Tag Archives: Complexity and Management Conference 2019

Complexity and Management Conference 17-19th May: agenda

Leave a reply

What does it mean to be critical? – complexity, reflexivity and doubt in everyday organisational life.

For this year’s Complexity and Management Conference we are delighted to have Professor André Spicer from the Cass Business School, City, University of London to give the keynote on Saturday morning. André holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He has held visiting appointments at universities around the world. André is the author of many academic articles and nine books. The most recent are ‘Business Bullshit’, ’The Stupidity Paradox’ and ‘Desperately Seeking Self Improvement’.

The agenda for the one day introduction to complex responsive processes on Friday 17th May and for the conference on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th May is here: CMC Agenda

There are still some places available, both for the one day workshop and for the conference, and you can book your place here.

Complexity and Management Conference 17-19th May 2019 – one month to go.

Leave a reply

Particularly from a UK perspective, where public discourse has become highly repetitive, accusatory and frankly boring, there has never been a better time to stop and think about what’s going on for us and whether our current ways of thinking about the world serve us well. What does it take to reflect together, to think critically about the predicaments we find ourselves in, and to question our own assumptions? How might we become more skilful in widening our circles of concern?

There is just a month to go until the annual Complexity and Management Conference 17-19th May entitled: What does it mean to be critical? – complexity, reflexivity and doubt in everyday organisational life. There are still some remaining places at the conference, as well as for the one day introductory workshop on complexity

220px-Socrates_Louvre

Socrates in the Louvre

and management on Friday 17th May. It is also now possible just to book for the Saturday to hear the keynote and attend workshops presented by delegates on Saturday afternoon. The booking page is here.

Our key note speaker on Saturday 18th May is André Spicer from Cass Business School, who has developed an international reputation for confronting fads of management, ‘wellness’ and the idea of smart organisations for example, to provoke us to think about what we are encouraged to take for granted. André will talk about his forthcoming book on critique and doubt.

The conference is an unusual forum for creating time to discuss what matters to the delegates – to rediscover who we are becoming and how we might take the next step together.

Hope to see you there.

Complexity&management Conference – 17th-19th May: end of early bird booking 1st April.

Leave a reply

What kind of experience can you anticipate at the Complexity and Management Conference 17-19th May at Roffey Park entitled: What does it mean to be critical? – complexity, reflexivity and doubt in everyday organisational life.  And what might you expect if you sign up to the one day workshop on Friday 17th May? Early bird booking discounts end 1st April 2019 – so book here.

Starting with the one day workshop, you will have a chance to explore the relevance of complexity thinking for your work, drawing on an intellectual perspective which has been developed over a 20 year period. There will be two seminar sessions exploring the key ideas underpinning the body of ideas called complex responsive processes of relating, but in the main you will have lots of opportunities to think with others about what’s going on for you in your organisation. It is time and space to take your experience seriously. Participants from previous one day workshops have

Arendt

found that it has prepared them better for  the conference,  although the workshop can be stand-alone too.

Meanwhile the conference, which begins with an inaugural dinner on Friday evening 17th at 7pm, is not a conventional academic event. You are very welcome to come and present a paper or a particular dilemma from your work during the workshop sessions on Saturday afternoon. But otherwise the only requirement is to come and participate fully with others to explore together why it is important to think critically in contemporary organisational life. In many ways the confer

ence itself is acounter-cultural event: there is time to reflect with no particular end in view apart from making meaning together, what the philosopher Hannah Arendt referred to as thinking without a bannister.

Conference fees, board and lodging are all included in the price. The conference ends after lunch on Sunday 19th May.

 

 

Complexity and Management Conference 17-19th May 2019 – booking now for early bird rates.

1 Reply

There are just three weeks to go before the end of early bird booking for this year’s Complexity and Management Conference 17th-19th May. As for the last two years we will also be offering a one-day introduction to complex responsive processes on Friday 17th May for anyone interested in the ideas, whether or not you go on to attend the conference.

This year we are expecting a good turn-out, partly because of our speaker Professor Andre Spicer, and partly because the event is a lively and thought-provoking occasion, where we talk about what matters with no particular end in view. Book soon to ensure you secure a place.mia_project_153_01

The title of this year’s conference, What does it mean to be critical? – complexity, reflexivity and doubt in everyday organisational life draws attention to the importance of making sense of contemporary organisational life in ways which call into question taken for granted assumptions.

Some of the things we might discuss at the conference, which I suggest are current pathologies of management, are set out below. None of these phenomena is new or unremarked upon and critiqued. Yet they still prevail in organisational life in ways which can lead to unhelpful behaviour in groups. They can distract from more productive ways of working which pay attention to the difficulties of getting things done together in the here and now. Continue reading →

What does it mean to be critical? – complexity, reflexivity and doubt in everyday organisational life.

3 Replies

Complexity and Management Conference – 17th– 19th May 2019, Roffey Park Institute.

One of the difficulties of thinking, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, is that it tends to unravel things. Next year’s conference will address a theme which has come up again and again in previous conferences, the degree to which questioning, particularly of our own assumptions and value positions, can unsettle. It’s not always easy to question what’s going on, particularly in organisations which encourage us to align and be positive, but what are the ethical consequences of not doing so?

In a recent piece of research carried out for LFHE/Advance HE, we discovered that senior managers in Higher Education establishments may feel conflicted about some of the change projects they are responsible for. Keen to do a good job on the one hand, on the other they may also entertain doubts about the long-term effects of the changes they are implementing. One requirement of surviving in an environment which values change, then, may be the ability to entertain doubt and uncertainty, and to find ways of critically reflecting with others.

Equally, consultants trying to navigate the crowded field of concepts and management fads may find themselves working for clients who seem to be asking for support which the consultant doubts will be helpful – what does it mean to be a critically reflective and reflexive consultant, and what are the ethical implications?

We are delighted to have Professor André Spicer from the Cass Business School, City, University of London to give the keynote on Saturday morning, and help us think these things through.  Originally from New Zealand, André holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He has held visiting appointments at universities around the world.

André is the author of many academic articles and nine books. The most recent are ‘Business Bullshit’, ’The Stupidity Paradox’ and ‘Desperately Seeking Self Improvement’ He has worked with a range of organisations including Barclays, TFL, Old Mutual, the City of London, the House of Commons, IBM and CAA. He frequently appears in the international media and writes regularly about work and organisations for The Guardian. He is currently working on a book about skepticism and doubt.

On Saturday afternoon we ask conference delegates to suggest workshops that they themselves would like to run consonant with the theme of the conference.

As usual the conference booking page will go live on the university website early in the New Year. The fee for the conference covers all board and lodging from the inaugural dinner on Friday night 17th May, through to lunch on Sunday when the conference finishes.

In addition we will offer the usual one day introduction to the basic concepts of complex responsive processes of relating on Friday 17th.