Consulting and leading in organisations: psychodynamic and systemic approaches (D10)

Entry requirements

In order to undertake this course, we ask that you:

• have a minimum of three years’ experience in your chosen profession;
• have experience of direct involvement in the management, training or development of other professional workers, or engagement in consultative work for specific organisations;
• have a first degree or equivalent, and/or professional experience commensurate with that qualification.

Months of entry

September

Course content

This two-year course will develop you as a leader, consultant or manager by giving you a fuller understanding of the human dimensions of organisational systems and helping you to develop a ‘consultative stance’ to organisational dilemmas and opportunities. You will be helped to see the bigger picture, from different perspectives, and acquire the skills to work more effectively.

This course combines experiential learning with the study of psychoanalytic and systemic theory in relation to organisations, bringing into view the complex emotional lives of contemporary organisations. You will learn how to track the flow of pressure around organisational systems, noting how pressure may move up and down hierarchies, or flow out into certain departments, roles or professions, or into ‘troublesome individuals’.

Theory seminars and webinars will introduce you to key concepts such as the individual unconscious, the group unconscious and the institutional unconscious. Contemporary papers and case studies will bring theory to life, exploring issues such as authority and power, organisational change and the politics of difference.

Race, intersectionality and difference are approached using a theoretical, individual and organisational lens, in order to explore how they impact organisational dynamics, and the capacity of leaders, managers and consultants to take up their roles.

A range of conceptual tools will develop your capacity to think critically and systemically about organisations. You will learn to map organisational systems and understand the effects of organisational structure on organisational dynamics and vice versa. You will be encouraged to think creatively ‘across the boundary’ between the conscious and unconscious aspects of organisational life, including those of the organisational system in which the course takes place.