].
Leaning on these three pillars acknowledges that []much innovation comes from the
creative blending of ideas from multiple sources [] The tools of innovation will also
develop through creative blending and recombination of disparate elements and ideas [31,
p.8]. In the tradition of action learning, the proposed approach then links conceptual with
social innovation stepping on Kurt Lewins unfreeze--change---re-freeze formula for
facilitating social and political change. The unfreezing refers to the ways in which
established interpretations, structures, intentions and arrangements are unpacked, challenged,
destabilised and set in flux. The change, as a next step, refers to the ways in which the
process of unfreezing sets up in motion underlying currents to evoke progressive change
processes to arrive at a new stable state. Finally, re-freezing allows to fix a new order and to
focus on consolidation.
In pursuing such a liquid framework, the project brings together Group Relations and Large
Group Interventions principles with change management at the macro-level of developing a
social intervention. It then explores the links of these with applied critical theory and artistic
techniques at the micro-level of facilitating a set of groups that comprise the intervention.
The project incorporates different disciplinary inputs within an overarching action research
framework interweaving rigorous processes at the mezzo-, the macro- and the micro-levels.
At the micro-level, the project explores a multi-media action learning inquiry mode of
research and facilitation of group processes by blending group relations, applied critical
theory, and artistic techniques. At the mezzo-level, the key activities involve researching,
testing and documenting a product development cycle (figure 1) that aim to elaborate a model
of running reflective groups. [insert figure 1] At the macro-level, building on the mezzowork, the aim is to research, design and document an innovation spiral [31] comprising
prompts, followed by proposals, followed by pilots that can then allow for processes of
sustaining, scaling up or diffusion and ultimately achieving systemic change.
The first cycle of this innovation spiral comprises prompts, inspirations, and diagnoses. In
other words, these are the factors which highlight the need for innovation and the inspirations
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which spark such innovation. The cycle serves to diagnose the problem iteratively and to
frame questions in a way that will lead beyond symptoms and will identify causes. The
second cycle of proposals and ideas involve idea generation. This cycle uses a range of
methods that can help to draw in insights and experiences from a wide range of sources. The
third cycle of prototyping comprises pilots to test ideas in practice. Basically, this means
trying things out, which can include more formal pilots. The fourth cycle, of sustaining,
means turning the ideas into everyday practice, sharpening and streamlining them and
identifying income streams. The fifth cycle of scaling and diffusion refer to organisational
growth, licensing and franchising but also to looser diffusion through emulation and
inspiration. The end point, which is also the beginning of a new stage, involves systemic
change - exploring and identifying the ingredients of working with defences, risks, and risk
mitigations. This cycle leads to scaling up replication, and potential for new frameworks or
architectures made up of many smaller innovations.
To sum up, the project is thus producing thick descriptions and analysis of learning at:
a) The micro-level of facilitating a group: consolidating these aspects that blend arts
with group relations research/consultancy and applied critical theory; this is done by
polishing and piloting a series of reflective spaces for wider communities;
b) At the mezzo-level: developing a model for running such groups at all stages; all
stages include setting up, recruitment, retention, capacity building, multiplication of
effects, production, and marketing;
c) At the macro-level: designing and hopefully implementing within the next year a
social intervention.

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Page 11 of 28

The models of groups available at present and their background5

The Action Learning Space offers a collection of differently focused groups. The initiative is firmly
grounded in the Tavistock tradition. At the same time, it opens up and engages in conceptual and
methodological dialogues with other approaches within the arts, the social sciences, and sociology in
particular. This is a tailored offer that can enhance other educational and experiential opportunities by:

providing a space to contain, digest, and interpret experiences and the problematique;

developing or adjusting conceptual frameworks to make sense of and work with tacit
knowledge;

facilitating processes of linking and transferring learning from one context to another.

HOUR group: Harnessing Organisational Understanding and Role

This is an action learning group that invites senior practitioners, decision and policy makers. It is
offered also as an in-house group and one on one role analysis. This opportunity is for those who
already hold a responsible position and have advanced skills, knowledge and qualifications. Grounded
in the here-and-now to explore the there-and-then, the group is designed to hold, contain, challenge
and be there for and with its members. The HOUR group is currently the most advanced model. Most
of my previous experience with groups have involved working with middle tier managers or mixed
groups of middle tier managers and frontline staff. I developed this particular model with
collaborators on request of practitioners who work with overwhelming experiences under the initial
supervision of Dr Mannie Sher. In the process of developing the model, it has become clear that not
surprisingly it works also for leaders in organisations that do not deal purposefully with such
experiences but may be themselves traumatized organisations or going through overwhelming
experiences.
Data Overload and Even Blacker Boxes
This is a filmic inquiry exploring our contemporary relationship with data. It is offered also as an inhouse group. The design comprises two 3.5-hour workshops and a two-hour performance showing
material produced by the members of the group. The event works with up to 15 members. This phased
event aims to deepen the understanding of our contemporary responses to data. Members explore the
dynamics that shape our use of information and the way this affects working and living in the current
context of a qualitatively and quantitatively charged data and information load. Juliet Scott, as a lead,
and I, designed the workshop as a new method (from - meta, after and - hodos, way,
motion, journey) facilitated by work with cameras and other recording devices. A challenge to the
group is to explore their own consent to being recorded and the consent of the other participants as a
means of finding out more about changing notions of privacy and their consequences. The model is
based on techniques elaborated within the Institutes professional development courses. It was
developed over two years, including tested and enhanced with a group of advanced social scientists.
ICARUS: I, my Career, my Role - an Understanding Space
This is a group for early career professionals, youth activists, and students in the humanities and
social sciences. Like the other groups, it is offered also as an in-house group and one on one role

