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Authentic Leadership -
Transformative approach to
Leadership in organizations
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Make a difference.
Become an inspiring, impactful leader and professional and maximize your powers for truly transformative leadership.
This Authentic Leadership program is an insightful and intensive program for managers who want to become leaders, senior leaders, HR and OD professionals and coaches who want to grow as a human being, deepen their understanding of organizational dynamics, and to develop and improve their presence, performance and results.
The program uses the transformative powers of Gestalt approach. Gestalt is a holistic, humanistic, and integrative approach that focuses on helping people and organizations to find their true essence and removing the blocks that prevent growth and performance. The goal is to know yourself fully and to become the leader you can truly be.
The program is especially designed as an in-depth professional development opportunity for busy executives and professionals. It takes place in 7 x 3 days intensive workshops in beautiful, relaxing locations close to Helsinki, Finland. We will focus on the practice by reflecting on case studies of the participants, inviting you to do observations and interventions in your organizations and by practising in the study group. Between the workshops learning will be supported by peer group meetings, mentoring and supervision by the trainers. The program lasts for one year and you can continue second year to get certified as Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations.
Authentic Leadership program compliments Emergy’s other training programs by deepening and strengthening the transformative powers of our work. With this program, you will dive deep into your core, understand your influence on people around you, get a grip of what is actually going on in your organization, and take your leadership to a new level.
This unique opportunity has not been available in Finland before now, so take action and reserve your place now!
With this Authentic Leadership program you will:
- deepen your understanding of yourself as a leader
- strenghten your presence and impact as a leader
- improve your ability to understand and diagnose problematic situations in your organization
- learn new skills in dealing with organizational questions, challenges and problems
- boost your ability to have an authentic dialogue with your workers and colleagues
- increase your ability to initiate and facilitate change in your organization
- learn new skills to deal with power issues, conflicts and resistance in your organization
- become better in dealing with the diversity in your organization and with cultural differences
- learn to understand the Gestalt approach for leadership
Being a manager is having a job,
Being a leader is growing as a human being.
Program
We offer you a one (or two) year program that is based on the Gestalt philosophy and the present practice and theory of organizations. You can take one year and improve your leadership, or you can stay in the program for two years and become a certified and accredited Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations (GPO; see more at https://www.eagt.org/joomla/index.php/home-gpo).
1. Awareness as an essential component to change
2. Understanding the story of the organisation
3. Authentic change
4. Leadership as collaboration
5. Understanding the culture
6. Changes in power and conflicts
7. Dealing with endings
1. Awareness as an essential component to change
1.-3. Feb 2024
Developing an understanding of your own assumptions and utilizing process-oriented approaches to leadership can result in a more mindful approach to decision-making and presence. During this session, we will delve into the Gestalt theoretical perspective on organizations and change, with a specific focus on the concepts of Awareness and Field theory. Additionally, we aim to use this session as a learning model for building strong relationships with your employees and teams.
Trainer: Frans Meulmeester
Goal: Basic principles of Gestalt approach to organizations.
Gestalt concepts:
- Awareness
- Gestalt diagnose
- Field theory
- Cycle of experience
2. Understanding the story of the organization
11.-13. April 2024
All organizations have a unique story, which consists of their history, vision, mission, strategy, culture, and behavior. As a leader, it is essential to listen to and honor this story, as it provides valuable insights into the organization’s central element and hypotheses for improvement. During this session, we will delve into the multifaceted dimensions of organizational stories, with a particular emphasis on the phenomenological attitude. By exploring and understanding the various levels of an organization’s story, we can gain a deeper understanding of its strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for growth and development.
Trainer: Yannis Angelis
Goal: Listening and giving meaning to the story of the organization
Gestalt concepts:
- Phenomenological observation
- Inclusion
- Multi-dimensional realities
3. Authentic change
6.-8. June 2024
Change is a dynamic and creative process that requires guidance and support to come to fruition. By embracing the creative aspect of change, we can develop our leadership skills and become better facilitators of growth and transformation. During this session, we will delve into the distinctions between development, change, and transformation and reflect on practical experiences to enhance our understanding and skills in facilitating change. Through this exploration, we will gain insights into how to foster an environment of trust and empowerment that encourages individuals and organizations to embrace change and thrive.
Trainer: Ioanna Rizou
Goal: Facilitating the creative process of change
Gestalt concepts:
- Change
- Paradoxical theory of change
- The cycle of experience
4. Leadership as collaboration
5.-7. September 2024
Leadership is often seen as an individualistic endeavor, with one person at the helm directing and controlling the organization. However, we believe that leadership is a function of the collective field. A true leader is someone who can inspire and facilitate dialogue among the members of the organization, leading to a more collaborative and inclusive approach to decision-making. During this session, we will delve into the concept of dialogical leadership and how it can be applied in both NGO and business environments. By exploring this attitude of leadership, we can gain insights into how to build stronger relationships with team members, foster creativity and innovation, and create a more cohesive and productive work environment.
