Art and Science of Working Together

Christine Thornton is a group analyst, organizational consultant, and author of the best-selling Group and Team Coaching. She was Founding Director of the IGA RPiO organizational training and has been honoured for contributions to the coaching profession. Christine works with organizational leaders and coaches, enabling better understanding of unconscious systemic and relationship dynamics.

"This book offers profound and revealing insights into how we humans work and live together in the groups we form and leave. Our development as a species has enabled us to trace the origins of the universe, to unravel the structure of our life forms, to understand something of the functioning of quantum particles and black holes. We have done this in groups and teams over more than 300,000 years and evolved an ability and inclination to work and live in groups. This book is unique in enabling us to make wiser sense of the complexity and beauty of these interactions, predicated as they are on dialogue. It offers a richer understanding than many of the easy and superficial management books on teamworking and group functioning and enables us to begin to imagine how we can overcome some of the profound challenges of working within and across groups that we face." -- Professor Michael West, Lancaster University Management School"The current era is plagued by over-simplification, when it needs simplexity — the art of making things simple (ie understandable) but not simplistic. Group analysis is one of the most powerful tools we have to cope with growing complexity. This book is a major contribution into this growing field of insight and practice." – Professor David Clutterbuck, David Clutterbuck Partnership"Dialogue between different perspectives, offering much to all of us who work with the challenges of enabling change in organisations and wider systems." --Professor Peter Hawkins, author of Leadership Team Coaching"An impossible task! Capturing the essence of this important book-- it is all so valuable." --Frances Griffiths, Chair, Institute of Group Analysis"A major contribution to this growing field." --Professor David Clutterbuck"Offers a richer understanding than many of the easy and superficial management books on teamworking and group functioning." Professor Michael West, Professor of Organizational Psychology Lancaster University Management School"A rich resource for consultants and managers looking for alternative ways of thinking." --Chris Mowles, Professor of Complexity and Management, Hertfordshire Business School

• NILGA Series editor's foreword Earl HopperI Editor’s introduction: what group analysis can offer in organisational work1 Coming to group analysis and using this book Christine Thornton2 Group analytic praxis in organizations Christine Thornton3 Persecutor, victim, rescuer: imperfect consulting in an imperfect world Christine Thornton4 Group analytic praxis and persecutor, victim, rescuer Christine ThorntonII The art of conversation: complexity, the matrix and ‘parallel process' 5 The art of conversation: group analytic interventions in organisational life Chris Rance6 Complex reflections: notes on ‘parallel process’ and the group matrix in group analytic organizational consultancy David WoodIII The wider organisational context 7 Stability or chaos, authoritarianism or dialogue: towards a matrix of critical and creative thought at a time of uncertainty and threat Dick Blackwell8 ‘Practising disappointment’: from reflection to action in organizations and communities Chris Scanlon IV Leadership, authority and power 9 Using groups in leadership: bringing practice into theoryClare Gerada10 Another fine mess you’ve gotten me into: effective leadership in a difficult place Raman Kapur11 Leadership and "Another fine mess" by Raman KapurMorris Nitsun12 Creative chaos: containing transforming space in Kid’s Company and other storiesFarideh DizadjiV Inside the practitioner’s mind: how we frame praxis 13 Inside out Chris Powell14 Context and the interpretive act: developing the language of the matrix for working in and with organizations Christine Oliver15 Joining the organisational game: five questions Margaret SmithVI Praxis and ethical issues in team working 16 Turning a blind eye: on personal and professional boundaries in mental health settings groups Ewa Wojciechowska17 Values in practice: dilemmas in reflective practice Ian Simpson and Gwen Adshead18 Working with multi-cultural groups in organisations: issues of power and difference Vince Leahy and Abdullah MiaVII Working with whole organisations19 A conversation with Earl Hopper Earl Hopper and Christine Thornton20 Creating thinking spaces in organisations: dynamic administration in groups large and small Cynthia Rogers21 Large groups the group analytic way Gerhard Wilke22 Whole organisations, mergers and the matrix: translucent boundaries and ‘tweaking’ culture creatively Christine Thornton and Gerhard Wilke23 Translucent boundaries, leaders and consultants: how to work with whole organizations Gerhard Wilke and Christine ThorntonVIII The ending 24 The end is in the beginning: perspectives from two group analytic consultants Christine Thornton and Gerhard Wilke