5

Image above: Oedipus and the Sphinx, Gustave Moreau; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Bequest
of William H. Herriman, 1920. www.metmuseum.org. available online at:
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437153 OASC image (l.a. 30/05/2016)

Page 12 of 28

analysis. The theoretical model comprises bi-weekly 1.5-hour reflective session and online space,
with up to 15 members. ICARUS is an introduction to mastering role nurturing approaches developed
in the Tavistock tradition and beyond. It offers an understanding space to explore young peoples
ways of thinking about groups and testing their own styles of working in and with groups. This group
is a practice site to experiment working with ones Self, emotional and power dilemmas. The purpose
is to assist young people in crafting their Self and their roles in a way enabling their participation in
and contribution to the social world. The model brings together my learning from practice with young
people to prevent violence, as well as in working with young people as interns for two years and in
teaching, tutoring, and supervising university students. Young people interested in my coaching offer
brought some further insight which was further elaborated during an event organised for students by a
university career service.
SOFIA: Self, Object Relations, Femininity and Intersectional Ability
This is a learning community for women who want to master and apply their wisdom to make the
world a better place and develop their own small project(s). It is offered also as an in-house group and
one on one role analysis. The group comprises monthly 3.5-hour workshops incorporating a reflective
group and training/colloquium sessions on practical skills and emerging projects. This group is a
space intended to allow women to play and be creative, so it is emergent and unstructured. The
purpose is to empower women to take up with greater confidence and ability their life, professional
and social roles. An option is also to provide a creative and safe space for undertaking their own small
project(s), but the focus is on working towards reaching their inner power to integrate their voice,
their silence, and their praxis. The key to this work is allowing their story to develop and be told. The
model is not tested as such but is elaborated using observations and analysis of the reasons for the
failure of groups that aim to support women who have experienced violence. The design works with
the hypothesis that what hinders womens emancipation, empowerment and recovery is the lack of
capacity within a group that entirely consists of traumatised people. Similarly, groups bringing
together people who are otherwise disadvantaged cannot lift off their members. The design will test
an ideal type of work group that is a mix of people with higher capacities and people who are not on
the ladder so are losing energy, hope, and potential.
Stasis of Action
This is a series of events in the Group Relations tradition based on the large study group method. The
series offers an opportunity to connect and think for academics, activists, policymakers, citizens and
beyond. It is offered also as an in-house group and one on one role analysis. The series comprises ten
3.5-hour sessions, including an introduction to the method, 1.5-hour large study group and a wrapping
lecture by visiting speakers. Evoking the notion of stases as in static conditions, the initiative makes
the point that an action does not necessarily need to be a behaviour. It challenges the assumption that
only certain verbs and the meanings attached to them can be used to describe legitimate actions. This
event is still at the stage of being theoretically developed. It works with the hypothesis that everyday
inhibition of thinking and understanding is an inevitable part of ordinary inertia as well as the
workings of discourses and ideologies. The design then is intended to assist the assimilation of
content as theoretical contributions and tacit knowledge by building on the importance of framework,
time, and space for enabling thinking and understanding. It aims to bring together in resource
effective ways the value of academic contributions accelerated by experiential learning opportunities
provided by working in a group.

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Dreaming the Social: recent advances in the study of the social dimensions of dreaming
This project comprises a series of social dreaming workshops, a film club and cutting edge
conversations with contemporary researchers on the social, historical, cultural, and political
dimensions of dreaming. It was launched in February 2015 with a fascinating discussion triggered by
presentations by Dr. Mannie Sher (TIHR) and Dr. Julian Manley (UWE). This is a collaboration with
the British Sociological Association and Gordon Lawrence Foundation. By studying how we can
learn from dreams beyond the personal and the clinical, the series is designed to explore a road to a
more consistent search for methodologies to perfect the whole range of modes and activities of mind
as well as modalities of thinking. These activities of mind include reflection, use of reflexivity,
meditation, understanding, judgement, and will on one hand; and dreaming, creativity, fantasy (and
other ways of using sound, images and imagery) and how those link to relatedness and relationships.
YOUR: Your Organisational Understanding and Reflection Group
This is an in-house group for high-risk businesses staff and organisations working with overwhelming
experiences. It is offered also as one on one role analysis. The group comprises 1.5-hour reflective
space, half an hour networking break and 1-hour reading seminar. I am currently studying the

reasons for the difficulty in members coming together when the group is offered as an interorganisational opportunity. One obvious reason relates to busy-ness and difficulty hitting a
time in the diaries that would work for all. More subtle reasons may relate to the sensitivity at
both personal and organisational levels and the raising issues of trust in a group with
members who do not know each other.
CORE: Curiosity, Openness, and Role - an early leadership training
This is a module for children (12-16-year-old) who are eager to develop as future leaders through
experiential learning and research skills. The design of group is still at a theoretical level of
development. It is based on elements of training modules for children and training of trainers who
work with children. The goal is to locate the group in the community and to provide a range of
mentors with artistic, scientific, social and political backgrounds.

