The following session was facilitated by Howard and Trevor at the Gestalt Australia New Zealand bi-annual conference in September (www.ganz2006.com.au).

 

“Organisational Storytelling”

 

Theme: Storytelling in terms of the purpose and process of using storytelling in an organisational or ‘system’ setting.

 

Coverage: How to use storytelling to unravel complex situations and to help the participants (clients) to grapple with issues that are not normally accessible more directly. Exploring the use of Gestalt ideas such as metaphor, creative experiment and the paradoxical theory of change.

 

Whether working with individual clients, couples, family ‘systems’ or organisations ‘the story’ is often, if not always a fundamental aspect of our work. Many clients find telling their story a necessary, challenging and shame promoting experience and yet we as their therapist/coach/consultant probably need to hear it. So helping people to find ways to tell their story that allows them a shame free, or shame reduced access to their story is extremely helpful, and in organisations essential.

 

Because story building and telling is field sensitive, experimental and dialogic it fits very well into the Gestalt frame and yet at the same time it can help to make the complexity of all human interactions more manageable, particularly as the numbers of individuals involved increases.

 

For more information, including how Organisational Storytelling may be useful to your work or organisation, contact Trevor via trevor@thespacebetween.com.au or

Howard via howard@thespacebetween.com.au

 

 

the space between Australia conducted the following session at the Gestalt Australia New Zealand bi-annual conference in Sydney in May 2004:

 

“The Art of Improvisation - Working with the unfolding moment”

 

By Dr Trevor J Bentley

 

In every community the unfolding moments of life bring challenge, opportunity, excitement and sometimes fear. Working with these moments of experience and experimenting with the novelty they bring leads to new and exciting possibilities. Through acknowledging and accepting each moment of experience it becomes possible to build on the experience and seek vibrant and creative responses to what is happening. This is the art of improvisation.

 

In organisations, whether business focused or not, the sense of being in company with others or in community is rarely experienced. Many organisations attempt to prescribe behaviour and responses to events in ways intended to focus on the organisation’s purpose and goals. The work of individuals is frequently defined and arranged within patterns. In other words it is orchestrated, with each person playing their part in the overall schema of predicted events (which rarely turn out precisely as predicted).

 

In the modern organisational world, which is full of complexity, ambiguity and paradox, improvisation is an important way for managers and executives to cope successfully with uncertainty. There are no answers outside the ability to respond in the moment, to work with what is and to learn and grow from the experience.

 

To make decisions on the basis of expectations of what might happen is to be always shooting in the dark. You may hit the target, but this will be more a matter of luck than marksmanship. To work with what is and to improvise and create as each moment unfolds is to fashion the future.

 

The art of improvisation has four vital ingredients:

 

·       spontaneity and emerging possibilities

·       pragmatism, working with what you’ve got

·       surrendering and letting go

·       trusting your process

 

All of these were presented and discussed in a Gestalt framework, along with an invitation to participants to consider how we can work more with improvisation within the GANZ community.

 

For more information contact Trevor at trevor@thespacebetween.com.au

 

“GANZ Conference 2002”

 

In September 2002 three partners of the space between, Trevor, Sue and Howard conducted workshops or sessions at the Gestalt Australia & New Zealand Conference in Christchurch.

 

“Gestalt in Organisations: Putting the Heart and Soul back into Business” Pre-conference Workshop

 

In this 3 day workshop, facilitated by Sue and Howard, we explored how to use a Gestalt approach to work with business leaders as a coach, mentor, facilitator or consultant, to put the heart and soul back into an organisation, to help people and organisations prosper.

 

Coverage included:

 

·      What we mean by “putting the heart and soul back in” and how to take a systemic approach to doing this.

·      The damage caused to people and organisations from heartless, soulless working environments.

·      Empirical and anecdotal evidence of the impact of a people centred approach, or the lack of one, on a business’s bottom line and long term success.

·      Why personal transformation at the top of organisations is the key to organisational transformation and how to work with leaders to bring this about.

·      The risks associated with this kind of work and how to avoid these. For example, a major risk is a consultant becoming the organisation’s heart and soul, or the leader’s conscience, rather than helping people find these things themselves. The consultant can then become a barrier to success, by holding the “emotional” or “caring” polarity in the system and prompting others to hold the “rational” or “bottom line” polarity.

 

 

The workshop participants included business leaders, organisational consultants and Gestalt professionals interested in unlocking the potential of people at work.

 

For more information on this workshop, including options for ‘in-house’ versions, please email Howard at howard@thespacebetween.com.au

 

“The Systemic Mask”

 

Sue conducted a half-day experiential session looking at the systemic mask. Participants explored this issue by creating doing their own mask work, focusing on a system that they’re connected to (for instance a client system, their workplace, a business partnership).

 

Participants were invited to play with the energies of their chosen system through short exercises involving dance, bodywork and voice. From the emerging energies they brought forward a ‘systemic mask’. Then, through intimate connection with the mask, they discovered how their mask can ‘in-form’ them; that is become a guide towards encouraging greater well-being of the larger system and of the participants personal role in that system.

 

For more information on this session, including how this approach can be used to help people in your organisation, email Sue at sue@thespacebetween.com

 

“Narcissism in Organisations”

 

Trevor facilitated a session looking at how narcissistic tendencies often influence the behaviour of people in organisations, especially CEOs. Coverage included how narcissistic tendencies can be identified, how people with these tendencies can learn to be more effective and how others can support them in this.

 

For more information on this session, including how our experience in this area is built into our executive coaching work, please email Trevor at trevor@thespacebetween.com.au