Trainer: Talia Bar-Yoseph Levine
Goal: Developing the attitude of dialogical leadership
Gestalt concepts:
- Leadership
- Field theory
- ‘I – thou – relationship’
5. Understanding the culture
14.- 16. November 2024
Every organization embodies a unique culture that reflects its values, norms, and beliefs. It’s essential to acknowledge and respect the diverse cultural aspects within an organization. In this session, we will be utilizing the methodology of organization-constellations to enhance our understanding of the implicit dynamics and cultural nuances present within organizations.
Trainer: Marten Bos
Goal: Getting in touch with the diversity and culture of the organization
6. Changes in power and conflicts
23 – 25. January 2025
Power dynamics are an inherent part of any collaborative work environment. As a leader, it’s crucial to manage power constructively to ensure positive outcomes. In this session, we will delve into the different manifestations of power and their potential distortions. Additionally, we will increase awareness among participants on various strategies of power utilization.
Trainer: Frans Meulmeester
Goal: Working with the qualities and distortions of power and conflicts
7. Dealing with endings
3.-5. April 2025
The lifespan of any relationship encompasses a beginning and an end, and concluding it demands equal time and attention as initiating it. Conscientiously addressing or wrapping up loose ends, unfinished experiences, and unprofessional ongoing relationships is crucial. In this session, we will center our attention on ending relationships in a mindful manner. Furthermore, we will reflect on the assignments of the training program.
Trainer: Frans Meulmeester
Overview of total hours:
- Seven three day seminars:
- 7 x 24 hours training = 168 hours
- Monthly intervision in small local groups and/or larger online groups
- 10 x 3 hours intervision = 30 hours
Total = 198 hours
Possible topics for the second year
Block 1 Working with different organizations
Goal: Being able to work with different kind of organizations, like family business, public sector, large companies etc.
Theme: Every organization has its own specific characteristics, dynamic and culture. A leader needs to be able to recognize these differences and being able to make the appropriate interventions.
The organizations of the participants will serve as illustrative cases.
Block 2 Leading teams
Goal: Being able to deal with group dynamics in teams
Theme: To be able to facilitate processes of change in task-oriented teams asks for knowledge of the specific characteristics and phenomena of a team. In this session we will explore possible phenomena in teams, working with group dynamic in task-oriented teams and offer possibilities to intervene in an effective way.
Block 3 Individual and team coaching
Goal: Being able to coach individual workers and managers and teams from a Gestalt relational perspective
Theme: Coaching is one of the interventions we have as leader to contribute to change and development in organizations. In this block we will focus on the Gestalt relational perspective on coaching. We will also address the difference between coaching, counselling and psychotherapy, the boundaries and overlaps.
Block 4 Handling crisis situations in organizations
Goal: Being able to support individuals and teams in dealing with crises in the organization and possible traumatic experiences
Theme: In every organization crises can have a huge impact on individual workers and on teams as a whole. To support workers and teams to process such situations and come out of it in an healthy way asks for courage, strength, sensitivity and skills. During this block we will focus on the concept of crisis and trauma and on the skills and attitude to be able to support oneself and others.
Block 5 Recognising and handling abusive organizations
Goal: Being able to recognise, discuss and handle abusive organizations
Theme: If people are committed to their job they can easily cross their own boundaries. In some cases employees are manipulated and their commitment is even abused with the risk of getting burned out. This happens on all levels of organizations. To recognise such situations and to bring them to the surface is not easy; ‘ringing the bell’ is not always appreciated. During this seminar we will focus on this issue and speak about how to handle such situations and how to create support for oneself.
Introducing the trainers
Frans Meulmeester (The Netherlands), program coordinator, has been working as a teacher, trainer and consultant for more than 40 years. First in education and later in Healthcare. He started his own centre for training, consultancy and therapy, called Invitation about 30 years ago and from this time he works as a Gestalt therapist, coach, consultant, trainer and supervisor.
He helped building up Gestalt training institutes in several countries like Bulgaria, Georgia and Nepal and is a Faculty member or guest trainer in many other Gestalt institutes throughout the world. He is a full member of the EAGT and EAP registered as a Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations in the EAGT. The base for all his activities is a combination of interest in other people, enthusiasm for the gestalt-approach and the experiences in organizations.