WISE: Wisdom and Inspiration Serendipity space

This is an opportunity aiming at recovering a sense of purpose for people who feel they are
losing capacity due to age; with Inspirechilli.com. Shifting patterns of ageing with increased
longevity are offering todays society an unprecedented opportunity to tap into the capacities of three
generations contemporaneously; this potential is often not only neglected but can play a role in intergenerational social, psychological and economic tensions. This initiative is an exploration of what can
the housing, support and care sector do to further its current offer at a time when expectations for
ageing products and services are changing. The aim is to create a thinking space that can

generate opportunity for alternative, inspirational practice, starting with a focus on

experiences from the housing and care sector. It looks into how the Advantaged Thinking
vision shaped with Foyer Federation could be applied to all people regardless of age. This
vision was taken over by the InspireChilli as a vehicle to research an inspirations framework'
that could take Advantaged Thinking to it next level. Harnessing the use of social inspiration
as a focus for doing good better', Inspirechilli's emerging inspirations framework' offers a
potential focus for developing a more asset-based vision for older people's services.
Page 14 of 28

Discussion: inter-subjectivity, value and making the world a better

place6
The Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space consolidates and builds on my work and life
projects over the last nearly twenty years. It originates in a search to empower and
emancipate people, within and through their roles, so that they can be the best they can be
6

Image above: BANKSY Butterfly Suicide Street Art

Page 15 of 28

for themselves, their loved ones, their society and even for the world. A significant part of
this work of mine was dedicated to preventing, building resilience and support for individuals
to recover and re-integrate after experiencing violence.
Looking at current strategies, and the causes and consequences of violence, my work arrived
at considering the epistemological foundations of how we perceive and how we relate to the
world around us - hence the interest in the mind and its modalities and activities. On the other
hand, the vehicle to access the deeper - creative and infinite - layers of our minds, as they
connect to the social, including the social unconscious, is by means of staying with these
aspects of our selves that connect us at the inter-subjective levels.
From inter-subjectivity to a shared value

Inter-subjectivity, as the concept suggests, is a social aspect of our inner world that is
accessed, mobilized, experienced and employed in social settings and groups in particular. As
the interface between us and society, inter-subjectivity is the depository of collective and
historical wisdom, sensitivity and sense-making. Groups facilitated as work groups (or as
study groups) work as a matrix [32]. As a matrix, each group provides the space for
extracting meaning from the every day as much as from more strategic and extreme positive
and negative experiences. Saying that the group functions as a matrix is another way to
describe processes of connecting at inter-subjective levels and accessing layers of the
collective unconscious. In addition to being emancipatory charged by virtue of functioning as
a matrix, such groups foster individual, organisational and community growth by
emphasizing, accessing and negotiating values. This engagement with values, in turn, feeds
into social cohesion and progressive orientation that drives actions.
Mensch [33, p.393] describes the links between values and inter-subjectivity as follows:
To view the ground of intersubjectivity as a value is to value those actions of ours which
preserve a relation to this ground. It is to value them as involved in the realisation of the
ought-to-be the value of intersubjectivity. Thus, intersubjectivity [the world of shared
meanings] is not something which we must first theoretically establish in order, then, to act.
In its character as our ought-to-be, i.e., as the ideal of a shared human fullness, it is given to
us as a possibility, a possibility which we must realise through our actions. In this regard, the
problem of intersubjectivity is transformed into that of caring for the factually given [and
hence fragile] web of human relations. It is a web, a nexus, into which we are born and which
we ourselves must maintain and expand.

Paradoxically, the vastest study of value in the Western world is implemented in the area of
economic valuation. This focus on the monetary is perhaps indicative of the prevailing ways
of thinking today. However, the roots of this approach can be found in social and political
thought at the time when attention was placed overwhelmingly on the spiritual thus obscuring
the material. Of key importance are concerns running through the work of Adam Smith, John
Locke, and Marx. Working in times when economic aspects were buried and hidden from the
interpretations of the state of the world, these authors were crucial in introducing the
Page 16 of 28

