Shifting Sands: Forging a Future Together in Uncertain Times

A Group Relations Conference, 14 to 18 December 2026

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About this conference

We live in a time of rapid change. It can feel like the ground beneath our feet is shifting constantly and without warning, yet we are expected to manage, adapt and continue with the tasks before us.

This Group Relations Conference will seek to understand more about the tensions that can arise in such circumstances – exploring the effect on individuals and their organisations, the impact on leadership, and the forces that may work against collaboration both consciously and unconsciously.

This is not a didactic conference, but rather an experiential and immersive one, which offers members the opportunity to understand more about group processes and how they behave in a variety of group settings in a live way. Exploring areas such as leadership, followership, authority, diversity, hierarchy and power structures, participants will be invited to engage with their experiences and emotions in “the here and now” to extend their learning.

Building Experience Group

There is also an opportunity for people who have attended a Group Relations Conference before to join a Building Experience (BE) Group, which will deepen their experience and understanding of group relations and develop the skills necessary to take up staff roles.

In addition to membership of a range of conference events, being a BE Group member will include pre-conference reading and preparatory work as a group and with staff on Sunday 13 December, as well as specialist groups for developing consultancy approaches and opportunities to practice these approaches with conference members and alongside staff. The BE Group is limited to 8 places.

Director: Mellini Mahadevan

Associate Director: Dexter Benjamin

Associate Director for BE Group: Sarah Wynick

Please direct any queries to the conference administrator: GRC@tavi-port.nhs.uk

Why attend this conference?

This Group Relations Conference offers an opportunity to explore the ever-present but often unrecognised or avoided elements of group dynamics and organisational life. Participants will examine how the dynamics of differing professional practices impact on authority, and the interplay of this with individually held stereotypes, assumptions and beliefs. You will come away with a deeper understanding of how and why obstacles may arise in professional contexts despite our best intentions, and how we may work to overcome them.

Conference fees

• Internal Trust member: £830
• External applicant: £840
• Building Experience Group member: £1040

We have three places available at a subsidised rate for external applicants, Trust employees and Tavistock Education and Training students whose fees aren’t covered by their course.