Yannis Angelis is a Gestalt Organizational Development (OD) practitioner and trainer, a Storytelling Strategist, and an Artist. He has worked for more than 25 years inside organizations in various OD positions. His work is informed by the principles of Gestalt Therapy, Theory U, Narrative Therapy, Warm Data, and the Art of Hosting. His background lays in Gestalt OD & Change, and Narrative Therapy & Community Work. He is a co-founding member of INTAGIO, an Association which aims to further develop the theory, methodology and practice of Gestalt in organizations as an independent and unique contribution to the communities and societies, which we serve.
Amongst others, Yannis facilitates participatory processes in physical and online spaces. He is a trainer on the pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, and technology of online spaces & meetings supporting the shift of awareness towards engagement, efficiency and wellbeing of all people involved. He is the co-author of the “Transforming Organizations” and “Beyond Storytelling”, 2 books that demonstrate how to work with narrative approaches in organizations aiming individual growth, community building and organizational transformation.
Ioanna Rizou is a Psychologist, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Gestalt Practitioner in Organizations based in Athens, Greece. After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, she began working as a career guidance counsellor in Athens and later on as a communication manager. During that period, she started her Gestalt Psychotherapy training, as well as her MBA at the Athens University of Economics and Business. Since 2011 she has been working as a psychologist and psychotherapist guiding adults and teenagers in finding new and more effective ways to meet their needs, improve their communication and work creatively towards the life they desire.
In addition to her work in her private practice, Ioanna collaborates with businesses and international organizations, in order to train groups in the field of organizational development. Her work as a gestalt practitioner is depicted in the book “The Art of Change – Gestalt: A Different Approach for Organizations” which she co-authors with Frans Meulmeester and George Stamatis. She is a member of the Association of Greek Psychologists, the Hellenic Association of Gestalt Psychotherapy and the EAGT (European Association for Gestalt Therapy).
Talia Bar-Yoseph Levine, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist, gestalt therapist, international trainer, supervisor and business consultant. (Specializes in organizational change, leadership & team development and business families.) Talia trusts that the Gestalt philosophy of being is an infrastructure to human connectedness, dialogic leadership, the bridging of differences and uniquely contributes to a better world. Was head of Gestalt department at Metanoia Institute in London and gained it an academic recognition as an MSc, was the academic director of an 8-year training in the Czech and Slovak republics and of a 5-year training in Greece, participated in organizational, psychotherapy and co run supervision training in several countries.
Currently she is chairperson of the Israeli Gestalt Association and its representative to the EAGT, co-chair of Jerusalem Gestalt Institute, past president of IAAGT and a past member of the Intagio EC. Edited books: ‘The Bridge –Dialogues across Cultures’, ‘Gestalt Therapy Advances in theory and practice’, 2011, From Here to Later, 2021 (attending to systems under a global crisis). Published a significant number of academic publications in books and journals. Married, a mother of two and grandmother of three.
Marten Bos (The Netherlands) has a Master of Science degree from Middlesex University and NSG Amsterdam 2007. He is a Registered senior supervisor and teacher supervision in the Dutch Association for Supervisors and Coaches (LVSC). He is an international trainer for trainers, management and organizations, personal leadership, constellations, writing, etc. He has his own centre ‘Marten Bos – The Power of the Difference’, where he focus on Diversity policy and all kind of projects in the field of diversity and inclusive work. Marten is also active in LGBT communities and supports initiatives and network building of bi-cultural LGBT initiatives and LGBT refugees in Amsterdam.
Jarkko Rantanen, the founding partner of Emergy, will take part in each training block as a co-facilitator. Jarkko has been working for 15 years with developing emotional agency in leadership and organizations. Jarkko is a psychologist, author of several books on workplace emotions, and also a Gestalt therapist and organizational coach and consultant.
Price and venue:
This year’s group is already fully booked!
Leave us your details if you are interested in the next program.
5800 € / year + VAT + accommodation + travel expenses.
Bundle prices: Two partipants from the same organization 4350 € / person + VAT. If you have more colleagues / friends who are interested, please be in touch and we will make you a suitable bundle price.
Place: A beautiful location about 30 min drive from Helsinki center. Short taxi drive from the airport.
It is possible to stay the whole seminar on site, or you can come just for the daytime workshops (from 10 – 18).
It is possible to stay the whole seminar on site, or you can come just for the daytime workshops (from 10 – 18).
Interested? Watch our free webinar to hear more!
Watch an info webinar on the training program where the program’s main trainer Frans Meulmeester and facilitator Jarkko Rantanen talk about the training and what you can expect from it (approximately 41 minutes).
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us info@emergywork.com!