For managers, leaders and consultants who are interested to apply systemic thinking in relation to their leadership, consultancy and organisational development work.
From 9:30 until 16:30
At London | Online | Vienna
£2600. For registrations before May 31 / August 15, 2026, the early bird fee of £2360 / 2430 applies.
The Systemic Development Partnership / info@systemicdevelopment.eu
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The Advanced Programme in Systemic Reflective Practice
A practice-based programme for professionals facilitating reflection, learning and development in organisations
Reflective practice has become an essential capability in contemporary organisations — yet many professionals tasked with facilitating reflection in teams and groups receive little structured training in how to do this systemically, confidently, and in ways that genuinely add value.
The Advanced Programme in Systemic Reflective Practice is a five-month professional training designed to deepen your capacity to convene, facilitate and sustain reflective learning processes with groups and teams in complex organisational environments.
The programme integrates systemic thinking with practical facilitation skills, enabling participants to work effectively with group dynamics, organisational culture, competing agendas, and patterns of communication that shape how learning and change actually occur.
Drawing on systemic practice, group analysis, social constructionism, dialogic organisational development, and social learning theory, the course offers a rigorous yet highly practical framework for observing, making sense of, and intervening in group and team processes.
Participants develop confidence in navigating contract, culture, relationship, role and task — the core conditions that determine whether reflective practice becomes transformative or merely procedural.
Why reflective practice matters now
Across healthcare, social care, education, consulting and organisational life, reflective group processes are widely recognised as powerful vehicles for learning, coordination and development. These include reflective practice groups, debriefing processes, Balint groups, learning reviews, dialogic organisational development processes, and agile retrospectives.
When well facilitated, reflective practice can:
- strengthen coordination and collaboration
- support professional learning and practice development
- increase ownership and participation
- surface organisational intelligence already present in everyday work
- enhance resilience and collective resourcefulness
Yet many organisations struggle to sustain reflective spaces. Common challenges include:
- uncertainty about how to frame reflective practice so it aligns with organisational priorities
- tensions between reflection and performance pressures
- concerns about hierarchy, power and voice
- lack of facilitation expertise
- anxiety about what reflection might reveal about systems or leadership
- models that feel imported from other contexts and difficult to apply locally
As a result, reflective practice is often reduced, marginalised, or abandoned — despite relying primarily on resources organisations already possess: the lived experience and insight of their people.
This programme addresses that gap.
A systemic approach to reflective practice
Systemic Reflective Practice treats reflection not as an optional add-on but as a necessary organisational function — a structured space where experience becomes learning and learning becomes coordinated action.
Rather than offering fixed formats, the course develops your ability to design and negotiate reflective processes suited to specific organisational contexts, cultures and purposes.
Participants learn how to:
- contract and commission reflective practice effectively
- position reflective spaces within wider organisational agendas
- work with patterns of communication, narratives and relationships
- recognise power dynamics and competing interests
- facilitate learning that connects reflection with action
The emphasis is on enabling reflective practice that is meaningful both for participants and for the organisations in which they work.
Who this programme is for
This training is designed for professionals who facilitate — or intend to facilitate — reflective processes with teams or groups, including:
- organisational consultants and OD practitioners
- coaches and leadership development professionals
- psychotherapists and psychologists
- health and social care professionals
- team leaders and senior practitioners
- facilitators working in learning, development or change contexts
Participants should be currently engaged in, or preparing to begin, facilitating reflective practice in their professional setting.
Programme learning experience
The course offers a practice-centred learning journey combining theory, supervision and experiential learning. Participants develop their capability as systemic facilitators through ongoing reflection on their own work.
Learning modalities include:
- conceptual inputs and teaching
- participant seminar presentations
- supervised reflection on lived practice
- small and large group learning
- consultations and peer learning
- guided reading and self-directed study
There are no formal written assignments. Learning is grounded in participants’ real professional contexts, and participants are expected to bring their facilitation experience into supervision and group learning spaces.
The programme is intentionally collaborative and co-created: participants contribute actively to each other’s development and learning.