understanding of how money become a representation of the ways in which the value of
things gets distorted. Building on these modern authors, the study of value and values was
also a primary concern in classical sociology (Durkheim, Simmel, and Weber, for example).
Neglected for a while, the study of value is making it slowly back onto the agenda of social
sciences. There is a steady interest in social capital [34], public value [35], and postmodern
ethics [36] on the theoretical side. Quantitative global surveys of values emerged in the mid1990s and are still considered important in the light of value systems crashing with each other
in a globalized world (e.g. the European Values Studies [EVS], 1994-2006). Bachika and
Schulz [37] explain renaissance of interest in value and values with a complex mix of social
science discourse dynamics and real-life events: the 1980s/1990s debate between liberalism
and communitarianism and, more so, the debates on the role of values in elections and the
controversy about allegedly inevitable civilizational clashes.
Social philosophy is the main area in which value is continuously explored, even though
without a direct link to practice and everyday life. The discussions in this field are linked to
meta-ethics debating the different metaphysical approaches to value. The discussions
fluctuate around Kantian or self-deterministic approaches versus Aristotelian or naturalistic
approaches to value judgments and around objectivism, subjectivism/intuitivism and
relativism in ethics (see Social Philosophy and Policy, vol. 25 (1), Winter 2008). There is a
tendency today of moving away from Kantian approaches to ethics, that is - approaches
postulating that human beings should be in control of their destinies and their moral choices.
These approaches are criticized for being deceptive and unrealistic thus putting undue
pressure on individuals. A neo-Aristotelian approach is steadily gaining momentum, and
approach which is concerned with the kind of structures needed in society for people to
realize, actualize and fulfill their potential. The Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space
can be seen as located in this wider philosophical framework.
From adding value to making the world a better place

The Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space is not a radically new approach. Rather, it
seeks to re-define practices with long history and tradition. This re-definition endeavors to
address four key issues in the contemporary context:

Contemporary leaders do not have space to think because of pressures from above and
below; however, these pressures have severe consequences produced by means of
cascading down anxiety and primitive projections arising at the top;
The most vulnerable members of the mainstream community cannot realise their full
potential because of the consequent exacerbated pressures on them; this is particularly
difficult in the current context of shrinking opportunities combined with aid and
services targeted at disadvantaged groups only, that fight fires mainly;
Civil society does not have breathing space as a result of austerity measures and
marketization of supposedly value-based and ideal-goal practices;
Artists and other cultural scholars and institutions are marginalised or commercialised
with the cost of lost knowledge and insights about ways forward.
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It is important to address the task of re-definition of practices in a way allowing to recover

the status of soul, wondering and reason. This recovered status in turn can help us in
exploring and mobilizing values as the core of inter-subjectivity. By addressing these issues,
the sought long-term impact is twofold - aiming at qualitative change at the structural levels
as well as at facilitating the needed processes to arrive there. In structural terms, the
objectives of the project are to:

Foster resistance or critical leadership for culture change: the purpose is to develop
leadership which is mindful of the environment as much as of the issues facing the
workforce. This position can evolve to resistance leadership in times of need.
Resistance leadership is an overlooked potential of leadership. This potential is best
understood as the ability to ride waves of dissent in tough times; it is about leading for
a value-driven change instead of the usual approach of managing dissent [38].
Contrary to widespread belief, resistance leadership is a must for thriving
organisations. Resistance leadership can be developed alongside more conventional
styles that blend management, compassion and creativity with business skills;
Achieve vicarious post-traumatic growth rather than vicarious traumatisation of
practitioners in high-risk businesses and those working with or going through
overwhelming experiences: this covers concepts related to stress-induced burn-out at
the work place and more narrowly defined issues of secondary post-traumatic stress in
those working with disadvantaged and traumatised groups; however, these conceptual
frameworks tend to neglect the wisdom that can be harnessed from accessing
suffering and finding meaning in the seemingly meaningless;
Thriving communities that hold citizens who are active socially, politically and
economically and as a result achieving more cohesive societies, including:
o greater participation of migrant, refugee, and trans-national minorities;
o improved wellbeing in participating communities thanks to greater social,
cultural and symbolic capital;
o reduced incidents of violence and abuse and
o increased resilience where incidents happen.

In terms of processes, and to arrive at these structural changes, the objective is to achieve
increased synergies and cross-fertilisation between artistic venues, research and educational
bodies and institutions hosting providing spaces. Encouraged appropriately, these synergies
lead to more effective action by:

Democratising reflective spaces;

Improved use of creativity and receptivity;
Developing more sophisticated methodologies for accessing our minds;
Better utilisation and more effective distribution of resources.

Everyday challenges between instrumental and value rationalities

The key to setting up the grounds for such work is achieving an institutional support from
within the organisation hosting the space. It is also imperative to identify and work with likePage 18 of 28

