In complex, pressured and rapidly changing organisational contexts, team culture is often treated as an afterthought. Yet the patterns of interaction within teams profoundly shape how purpose, strategy and leadership can be realised in practice.

Group dynamics can enable creativity, learning and shared agency — but they can also generate misunderstanding, fragmentation and impasse. Developing a systemic understanding of these dynamics supports leaders, consultants and practitioners to engage with teams in ways that foster movement, coherence and meaningful collaboration.

This interactive one-day workshop offers a practice-focused introduction to systemic ways of understanding team dynamics. Participants are invited to make systemic sense of group processes and to develop a more reflective and intentional positioning when working with teams and collaborative settings. The workshop can also serve as a useful foundation for those interested in further development in systemic reflective practice.

Who is this workshop for?

This workshop is for team leaders, consultants, organisational practitioners and psychological professionals who are interested in working more consciously with team development and reflective practice.

There is no requirement for a formal leadership role or prior systemic training.

In this workshop you will

• explore how meanings of effective team working are created and negotiated
• recognise patterns of interaction that enable or constrain collaboration
• understand developmental stages and recurring challenges in team life
• consider the facilitator’s task in relation to cohesion, culture and group process
• connect systemic ideas directly to your own professional contexts
• develop practical reflections and next steps for your work with teams

Learning takes place through shared inquiry, structured reflection and experiential exploration of group processes, allowing participants to work with live dynamics as they emerge.

To support dialogue and learning, participation is limited to 16 participants (minimum 6).

Theoretical foundations

The workshop draws on:

• systemic and social constructionist communication theory, including Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM)
• group analytic perspectives on group dynamics and facilitation
• organisational theory and research on effective and developmental team working

Theoretical perspectives are introduced as lenses for reflection and practice rather than as prescriptive models.

Programme

• Introducing participants’ current team contexts and dynamics
• Exploring meanings and assumptions about effective team working
• Understanding stages of team development
• Identifying strengths, tensions and fragilities in group processes
• Considering the facilitator’s task in supporting team learning and development
• Working with case illustration and shared inquiry
• Experiencing a kaleidoscope reflection process linking theory and practice
• Integration and reflection on learning

As a one-day workshop, the focus is on developing awareness and practical orientation rather than extended supervised practice. Participants often leave with new perspectives and questions about how systemic reflective practice can inform their ongoing work with organisations and groups.

Facilitators

Dr Christine Oliver

Dr Martin Miksits

Time and Venue

This workshop takes place on May 8th 9:30 to 16:30 (UK)

We will meet on Zoom.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the two day workshop is £280 (excl. VAT). For applications and payments received prior to March 31, 2026 a reduced early bird fee of £235 (excl. VAT) applies.

• registration possible as of now
• confirmed place on the programme as of registration
• payment within 10 days from registration

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 such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, registered for VAT, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

Cancellation fee: 30% of fees up to 4 weeks before the workshop, 80% up to 1 weeks before the first workshop, thereafter 100%.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

Continue here to register for this workshop:

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

Facilitators

Dr Christine Oliver

Dr Martin Miksits

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

Conflict and paradox: working generatively with tensions and contradictions

Conflict – ‘the state of being challenged by human differences’ (Littlejohn & Domenici, 2007) – can invite impairing and impoverishing dynamics; even the imagined possibility of conflict can limit team functioning and leadership effectiveness. Interdependent and persistent contradictions can feed paradoxical conflict patterns and paralyse team functioning. However, paradox can also be engaged with as a transformative opportunity when the simultaneous existence of seemingly contradictory elements is recognised and embraced reflexively.

This workshop is for leaders, consultants or other organisational members interested to explore meaning making of conflict and paradox, developing skills in enabling organisational participants to move from entrenched and naive positions to systemic awareness, accountability and agency.

There is no requirement of a formal leadership role, prior systemic training or any other qualification to attend this workshop.  You will learn and apply concepts that help you to explore how we and our organisations can experience conflict and paradox and imagine ways forward that enable productive and creative action.

In this two day workshop you will

• Link the management of conflict to team effectiveness
• Utilise the ‘world of difference’ model and its spheres of irrelevance, challenge, harm and value
• Identify productive patterns in relation to conflict and paradox, using paradox as a reflexive tool
• Develop specific reflections and actions for your leadership situations and practice contexts
• Participate in a live consultation involving the whole group

To facilitate dialogue and learning the number of participants is limited to 16.  The minimum number of participants is 6.