Programme structure
The training runs over five months (October – February) and consists of four developmental modules delivered across four two-day workshop blocks, with group supervision between modules.
Each module builds progressively from foundations towards confident and creative facilitation practice.
Total learning time
- 4 modules of 2 seminar days, which will also include time for supervision
- 3 additional online group supervision sessions (3 hours each)
- time for directed reading and preparation, about 2-3 papers for every module
Group size: 8–16 participants
The first seminar takes place in London, and the final seminar in Vienna. Seminars 2 and 3 are online.
Programme Modules
Module 1 — Foundations for Purposeful Reflective Practice
- Introduction to systemic practice
- Meanings and productive purposes of reflective practice
- Opportunities and limitations of reflective practice
- Understanding organisational context and readiness
Module 2 — Confident Beginnings
- Systemic commissioning and contracting
- Designing beginnings that create conditions for success
- Coordinating differences in expectations and purpose
- Core tasks of group facilitation
Module 3 — Interventive Facilitation
- Group dynamics
- Working with power, authority and interests
- Patterns and narratives in reflective practice
- Orientation, sense-making and systemic intervention
Module 4 — Challenges, Dilemmas and Creative Responses
- Conflict, splits and anti-group dynamics
- Working productively with difficulty
- Creative reflective formats for teams and groups
- Integrating learning into professional practice
Every module includes
- conceptual inputs
- participant paper presentations
- connecting theory with lived practice and experience
- supervision (up to 8 participants presenting)
- consultation and applied learning
- reflective learning group experiences
Outcomes
By the end of the programme participants will be able to:
- design and contract reflective practice processes systemically
- facilitate reflective groups with confidence and clarity
- work constructively with complexity, conflict and organisational dynamics
- recognise and intervene in patterns shaping group learning
- position reflective practice as a meaningful organisational resource
Participants emerge with a coherent systemic framework and practical capability for facilitating reflective learning in diverse professional contexts.
Schedule for the 2026/27 course
Module 1 — Foundations for Purposeful Reflective Practice |
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Seminar |
Oct 12-13, 2026 |
09:30-16:30 |
London |
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Supervision |
Oct 30, 2026 |
14:00-17:00 |
Online |
Module 2 — Confident Beginnings |
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Seminar |
Nov 23-24, 2026 |
09:30-16:30 |
Online |
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Supervision |
Dec 11, 2026 |
14:00-17:00 |
Online |
Module 3 — Interventive Facilitation |
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Seminar |
Jan 11-12, 2027 |
09:30-16:30 |
Online |
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Supervision |
Jan 29, 2027 |
14:00-17:00 |
Online |
Module 4 — Challenges, Dilemmas and Creative Responses |
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Seminar |
Feb 22-23, 2027 |
09:30-16:30 |
Vienna |
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Facilitators
Dr Christine Oliver |
Dr Martin Miksits |
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Venue
Venues in London and Vienna will be announced closer to the event.
Online seminars will be facilitated using the platform Zoom. Participants require a laptop, PC or notebook with a stable internet connection.
Registration and course fee
This training is designed for a learning group that forms at the beginning and continues through all modules of the training. It is therefore not possible to book single modules. Please be mindful that there is a maximum of sixteen places on this programme.
Booking and payment options:
Super early bird fee of 2360 pounds:
- available as of now until end of May 2026
- confirmed place on the program as of registration
- payment within 14 days
- no installments
Early bird fee of 2430 pounds:
- available as of now until August 15 2026
- confirmed place on the program as of registration
- payment within 14 days
- no installments
Regular course fee of 2600 pounds:
- confirmed place on the program as of registration
- payment within 14 days
- payment in installments possible
- split billing to individuals and organisations possible
Fees include the seminar rooms in London and Vienna. Coffee and tea in breaks. Travel and stay in London and Vienna are not included.
The above fees do not include VAT. We have a limited possibility to provide the course VAT exempt (without VAT) which we offer for self paying individuals and charities that are not registered for VAT. Organisational buyers like businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, registered for VAT, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.
Terms of cancellation are set out on the online registration form. In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.
Contact Information
Email info@systemicdevelopment.eu