minded external collaborators and gatekeepers/influencers. Developing the vision and finding
ways to communicate this vision is possible in iterative and progressively refined cycles only.
Unlike replicated programmes and projects, work in development follows the identification
of the organisational context for the work. This includes the organisational structures and
communication forums, the staff responsible for holding this context, and the collaborators
who can facilitate recruitment and carry out the work. Beneath the surface, this process
involves work with phantasies, projections, boundaries, discourse, practices, relationships,
relatedness, history, stories and power dynamics. These are often more important than
following (or take over) established rules, procedures and communication roads. Following
established processes was in turn affected by the initiative coinciding with re-design and
change management within the organisation. Also, recruiting a team internally is not a linear
process as it involves search, test, negotiations and persuasion as much as hard emotional
labour and mobilisation of skills to navigate in complexity while working with uncertainty
and staying with not knowing. A key challenge, both internally and externally, is finding
ways to turn competitiveness into collaboration by communicating in such a way that a team
can commit to a shared purpose.
Overall, the Action Learning Space is about opening a reflective space that is at the same
time a referent organisation' for addressing contemporary societal challenges. This proves to
be a laborious process as it often crashes into the existing routines and the very dynamics that
it seeks to address. Understanding the ways in which the programme is a failure - as much as
it is a success - is possible by employing an interpretivist perspective to value and what
constitutes value legitimately. This is very much about understanding that working to open,
nurture and sustain reflective spaces, is a complex process. It is torn between legitimising the
investment of human and other resources and energies regarding instrumental rationality, on
one hand, versus demonstrating the value rationality of choosing to work in a way that
appears non-productive.
In a way, we can say that the very starting point of the project is the phenomenon of what
Weber called value rationality (Wertrationalitt) - probably the least explored ideal type of
social action in Webers work. He distinguishes between traditional, affectionate, value
rationality and instrumental rationality. While the first two types are rather intuitive and easy
to grasp, the latter two are more complex as they emerge with an increasing complexity of
individual, social and political lives. Despite that it involves the operation of value,
instrumental rationality serves ends that are best described as practical results. By contrast,
value rationality is concerned with the realization of the symbolic meanings of the action.
The detrimental effects of the growth of instrumental rationality in modernity are broadly
explored in social and sociological analyses over the decades following World War II. The
result was a disenchantment with the modernity project as a whole. The dangers of
instrumental rationality are highlighted in the critical theory work of the Frankfurt School,
and in post-modernist and post-structuralist alternative visions of modernity. Modernity is
often seen as a regressive mode, more than a progressive stage, of the human condition. The
study of value rationality plays an important role in Parson's theory of social order. It
Page 19 of 28

postulates that the orderliness of social action is a function of the socialization of actors into
the values and norms characteristic of their society. This line of investigation was interrupted
by Garfinkel, who observed that norms and values require interpretation, which makes them
an elusive subject of study for the (objective) science of sociology.
Social scientists in the 1980s considered the operation of values, in particular postmaterialist' values, a sign that the economic and administrative rationality underlying modem
society is destroyed by the post-World War II culture. Habermas [39, p.80], for example,
describes this process in terms of the ways in which traditional materialist values are being
replaced by new values. These new values he saw as attached to self-realization, human
relations, and nature conservation. Crucially, these values are also linked to orientations
characteristic of moral sensibility - for example, the interest in the protection and extensive
use of civil rights and democratic self-determination' [ibid.].
A literature review in contemporary social sciences, however, suggests that behind what the
previous generation researchers identified as materialist and post-materialist values lies a
dynamic tension between pragmatic interests and moral orientations. It can be argued that the
two sets of values tend to co-exist rather than replace each other. Both interests and values
are considered in classical sociology essential. Simmel, for example, distinguished between
bounding and bridging associations that stem from interests and values respectively. The two
were also considered key for motivating politically relevant action and legitimating states (de
Tocqueville and Weber). It is their interplay, along with processes of power, charisma, and
reflexivity that soften the solidity, even rigidity, of modernity embodied in structures and
institutions, thus leading us to an unexplored layer of a liquid modernity [40, 41, 42].
Value spheres are the domain of the Weberian cultural being (Kulturmensch), endowed with
the capacity and the will to deliberately take a position on the world and ascribe meaning to
it' (Weber, 1949:81 in [43], p.37 translation amended). The whole Tavistock Institute Action
Learning Space as a project, and the ways in which I am approaching its development,
proceeds from the hypothesis that Weber's restriction of value rationality to certain value
spheres does not pay justice to the complex ways in which value rationality operates. Hence,
I endeavour to bring together the concept of value rationality with Freud's notion of natural
ethics (1921, 1923). As Sher (2011:pp) summarises Freud's argument, [o]ne can subscribe to
the view that human nature engenders a set of human values, which are probably fairly
timeless, based on the innate propensity of human beings to establish human relations - what
promotes human relations is ethically good and what subverts and undermines human
relations is ethically bad. This proposition is confirmed by the notion of valency developed
by Bion in 1961, according to which human beings have a natural propensity to immerse
themselves in groups. This propensity sometimes reaches the point of dissolving any
rationality into basic assumptions that serve emotional needs. Furthermore, this propensity
takes over the rational working task of the group. We can hypothesise that the study of value
rationality until today was limited by the lack of capacity of both the psychoanalytic and the
sociological apparatus to look beyond social facts and to link them with individual and group
psychodynamics.
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This proposed approach to value rationality does not exclude the analysis developed in the
Current Sociology monograph issue on Values and Culture. The monograph explores how
values are shaped by but also reflect individual, social, economic, epochal and cultural
structures and processes. One of the key identified challenges is the contemporary cultural
flux that tends to relativise values. For example, by revealing how traditional moral values of
indigenous groups are gradually swept away by the globalising capitalist market economy,
Chee-Beng [44], demonstrates that values have ecological and political bases. And yet,
relativisation of values can be tracked not only to the effects of the money economy, but
seems to be deeply rooted in the modernity project with the consequent aestheticisation of
reality and the imbalance between objective and subjective culture [45]. The relativisation of
values should not be confused with the plurality of values. The plurality of values is
considered a value on its own right in the contemporary democratic world [46; 47].
It can be said with confidence that values change:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