Theoretical foundations

• Systemic theory of communication and CMM in its application to conflict patterns
• Theories of rationality, systemic reflexivity and the interpretive act
• Conflict theory – the world of difference model
• Theory about paradox engagement

Programme

Day1

• Definitions, productive and unproductive patterns
• The consequences of conflict utilising the world of difference model
• Theory and practice of constructive controversy
• Participant related case work and reflections in groups

Day2

• Engagement with paradox and conflict transformation
• Principles and practices of transcendent eloquence
• Dialogue design in relation to conflict and paradox
• Making and overcoming of moral conflict: utilising primary and shadow frameworks in framing, punctuating, bracketing, naming and abstracting communication episodes

Facilitators

Dr Christine Oliver

Dr Martin Miksits

Time and Venue

This workshop takes place June 22nd & 23rd 2026.  Seminar times are 9:30 to 16:30 (UK), both days.

We will meet on Zoom.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the two day workshop is £560 (excl. VAT). For applications and payments received prior to May 15, 2026 a reduced early bird fee of £470 (excl. VAT) applies.

• registration possible as of now
• confirmed place on the programme as of registration
• payment within 10 days from registration

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 such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, registered for VAT, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

Cancellation fee: 30% of fees up to 4 weeks before the workshop, 80% up to 1 weeks before the first workshop, thereafter 100%.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

Continue here to register for this workshop:

This interactive introductory workshop invites an orientation to key concepts of systemic leadership and consulting practice.  It also provides a sound basis for joining the The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice.

Systemic practical theory helps leaders and consultants to orientate within, make sense of and act intelligently in the organisational system, in ways that enable organisational tasks, roles and responsibilities to be meaningfully developed within a multiplicity of contexts such as organisational cultures, relationships and identities.

Our contemporary organisational experience is often fragmented or machine like. The frameworks offered here enable a focus on organisational concerns about effectiveness and efficiency shaped by a commitment to reflect on the ways we all contribute to the social realities of the organisational system from within an ethical frame. Systemic approaches, methods and techniques relate to the organisation as a network of conversations, respecting and giving meaning to the responses of organisational actors, with the commitment to building imaginative future realities.

Specific contextual models and tools are offered in this workshop for considering the coordination of meaning and action for organisational members and for identifying domains of experience within organisational conversations.

To facilitate engagment with these ideas the number of participants is limited to 12.    

Theoretical foundations

• Systemic and social constructionist theory of communication (CMM)
• Domains of Systemic Practice
• Critical management theory
• Research into systemic reflexivity and organisational emergence

Facilitators

Dr. Christine Oliver and Dr. Martin Miksits

Venue

This is an online workshop conducted with the platform ZOOM.  This workshop includes inputs, open dialogue and small group exercises.  Participants require a laptop, PC or notebook with a stable internet connection.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the workshop is £165. 

This fee does not include VAT. Terms of cancellation are set out on the online registration form below.

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. Organisations registered for VAT, such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

This course is subject to a minimum of four participants. In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

We welcome your interest.  Please register using the form below.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

This interactive introductory workshop invites an orientation to key concepts of systemic leadership and consulting practice.  It also provides a sound basis for joining the The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice.

Systemic practical theory helps leaders and consultants to orientate within, make sense of and act intelligently in the organisational system, in ways that enable organisational tasks, roles and responsibilities to be meaningfully developed within a multiplicity of contexts such as organisational cultures, relationships and identities.

Our contemporary organisational experience is often fragmented or machine like. The frameworks offered here enable a focus on organisational concerns about effectiveness and efficiency shaped by a commitment to reflect on the ways we all contribute to the social realities of the organisational system from within an ethical frame. Systemic approaches, methods and techniques relate to the organisation as a network of conversations, respecting and giving meaning to the responses of organisational actors, with the commitment to building imaginative future realities.

Specific contextual models and tools are offered in this workshop for considering the coordination of meaning and action for organisational members and for identifying domains of experience within organisational conversations.

To facilitate engagment with these ideas the number of participants is limited to 12.    

Theoretical foundations

• Systemic and social constructionist theory of communication (CMM)
• Domains of Systemic Practice
• Critical management theory
• Research into systemic reflexivity and organisational emergence

Facilitators

Dr. Christine Oliver and Dr. Martin Miksits

Venue

This is an online workshop conducted with the platform ZOOM.  This workshop includes inputs, open dialogue and small group exercises.  Participants require a laptop, PC or notebook with a stable internet connection.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the workshop is £165. 

This fee does not include VAT. Terms of cancellation are set out on the online registration form below.

