Groups and workplaces

Ideas that came out of psychotherapy have been borrowed by organisations for decades: team development days, facilitation, communication and assertiveness training, stress management, conflict resolution. Some of that borrowing is sensible. Some of it quietly assumes that a group exercise can fix a problem that is structural.

These pages describe the non-clinical end of the subject and try to be honest about the boundary. Running a workshop about stress is not treatment, a facilitator is not a therapist, and a well-designed away day does not compensate for a job with impossible demands and no control over how the work is done — which is exactly what the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards are about.