A series of 10 Organisational Transactional Analysis online workshops delivered using Zoom from 6pm – 8pm (BST) on 10 dates between 8th September and 13th July. Dip in and out dependant on your interests.
Organisational Transactional Analysis is a powerful tool for anyone working on improving communication, processes and relations within an organisation. This series of workshops is designed to facilitate professionals in consultancy, HR and People Management and counsellors in private practice working with clients within an organisational setting, in applying TA principles and concepts at a personal level, group level and within whole organisations to allow growth and change.
The full course programme is as follows, and you can dip in and out, depending on the topics you are interested in.
You will meet other interested individuals with whom you can discuss your professional thinking and we invite you to be open to share in discussions on Organisational Culture, Feedback Instruments, Values and Purpose or any other concepts you work with. This will be another learning opportunity for everyone in the workshop.
Pre-Course Requirement: Participants must have a basic knowledge of TA (at least having attended The Official Introduction to Transactional Analysis (TA101). For each workshop we have provided some suggestions for pre-reading material, ranging from Essential TA knowledge to ideas for expanding your knowledge further.
Course Tutor: Sabine-Inken Schmidt
Sabine-Inken Schmidt is PTSTA-O, living in Dusseldorf in Germany. She works full-time as European HR Director and is passionate about people in organisations. She has a diploma in Knowledge Management and has over 20 years of experience in Human Resource Management. Additionally to her TA Background, she is a qualified psychological consultant and Acceptance Commitment Therapist.
Date: 8th June Topic: Rosa Krausz at Work
Rosa Krausz is an Organisational Consultant, Coach and Owner of a Training in Institute in Brazil. She is TSTA in the Organisational Field and the Winner of the 2012 Eric Berne Memorial Award. Her contributions to the TA Journal in English Language are a rich source for inspiration and knowledge.
The Workshop is planned to be like a tour through a wine region. We will visit the articles in publishing order and take a sip out of each article to taste her contribution for our joy of thinking, feeling and behaving in organisational consultation. With her articles spanning a time frame from 1980 to 2013, we will reflect on the question if organisations have changed since she wrote this articles and what we can apply today even to more agile workforce.
Organisational Consultants work in environments where the language of concepts and models of Transactional Analysis is not common practice. Sometimes there could be a dilemma to know that the TA Concept would be helpful, but you do not want to alienate your client. Rosa Krausz and her contributions to TA are a role model on how to be an Organisational Consultant with a Transactional Analysis Identity.
Reading Suggestions:
The Workshops will offer the review of the work of an important contributor to Transactional Analysis in Organisations. We will cover all of her published articles in historical order, so you are invited to pre-read, but also we will cover each article with the core concepts in the workshop.
Date: 13th July Topic: Symbiosis at Work
Symbiosis is defined as a state where two individuals behave as if they are one by discounting certain ego-states, so that only one Parent, Adult and Child ego-state is functioning. The concept was developed clearly with two people in mind, but it gets very relevant in organisations, when you think about hierarchical levels and the order of command in organisations. This gets even clearer when you work with Second Order Symbiosis where the parent cares for the child at social level, while the child cares for the parent at the psychological level.
Organisational Consultants are working with organisations to foster healthy relationships and improve company cultures. The concept of symbiosis is helpful in that setting to explain what the “hidden deal” is behind the employment relationship. In this module we focus on applying an essential TA Concept to the Organisational World. We nearly guarantee you that you cannot “unsee” this after attending the workshop.
Reading Suggestions:
PAST MODULES:-
Date: 8th September 2020 Topic: Appreciation at Work
In an ideal world, great companies have highly motivated and engaged employees. In reality Gallup publishes every year through their survey that roughly 20% of Employees have “checked out“ and work as an exchange of time for money. Annual Employee Surveys in organisations are measuring the Employee Engagement Index and setting annual goals “to increase the percentage“.
Organisational Consultants are asked to help the organisation to find effective and ethical ways to positively influence the engagement levels of employees, teams and the overall organisations. In this module we are setting the focus on the aspect of “Appreciation“ at the workplace.
Transactional Analysis is offering useful concepts and models to build an inner concept of “Appreciation“ for the Organisational Consultant. Additional Content will be weaved to be able to turn this practically around in your professional field.
Reading Suggestions
During the course we will refer to organisational effectiveness books:-
Date: 13th October 2020 Topic: Bullying at Work
The Drama Triangle is a concept which is known widely outside of Transactional Analysis. It is a very snappy concept as it is easily understood and then fast to be applied. In this workshop we are looking at this concept critically if this concept is not even manifesting the “Victim” Position. An additional fourth role, the Bystander, is an important addition for the work in groups and organisations, as it looks as well at the responsibility of the people who “did nothing”.
Organisational Consultants are working with organisations to foster healthy relationships and improve company cultures. Games are a very common occurrence in organisations and it is worth to look at the applicability of a staple concept in TA. In this module we focus on critically review the use of a concept and adding value to it by looking at a specific occurrence at work.
This Workshop will be interesting when you look at the organization or if you are interested to ask more exploring questions to an individual, but it will not cover the consultation of an individual facing bullying.
Reading Suggestions
Date: 10th November 2020 Topic: Cohesion at Work
Cohesion and Coherence are two concepts we can use to describe phenomena in teams. Cohesion describes the “we“ in an individual, the shared group imago which every member is carrying in themselves as a fractal of the group. Coherence describes the shared purpose of the team, which enables each member to work individually and be self-reliant towards the group goal.
Organisational Consultants are working in the field of Team Building, by supporting teams to form, grow and get unstuck. There is a rich offering in the market on diagnostic methods and tools to be able to work with clients to increase efficiency and effectiveness of teams. In this module we focus on sharpening our view and professional capability on the core aim of those interventions.