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. Organisations registered for VAT, such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

This course is subject to a minimum of four participants. In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

We welcome your interest.  Please register using the form below.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

Introduction to Systemic Organisational Practice – Online

This interactive introductory workshop invites an orientation to key concepts of systemic leadership and consulting practice.  It also provides a sound basis for joining the The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice.

Systemic practical theory helps leaders and consultants to orientate within, make sense of and act intelligently in the organisational system, in ways that enable organisational tasks, roles and responsibilities to be meaningfully developed within a multiplicity of contexts such as organisational cultures, relationships and identities.

Our contemporary organisational experience is often fragmented or machine like. The frameworks offered here enable a focus on organisational concerns about effectiveness and efficiency shaped by a commitment to reflect on the ways we all contribute to the social realities of the organisational system from within an ethical frame. Systemic approaches, methods and techniques relate to the organisation as a network of conversations, respecting and giving meaning to the responses of organisational actors, with the commitment to building imaginative future realities.

Specific contextual models and tools are offered in this workshop for considering the coordination of meaning and action for organisational members and for identifying domains of experience within organisational conversations.

To facilitate engagment with these ideas the number of participants is limited to 12.    

Theoretical foundations

• Systemic and social constructionist theory of communication (CMM)
• Domains of Systemic Practice
• Critical management theory
• Research into systemic reflexivity and organisational emergence

Facilitators

Dr. Christine Oliver and Dr. Martin Miksits

Venue

This is an online workshop conducted with the platform ZOOM.  This workshop includes inputs, open dialogue and small group exercises.  Participants require a laptop, PC or notebook with a stable internet connection.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the workshop is £165. 

This fee does not include VAT. Terms of cancellation are set out on the online registration form below.

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. Organisations registered for VAT, such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

This course is subject to a minimum of four participants. In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

We welcome your interest.  Please register using the form below.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

The one-year course comprises four modules and is organised into eight workshop blocks, two days each, a total of 16 days interactive training days, self managed learning and experiential assignments. These modules will invite understanding and skills of systemic leadership and consulting practice, systemic coaching, working with complexity, and organisational development. 

The 2027 course starts in February and finishes in November.  The course group will meet for the first seminar beginning of February in London and for the last seminar in November in Vienna.  All other seminars will be offered online. 

Introduction

The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice foregrounds how people in organisations contribute, through their interaction, consciously and unconsciously, to the organisational system. It includes approaches, methods and techniques facilitating insight, agency and choice through giving attention to patterns of communication, relationship and culture, enabling an impact on strategies, processes, roles and tasks. Skills and methods taught on this course are of relevance to the development of relationships between individuals, teams or departments; for organisational learning; the development of strategies, plans and processes; the informing of roles and tasks; the production of goods and services, and so forth. This systemic frame opens up novel and generative ways of working as a systemic leader, consultant and coach.

Systemic approaches to work with organisations originate from the field of Systemic Family Therapy, Group Analysis and from dialogic organisational development, stimulating innovative, effective and sustainable responses to organisational dilemmas and development tasks.

Course learning and participation

The course invites you into a comprehensive, practice related learning journey at the edge of modernist and post modern discourses of organisational practice. Our systemic approach to leadership and consulting is based on a compelling framework that integrates dialogic skills and sensibilities with proven conventional approaches and established organisational practices.

You emerge as a systemic leader and consultant through your engagement with theory, seminar presentations, reflections on your practice, skills development and work related exercises. A variety of learning modalities include lecturing, tutoring, reflexive learning in relation to own practice and assignments, self managed studies and reading, contribution to reading seminars, small and large group work.  Assignments are practical and not written.

As part of the training you also have the opportunity to receive consultations in relation to your professional task and role in the context of your organisation’s values and objectives. Your learning is supported by a number of reflexive assignments requiring you to relate learning to your professional practice. In addition you are encouraged to shape your learning journey to meet your development needs and to contribute to your organisation.

This course is an inclusive practitioner led, co-created learning experience. Participants also enrich each other’s learning, by sharing their development and practice in their particular field. There is no requirement of prior knowledge or training of systemic practice. However, with the learning process being tightly knit to your work practice and the contribution the course invites in the context of your organisation, we require participants to have a practice context to participate fully in the learning. To be clear, this practice context does not have to be a formal leadership or consulting role.

The minimum number of participants will be eight, the maximum will be sixteen.

