Reflections on the Symposium – Social Movements

Reflective practice in action with each member of the Symposium Planning Committee presenting their highlight of the symposium. Small group discussions to explore your highlights of the symposium and what was gained from the papers and presentations attended. Followed by a large group open discussion.

Susan Long is a Melbourne based organisational consultant and executive coach. Previously Professor of Creative and Sustainable Organisation at RMIT University, she is now a Professor and Research Lead at the National Institute for Organisation Dynamics Australia (NIODA) and a coach and consultant in private practice. She is an associate of the University of Melbourne Executive Programs and teaches at INSEAD in Singapore and the University of Divinity in Melbourne where she is involved in a coaching program.

She has consulted to organisational change in the health and justice sectors and coached senior executives across many sectors. She has worked with executives from many different nationalities and from diverse industries, having taught or consulted in the UK, the USA, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Israel, Thailand and Singapore. She also works as a supervisor and coach for organisational development professionals in Australia and Singapore. She has over 35 years of experience with Group Relations, having been on staff or directed many conferences.

Susan has been in a leadership position in many professional organisations and is an author having published ten books and many articles in books and scholarly journals, is General Editor of the journal Socioanalysis and an Associate Editor with Organisational and Social Dynamics. She is member of the Advisory Board for Mental Health at Work with Comcare and a past member of the Board of the Judicial College of Victoria (2011-2016). Susan is a distinguished member of ISPSO.

Jennifer is the Educational Quality Assurance and Enhancement Lead at NIODA. She is an organisational development consultant and a learning and development practitioner with extensive experience supporting change innovations and curriculum development. Jennifer holds a Masters in Philosophy of Social Innovation (Organisational Analysis & Leadership) through the Grubb School of Organisational Analysis, as well as a Masters of Business (Training and Change Management). Jennifer is a Board member of Annecto, a not-for-profit age and disability support organisation and is a Director of Group Relations Australia.

John is currently a student of the Master of Leadership and Management (Organisational Dynamics) at NIODA and the General Manager of Strategy, Culture & Performance at one of Victoria’s major building companies.

He has worked as a psychotherapist, marriage & family therapist, Clinical Director of Citizens Welfare Service of Victoria, and a socioanalyst/consultant for 20 years, Dean of International House, Univ of Melb. (4 years) and an intercultural consultant & CEO of his own consulting business, “Managing Differences” for 30 years. He has provided CEO/Executive development/ coaching, organisational improvement/change and turnaround programs to some 50 plus organisations internationally and in Australia.

At 69 John is planning to retire into a Phd. and attempt to write a book.

Fiona Martin is a Melbourne based organisational development and learning and development, practitioner. She has held leadership roles that have been responsible for innovation and change in the government, education, emergency management and private enterprise sectors including, RMIT and Swinburne Universities. She has published papers in scholarly journals and is a student of the Master of Leadership and Management (Organisation Dynamics), NIODA.

Cath worked as a prison Chaplain with Women for the past four years, and has recently taken up a role with the University of Divinity coordinating and co-teaching the graduate awards in professional supervision. She did her PhD work in the area of disappointment and the lived experience of lack, and lives in Daylesford with her family and a host of other sentient beings. She loves the earth, growing food and enjoys the capacity we have to see and be seen, hear and be heard and love and be loved.

Over the last several years Thomas has enhanced his extensive professional experience by learning from, and working with, leaders across the executive coaching, group dynamics, and systems psychodynamics fields. A graduate of the NIODA Master of Leadership and Management – Organisation Dynamics, Thomas combines a deep understanding of working in large organisations with a passion for supporting others as they work toward achieving their goals and gaining deeper awareness of their actions and drivers. Highly skilled in creating a safe environment to support participants explore their roles, Thomas manages the balance between empathy and candour allowing participants to feel secure whilst having their assumptions challenged.

Sally is the Executive: Administration Lead and Board Secretary at NIODA and is also a final-year student of the Master of Leadership and Management (Organisation Dynamics) course.
Pursuing her love of creating things she completed a Bachelor of Fashion Design, and then created handmade silk wedding gowns, and diversely a diploma in Ecological agriculture living on a working farm whilst project managing for the local Landcare group. Sally has held board positions including school, community groups and the catchment management authority.
Sally lives and works between unceded Wurundjuri and Wadawurrung Country, northwest of Melbourne. 