Reading Suggestions
Date: 8th December / 22nd December 2020 Topic: Contracts at Work
Contracts are a very well known term in organisational settings and refer to the agreement of two parties exchanging goods in the wider sense, like exchange money for time. Eric Berne defined a contract as an explicit bilateral commitment to a well defined course of action. This specifies that we are not only exchanging goods, but also agree with each other what it is what we will do with and for each other. In reality we find ourselves at work in agreements to the organisation, the group and individuals.
In 1975, Fanita English developed the Three-Cornered Contract Model, which sheds light onto the multi-level reality of working and is one of the pillars of Transactional Analysis in Organisations. Nelly Micholt followed up in 1992 with her view on the Psychological Distance within Three-Cornered Contract which describes the reality we face as Organisational Consultants in working with Individuals of Organisations.
Organisational Consultants are often paid by organisations while they work with specific groups and individuals who are also paid by the organisation. Working in this triangle can cause questions of loyalty and ethics. In this module we will look at the theoretical framework to share our thinking, feeling and our experience on how we have managed this so far.
Reading Suggestions:
Date: 19th January/10th February Topic: Dilemma at Work
At work we sometimes feel like we have seen the emperor without clothes, but we have to pretend that the emperor is dressed very nicely. What some might call politically astute – others might see as a dilemma, which hurts their expectations of themselves in the workplace. If this cannot be expressed or even gets discounted, the effect can be like a double-bind of an organization.
In this workshop we look at the applicability of the double bind concept to organizations and will discuss the situation of dilemma for an individual in an organization. Bernd Schmid has developed the Dilemma Circle as a concept for consultants to look for a way to not get pulled into the dilemma created by the organization or the despair of the employee, but to be able to stay in the here and now.
Organisational Consultants are working with organizations to foster healthy relationships and improve company cultures. Sometimes consultants feel that they are called in to solve an issue and then feel that they are not allowed to touch the sensitive topics. In this module we dive into a topic which many of us have experienced and a helpful model for us to be able to be effective.
Reading Suggestions:
Date: 23rd February/ 24th March Topic: Learning at Work
Learning Organisations foster the learning of its members and continuously transform themselves as a means of survival. Peter Senge published in 1990 the “Fifth Discipline“ which has nearly trademarked the expression of “Learning Organisation“. He describes five disciplines, which are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, Team Learning and Systems Thinking. Connecting Eric Berne and Peter Senge is showing the strength of Transactional Analysis as a integrative framework of thinking.
For this workshop we focus on the discipline of Personal Mastery. Peter Senge describes an energy which is driving an individual it its quest for learning. We will relate that to the concept of Eric Berne, called Physis which he defined as “the force of Nature, which eternally strives to make things grow and to make growing things more perfect.“
Peter Senge brings Personal Learning into our consciousness by describing its elements, driving forces, resistance powers and dynamics. It also provides a good answer as to why training as Transactional Analysts takes us some time and is not a fast track certification.
The workshop will focus on respecting and fostering Personal Growth. The question why we are all learning can be answered in ways which are between logical and spiritual. You will need to find your own answer to that question, but you will receive a theoretical concept to grasp the concept of personal learning.
Reading Suggestions:
Date: 30th March / 21st April Topic: Moments of Truth at Work
In Marketing Language the expression “Touchpoint“ marks the moment of contact between the customer and the brand/product/service of an organisation. It can be compared to the adjustment of the group imago, when you experience an update of your inner imagination. Imagine accepting an offer from an organisation to work with them, you will probably have had first experiences which made you feel secure or wary about joining this organisation.
Employees in Organisations can feel like happy customers, recommending the company as a great place to work or they can feel like a trapped customer who signed a two year contract and are not happy with what they got for their money. Some organisations focus on showcasing a “fair deal“ with their employees for example in Compensation Summaries.
In my experience Employees are expecting a “fair deal“ and this does not increase their motivation or engagement. Being paid in time and in the correct amount on your pay slip is called a hygiene factor. However I have noticed a phenomenon, which I call the “Moment of Truth“ which reveals what the organisation is really thinking about the employee. Let me give you an example to better explain this. Imagine a new father who might be a Project Leader asking for parental leave. How is the Manager or the HR Department reacting in the first seconds of this request – will there be joy shared with the employee or problems to be put in the forefront.
The Workshop will focus on a specific practical situation in organisations which showcases company culture. Taking this as a launch pad we will work on the idea of “Professional Intimacy“ and bring this TA Concept into an Organisational Setting.
Reading Suggestions:
8th June - Rosa Krausz
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13th July - Symbiosis
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Online Event
Sabine-Inken Schmidt
12 Tuesday Evenings (Feb to May)
This training for working with trauma will be a co-created and experiential course. As a training group we will work together to support your professional development as a counsellor or therapist working with traumatised clients.
We will explore theoretical frameworks relating to trauma. We will work with clinical client examples to support the integration of theory and practice.
6 x 3 hour Monday evenings between 1st February and 22nd March.
Look at your own views and experiences of loss, as well as considering how we work in the therapy room with those who have experienced loss.
This monthly online gathering space is for educators (teachers, trainers, parents, facilitators, coaches etc) to bring their curiosity, questions, thoughts and ideas. Each 2 hour session will be based on different theme, creating an open space to explore and learn, to replenish, to gain support and also to roll with the emergent process of the group.
Thurs Evening 6.30pm – 8.30pm (London)
14th January to 15th July 2021
6 x 2.5 hour sessions – January to March
A 6-week on-line courses will explore and engage with the concepts of Physis (the life force in nature), Intuition (direct knowledge gained without reasoning) and Autonomy (the experience of true awareness, spontaneity and intimacy).