Course structure

The training comprises four modules which build on each other. These modules will invite understanding and skills of systemic leadership and consulting practice, systemic coaching, working with complexity, and organisational development. Each module is covered in two seminars of two days, a total of 16 training days.  The seminars will be online, however we will meet face-to-face in London for the first seminar in February and in Vienna for the final seminar in October.  In addition to attending seminars each module requires self-managed learning and work on an assignment.  Assignments are not assessed.

Preparation for seminal learning will require you to read papers and to contribute to the presentation of practices and ideas on the topic. Every module includes an assignment that facilitates reflexive practice learning and invites the relevance of your training for your organisation. There is a minimum attendance of 80% required for achieving the Diploma.

The total of eight seminars of two days each are scheduled in approximately four week intervals.

Training Modules

Module 1: Systemic Frameworks for Leadership and Consulting Practice

This first module will introduce you to the systemic approach to leadership and consulting. This approach, inclusive of other approaches, widens our ways of making sense of a situation and working with it, using systemic and group analytic practical theories, frameworks and exercises to facilitiate leadership and consulting abilities.

You will learn to

• use systemic frameworks for orientation in conversations and tasks that are complex, ambiguous or morally challenging
• use systemic and group analytic theory to make sense of the system or matrix and its unconscious dynamic processes
• expand repertoire and choice for how to go on in such conversations – pragmatically and ethically
• develop reflexive insight into your practice as leader and consultant.
• expand your sensibilities for the position of others in a system, which will make you a more adaptive consultant and leader
• use systemic inquiry to facilitate development, participation and agency in systems.

This module will increase your agency as a leader or consultant. It will facilitate your insight into the coherence and incoherence of organisational contexts and processes. You will expand your skills for reflexive practice and reflexive learning.

Module 2: Systemic Coaching Skills for Leaders and Consultants

The second module gives you the instruments to facilitate change, development and competence in others. These skills are valuable in formal coaching relationships and projects as internal or external coach, but are also invaluable in everyday leadership and consulting practice.

You will learn to

• develop a critical and in depth understanding of different systemic coaching approaches and their underlying theories of change and development
• develop an understanding of a group analytic approach to team coaching
• create opportunities for coaching conversations in leadership and consulting settings, in formalised and informal ways,
• conduct coaching sessions considering contracting, relationship, ethics and the wider purposes and tasks of the organisation
• skillfully work with a range of coaching approaches including appreciative, reflexive, group analytic and solution focused coaching.

This module will develop your capacity to deliver organisational goals and change through coaching work with individuals and teams. It will also grow your ability as leader or consultant to develop capabilities in others – coachees, members of your team, peers – in a respectful, validating and inclusive way.

Module 3: Systemic Leading and Consulting in Complex Systems

In this third module you will develop ways to engage constructively with complex organisational challenges and opportunities. These will include problematic organisational and group dynamics, ethical decision making, use of power, the social unconscious and relational ethics. This module includes frameworks and practices that facilitate sense making and generative response to such complexities.

You will learn to

• effectively position yourself as leader or consultant in relation to the presenting challenge or complexity
• identify, understand and intervene in patterns and processes that are limiting to organisational learning, effectiveness or ethical practice
• facilitate organisational sense making, orientation and agency in relation to organisational challenges utilising forms of reflexive practice in conscious and unconscious dynamics
• be sensitive to issues of power, diversity and the social unconscious and their impact on individual and organisational performance
• create opportunities for coordinated forward movement and organisational development.

This module will develop your ability to seize organisational opportunities, to make generative use of self and organisational dynamics, and to make contributions to organisational effectiveness and development. It will equip you to provide leadership and consulting in response to complex challenges.

Module 4: Systemic Organisational Development with Groups and Teams

This final module offers systemic frameworks and skills to facilitate organisational learning and development processes. It will equip you to identify opportunities for organisational development (OD) and to effectively and ethically frame OD interventions. You will develop understanding and skills in advanced dialogical OD methods, such as Appreciative Inquiry, Reflexive Inquiry, Open Space Technology, World Café, Future Search in order to design and facilitate organisational change processes. You will also develop understanding into small and large group processes from a group analytic perspective.

You will learn to

• critically and creatively engage with organisational dilemmas, concerns and opportunities in order to create the conditions for OD
• make situated choices on OD approach and design
• negotiate effective and ethical boundaries for OD processes that are transparent and safe for participants and other stakeholders
• facilitate engagement, orientation and participation throughout
• use systemic inquiry to facilitate reflexivity, insight, agency and action in organisational systems
• use group analytic theory to enhance understanding and intervention in small and large group processes
• provide accountable stewardship throughout the process

This module will develop your ability to contribute from various positions to organisational change and development work with the organisation as a whole, with teams, inter team or inter organisation. The module will also equip you to offer effective process leadership and consulting even in areas where you hold little content knowledge.