Employees and Organisational Perspectives on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): The dynamics of making progress toward socially-impactful business

Creating businesses that make positive contributions to their social and environmental context is a significant area of focus and investment in developed economies. Corporations are swiftly moving towards judging their value by accounting for their total Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) impact – and not just their economic value. ESG has become a significant part of the conversation at the highest levels of our corporations and is an increasingly important driver of investment decisions. ESG is rapidly changing the fabric of life inside our corporate organisations.

Workers in corporate organisations are also increasingly socially aware and demanding of change. They have strong moral codes and hold views on matters of social and political significance – workers may have strongly held beliefs about climate-change, anti-racism, diversity agendas, abortion rights and the war in Ukraine to name but a few.

The purpose of this panel is to open a conversation about the dynamics of making progress on ESG in corporate contexts. Questions include: How do leaders work constructively with workers who are engaged in social movements? What do leaders do when workers disagree on issues of ESG? How can leaders engage workers on matters of ESG? How can workers constructively engage leaders matters of personal moral significance?

The panel will be held in three stages. In stage one, we invite a small group of corporate leaders to engage in a dialogue. In stage two, we invite consultants and academics engaged in systems psychodynamics to reflect on what they heard. In stage three, we invite comments and reflections from the broader audience. Our aim is to generate insights and deepen critical thinking on the dynamics of making progress on matters of importance in the realm of environmental, social and corporate governance.

Moderated by Fiona Martin

Learning to listen: the challenge of the Uluru statement from the heart

During COVID lockdown late in 2020, Deb Martindale, Sally Mussared, Kenwyn Smith and Seth Thomasson were motivated by the Uluru Statement from the Heart to respond to the government’s interim report. This led to the consideration that perhaps our role as ‘white fellas’ in the Yoorrook (Victorian Truth Telling Commission) was to actively listen. Regular reflection sessions have led to us being moved by what we have heard in the public hearings from Victorian First People Elders whose experiences illustrate many of the key impacts of colonisation still felt today, including Jack Charles, Uncle Johnny Lovett, Aunty Fay Carter, Aunty Alma Thorpe, Uncle Larry Walsh and Isobel Paipadjerook Morphy-Walsh, Uncle Kevin Coombs and Uncle Colin Walker. The impacts of our listening are developing, and we encourage you to listen to the Uluru Statement from the Heart to consider your role in this social movement.

When social movement organizing meets systems psychodynamics

Lydia Aplizar – Mexican feminist human rights activist, mak wemuk (Davíd Luna) – Indigenous (of the Coahuiltecan peoples) and Latinx (Chicanx), Anita Prasad – grassroots community development and social justice leader and organizer, and Barbara Williams – psychoanalytically oriented organizational consulting practice focusing on leadership development, shared leadership and governance come together to explore when social movement organizing meets systems psychodynamics.

Moderated by Ed Shapiro

Employees and Organisational Perspectives on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG): The dynamics of making progress toward socially-impactful business.

Creating businesses that make positive contributions to their social and environmental
context is a significant area of focus and investment in developed economies. A dialogue event opening a conversation about the dynamics of making progress on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) issues in the corporate context. The dialogue will offer participants the opportunity to engage in conversation with corporate leaders, Aarti Kapoor, Emma Oliver and Jenny Smith. The discussion aims to unearth the desires, opportunities, tensions and organisational dynamics that appear for executives and employees around ESG in the workplace.

Learning with Activists

Kat Hamilton – Force of Nature, Esther Salomon – Animal Think Tank and Simon Western – Eco-leadership Institute, share what brought them into activism, the purpose of their organisation and social movement, and the effects of their activism.

Moderated by Professor Susan Long

When social movement organizing meets systems psychodynamics

Lydia Aplizar – Mexican feminist human rights activist, mak wemuk (Davíd Luna) – Indigenous (of the Coahuiltecan peoples) and Latinx (Chicanx), Anita Prasad – grassroots community development and social justice leader and organizer, and Barbara Williams – psychoanalytically oriented organizational consulting practice focusing on leadership development, shared leadership and governance come together to explore when social movement organizing meets systems psychodynamics.