in response to contexts;
in relation to social, political, cultural and economic forces;
in the course of individual development;
with the accumulation of life experiences;
with an increased understanding of others and their struggles; and
under the influence of professional aspects of identity [48, pp. 222-223].

These dynamics can be understood in the light of the Tavistock systems psychodynamic
perspective. The perspective explores the ways in which the individual mind manifests itself
in a collective enterprise. It also traces how this manifestation links to a group-as-a-whole
functioning that is qualitatively different from and often submerges individual minds. The
Tavistock paradigm thus provides an exploratory framework to bring together the sociopolitical and the psycho-social.
Recent developments of group relations theory are particularly relevant as they link to
complexity theory and ways of understanding the workings of the cultural and the political in
the group mentality. Complexity theory postulates that individual, organisational and social
realities are interdependent and built around multiple self-adjusting and interacting systems
that are characterised by ever-present unpredictability and paradox. Consequently, any work
in complex systems requires new conceptual frameworks that incorporate a dynamic,
emergent, creative, and intuitive view of the world that has to replace traditional reduce and
resolve approaches.
The tension between instrumental and value rationalities are just one, but crucial aspect of
how the development of the project is not immune to dynamics in the field that it seeks to
address. The next section looks into how I am planning to address this challenge, thus making
possible the elaboration of a social intervention derived from what is currently merely a set of
bespoke work groups.

Page 21 of 28

Next steps: from loose groups to a social intervention

The current work involves reaching out to recruit members for the groups to test, develop and
further adjust the processes surrounding installing them as opportunities for community and
organisational cohesion, individual and family healing and growth that is, as products at the
mezzo-level. At the micro-level, there is a further need to enhance the methodology in a way
allowing to compensate for the resource intensity and time investment of current
methodologies for facilitating reflective spaces without losing the power of change at
individual, organisational and community levels. Addressing this need requires blending
techniques in a way accelerating group dynamics so that the groups work effectively in the
current context characterised by agile responses, redrawing boundaries and to an extent even
turmoil and flux. The combined workings at the mezzo- and micro-levels are designed to (or
"intending to") implement a social intervention at the macro-level as presented in Figure 2 a
Theory of Change map. [insert figure 2]
The planned methodology comprises a Future Search Conference for social scientists and
artists in three settings, two Design Conferences in two countries; all followed up by ten
Action Learning Sets on actual practice. The purpose is to:

Extend our activities to consolidate these aspects that blend arts with research and
consultancy;
Polish and pilot a series of reflective spaces for wider communities interweaving
research, consultancy and arts in three sites.

A potential output could be setting up an international social enterprise. It will promote the
democratisation of reflective spaces that use a robust blend of arts and social science.
Bringing together arts and social science will facilitate participatory audience development
via workshops and possibly beneficiaries' own projects. In order to achieve these aims, the
way forward seems to be installing reflective spaces for the implementing teams themselves.
These events for multi-disciplinary teams comprising artists and social scientists can
effectively benefit from Large Group Interventions methodology as summarized in the subsections below. [Insert figure 3]
Future Search Conference for 50 artists and social scientists from two countries
providing the different project sites

Future Search conferences were developed as a method of large group intervention for rapid
change by a number of scholars in the US and beyond. The Tavistock Institute contribution
consists of developments introduced by Trist and Emery in the1950s and 1960s. They
intended to help industries adjust in turbulent times via an application of the Socio-technical
Systems approach. The task of the facilitating team, or staff, is to hold the space to maintain
the integrity of process and structure - in order to enable a dialogue between the different
parts of the system involved. The task of the conference manager is to suggest conversations
that are worth having, rather than to compile agendas.
Page 22 of 28

Future Search conferences overall draw representatives of the whole system, but limit them to
those who would have responsibility for the follow-up. In this case, I aim to involve social
scientists and artists committed to aspects of the methodology and the values of the project.
The conference will deal with the system in its environment and will work with an emphasis
on a community of people taking action to make their desirable future happen. Instead of the
traditional focus on a strong oral culture, however, it will work with a combination of
storytelling, interpretation, writing and a range of artistic techniques.
A conference of this type typically explores the system history, what can be learned from its
changing environment and from what participants can accomplish together. The focus is on
exploring possible agreements between members. This conference is not a problem-solving
forum, but a conference in search of an ideal future scenario. The key component is its
planning, which involves crafting the purpose of the conference and selecting and recruiting
members accordingly. The expected output will be, not only identifying the desired scenario,
but also creating an entity to coordinate follow-up action and activities.
Design conferences in the two countries (for local teams)

Following the identification of the desired future and agreed means and members to carry the
vision forward, the members who remain committed will form teams in the UK and ideally in
one other EU country. In order to design the processes and structures for this work, each
national team will meet in a 2-day design conference. The design conferences will involve a
combination of fast cycle full participation work design and real-time work design. The
design conferences will include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

an orientation with a view of the vision identified during the search conference;
collection and analysis of local stakeholder expectations;
technical work system analysis;
work life analysis; and
design(s) derived from those.

The design conference will be followed by 1-day deep dive dedicated to anticipation and
solving problems arising from the actual launch of an implementation of the activities defined
at the design conference. The discrepancy between the new design and the old support system
processes is likely to sabotage the new design. The deep dive day focuses the attention on
these processes described above in order to identify what is needed if the new system is to
work.
Ten Action Learning Sets (ALSs)

Instead of the more traditional (in this field) Implementation Conference, the project will
include ten ALSs. The Implementation Conference involves a transition of the team from a
design team to implementing team, from planning to doing. However, it has the limitations of
a self-contained space. Instead, we will follow up with a series of ten workshops operating in

Page 23 of 28

small groups delivered by qualified staff. They will use the methodology of Action Learning
Sets with the following aims:
o To study, sustain and multiply the effects of the large group interventions;
o To support the implementing teams in polishing the structure and processes needed
for the successful implementation of the workshops with the end beneficiaries;
o To reflect on the experiences, to learn from them and to adjust techniques,
methodology, concepts, models and strategy;
o To monitor, evaluate and document risks and to develop mitigation strategies and adhoc solutions.

Conclusion
I learned about the Latin saying "Our prayer is our labour" from a man I travelled the same
road with recently. He took pride in his work that involved many journeys, and this job was a
part of his self what I call the role. Although his occupation was not what constitutes his
identity and what makes him a person, it seemed to be this part of himself through which he
manifests a higher self. By a higher self in this context I mean this part of us that links deeply
with the social to make a contribution to society and an offering to what we keep sacred. The
Tavistock Institute Action Learning Space is designed to nurture precisely these parts of our
selves, our self in a role be it the role of a family member, community member or a member
of a profession or an organization. It thus offers an alternative, less medicalized and less
stigmatizing utilization of group dynamics for empowerment, emancipation, and autonomy.
This paper presented a snapshot of the conceptual framework and the current state of the
project, followed by a discussion of how the Action Learning Space links to contemporary
tensions in the social realm related to value and theoretical debates in the field. The last
section was an overview of the needed next steps to continue the incubation and innovation
of reflective spaces through this particular set of groups in a way multiplying their impact.
Given that this is an account and a report on an emergent work in progress, there are not
many conclusions to be drawn yet. Nevertheless, the very possibility of thinking about a
project of this scale speaks of a need and an opening, in the current context, that would make
such work possible. There is a growing dissatisfaction among group facilitators and
organizational consultants with the ways in which external pressures invalidate existing
methods and their standards.
The paper is, therefore, ambitious in aiming to set up an example of negotiating
methodological shifts and ways to accommodate contemporary demands without
compromising the quality of a work group. My hope is that, as such, this paper, will open
space for review and analyses of other similar adaptations of group relations methodologies.
More importantly, I am interested to stimulate a discussion of how group relations
methodologies engage in dialogues with other disciplines to serve people on their journey to
be the best they can be.
Page 24 of 28

To register an interest if you see yourself a like-minded colleague, you can email me at
m.stateva@tavinstitute.org and subscribe to a number of learning logs delivered to
collaborators and like-minded colleagues for peer review and to enrich their own work.

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Figure 1 Research Methodology micro-level

Prep

Action
Research
Phase 0:
Reflection

Future search
conference

Action
Research
Phase 1:
Case
formulation

Design
conferences

Action
Research
Phase 2:
Planning

Action learning
Administration

Action
Research
Phase 3:
Action

Action
Research
Phase 4:
Evaluation

Action
Research
Phase 5:
Case reformulation

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THEORY OF CHANGE: DEVELOPING TI-ALS AS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Context and
issues

RATIONALE FOR ACTION

Contemporary
leaders do not have
space to think
because of
pressures from
above and below
with severe
consequences
produced by means
of cascading down
anxiety and
projections

By working with senior practitioners, decision and

policy makers in organisations, especially high risk
businesses and those working with overwhelming
experiences, a range of organisations will develop by
bring together craft and business in their everyday
work. Their leaders will be better equipped leaders
and supported to deal with the inherited difficulties
and the challenges of our times by providing them
with opportunities to understand what is going on, in
order to stay true to their organisational purpose and
to keep the promises to their customers and to their
employees.

The most
vulnerable
members of the
mainstream
community cannot
realise their full
potential because of
the consequent
exacerbated
ressures in the
current context

By working with self-selected members of the

community, the Action Learning Space supports
women, young leaders, children as future leaders,
and people who feel they have lost sense of purpose
due to age, to foster their capacities to realise their
dreams and to participate in a more fulfilling way in
the social, economic, cultural and political life. The
Action Learning Space utilises a mainstreaming
whilst targeting approach aiming to work with mixed
groups of disadvantaged and better off population to
work by blending strengths-based and needs-based
approaches to a resilient and adaptive society. This is
inline with latest recommendations in the field of
integration at EC and UN level.

Civil society does

not have breathing
space as a result of
austerity measures
Byenterprise
working with
withatpeople
their political roles as

Social
least 5inmini-projects
and marketisation
citizens, academics, researchers and consultants,
activists, and so on, the Action Learning Space aims
to foster democracy and democratic values of
participation, social justice and social cohesion. This
Artists and other
done by streamlining latest observations and insights
cultural scholars
from research and offering these as a material to link
and institutions are
to everyday practices and life.
marginilised or
commersialised
with the cost of lost
knowledge, insights
The Action Learning Space invites practitioners and
and ways forward
theoreticians from fields that are currently
marginalised in a context that favours simplicity,
objectivism and bureaucracy. Artists are particularly
Counterfactuals:
constrained by the consumerist and marketised
various organisational
context, which leaves little space for fulfilling their
risks, peoples faith in
social, educational, political and enlightenment
soul, wondering and
functions.
reason cannot be

ACTIVITIES
(INPUTS)

OUTPUTS / OUTCOMES
Short term outputs 1 year Medium term outcomes 3 years

HOUR group

YOUR group

Bespoke
groups and
one on one
role analysis

SOFIA group

ICARUS
group

Artistic
and
scienti
fic
produc
tion
and
disse
minati
on

CORE group

WISE group

Data
overload

Dreaming the
social
Stasis of
action

Joint
Action
Learning
Set 1
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 2
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 3
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 4
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 5
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 6
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 7
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 8
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 9
Joint
Action
Learning
Set 10

Implementation in city, rural area,

second country
Two design conferences

Future search conference

At least 70 better equipped

resistance leaders and
consultants who can trigger
and manage change in at least
30 organisations
Pilot in second country with
potentially 10 better equipped
leaders and consultants who
can trigger and manage
change in at least 30
organisations
10 women, 10 young leaders,
10 future leaders and 10 retired
people trained as change
agents and with active own
projects
Pilot in second country with
potentially 10 women, 10
cadets, 10 children and 10
retired people trained as
change agents and with their
own projects
Social enterprise with at least
5 active beneficiaries projects
Working business model
Researching and testing the
market for production
Evaluation and new cycle
Expanding partnerships
40 skilled facilitators
Blending organisational
development, group relations,
applied critical theory and
artistic techniques
Team building and adapting
techniques and models of
groups to the new contexts in
Kenilworth and Sofia
Bringing together artists and
social scientists and setting
up a vision for the TI-ALS

Audience development
TI-ALS process and
impact evaluation and
start of a new cycle
Design of ongoing
support to alumni and
their projects
Created niche for their
production

Organisational
development
Stable social enterprise
with strong
collaborations, hubs in
London, Kenilworth and
Sofia
Social franchising model
at TIHR with 5
permanent staff
Model for Action
Learning Space
crowdfunding to multiply
the effects and sustain
the effort
Plan for multiplication
and scale up of the
model, starting with the
US, Ireland, France,
Lithuania, Netherlands,
Macedonia, Portugal,
Spain, Greece, Serbia,
Argentina, Peru,
Canada
Professional
development
Further development of
the multi-media action
learning inquiry
methodology
Training course at TIHR
for reflective spaces
facilitators
Community of practice
for excellent artists and
other marginalised
scholars and institutions

Impacts 20 years

Resistance/critical leadership culture

change to value soul, wondering and
reason
Vicarious post-traumatic growth rather
than vicarious traumatisation of
practitioners in high risk businesses
and those working with or going
through overwhelming experiences
Thriving communities with citizens
active socially, politically and
economically:

More cohesive societies,

including greater participation of
migrant, refugee and transnational minorities

Improved wellbeing in
participating communities
thanks to greater social and
symbolic capital

Reduced incidents of violence

and abuse and increased
resilience where incidents
happen

Increased synergies and crossfertilisation between artistic venues,

research and educational bodies and
institutions hosting bolding spaces to
lead to more effective action
by:

Democratisation of
reflective spaces

Improved use of creativity

and receptivity

More sophisticated
methodologies

Better utilisation of
resources

Research activities
Professional artists at the

Amateur artists at the

Social scientists employing

Institute

Institute

artistic techniques at the

Institute

Artists and social scientists in

City based artists and social

the second country

Future Search

scientists

Conference
Artists and social scientists
based in the rural area

Design Conference

Design Conference

in London, UK

in second country
Joint action learning
set for facilitators 1
Reflective groups in second

Reflective groups in the UK

country
Projects of members of
reflective groups in the UK

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 2

Projects of members of
reflective groups in second
country

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 3

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 4

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 5

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 6

Joint action learning

set for facilitators 7 10
Output: Manual, Proposals, potentially Social enterprise(s)

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