What participants say

Karin Fuchs

I have had a long-standing interest in systemic practice, consultation, and leadership, so this course was perfect for me!  The diploma has been transformative in my practice, helping me reconnect with and further develop existing skills and knowledge alongside introducing new frameworks for understanding.

The content and approach to learning, together with live consultations with Chris and Martin have been invaluable. It has significantly enhanced my leadership role, enabling me and others to navigate challenging times in the NHS and social care arena with curiosity, reflexivity and creativity.  Additionally, it has been invaluable in my work with adults with learning disabilities and their support networks, allowing me to more effectively support change and understanding across a complex system of people with learning disabilities, their families, agencies and care providers.

I would highly recommend this course.

Olivier My

I enrolled in the “Diploma in systemic leadership and consulting” program because I wanted to deepen my understanding of systemic thinking. This training was recommended to me by my mentor, and I am deeply grateful to him as the insights I gained are now an integral part of how I approach the contexts in which I work, bringing more serenity and impact.  As a professional coach, I work with teams and individuals in corporate settings, offering support to managers in managing their stress, improving their communication, and enhancing their delegation skills, as well as helping teams to work better together and boost their operational efficiency.

The methodology of the course is particularly engaging as it requires us first to delve deeply into the material presented and then to deliver it in our own way—this not only ensures a thorough integration of the content but also fosters the synthesis and transmission of a clear message, as we are time-boxed.

What profoundly impacted my approach was discovering social constructionism and adopting a posture of curiosity in my consultations. Focusing on conversations and the meanings people ascribe to situations has made my approach more human, more genuine, and I feel that it has deepened the connections I create.

Ultimately, the contributions from Christine Oliver and Martin Miksits have helped me to develop a style that better suits me and enhances my ability to support my clients more effectively. For this, I am profoundly thankful to both of them.  The partnership between Christine and Martin is also highly effective as they are both very different yet complementary. I greatly appreciated their respective approaches, which continue to inspire me today.

Rubina Singh

I arrived on the Diploma course as an experienced Systemic Psychotherapist, Supervisor, Trainer, Teacher, Eating Disorder Specialist and emerging in my identity as a leader.  My goal was to stretch my systemic abilities to the organisational level both within my statutory NHS role and as part of my private practice. 

The Diploma course enhanced my confidence and strengthened my leadership identity to such an extent that I was promoted into a formal leadership position in the NHS and in a context I am passionate about.  My growing identity as a systemic leader, consultant and coach has broadened the horizons of my independent practice to include working with individual leaders, teams and services across a range of contexts and geographical areas.

I felt part of a learning community that provides opportunities for networking and I have gone on to do the Workshops and Seminars which I have wholeheartedly recommended to professionals that I supervise, coach and consult to.  Christine and Martin facilitate a learning experience that connects us by thinking through our organisational dilemmas and tasks through the lens of systemic theory.  The range of teaching methods on the courses have fitted well with my learning style and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with peers from different professional worlds and from across the globe.

Course schedule and timings 2027

Workshop times are 9:30am to 4:30pm

Facilitators

Dr Christine Oliver

Dr Martin Miksits

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 3800 pounds:

• available as of now until end of July 2026
• confirmed place on the program as of registration
• payment within 14 days
• no installments

Early bird fee of 3920 pounds:

• available as of now until end of November 2026
• confirmed place on the program as of registration
• payment within 14 days
• no installments

Regular course fee of 4120 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

Discover the 2026 Seminars

Discover a co-creative, generative and nurturing space for systemic practitioners, leaders and consultants:

Join us for a discovery call to explore The Systemic Organisational Practice Seminars 2026.

This is a chance to:

• Learn more about the 2026 theme of Generative Balance
• Hear about the structure and intent of the seminars – and all the specifics
• Ask questions and hear from others considering the journey

We’ll offer a short presentation to orientate you to the seminars 2026, followed by plenty of space for dialogue and reflection.

This call is ideal for:

• Systemic practitioners who have a Diploma or Master in Systemic Practice
• OD practitioners and leaders who apply systemic practice concepts in their work
• Anyone who has developed an interest in advanced systemic practice in organisational contexts and communities of practising and wanting to explore whether it’s a good fit

Whether you’re actively deciding or just exploring, you’re very welcome.

👉 Reserve your place and register below.

Introduction to Systemic Organisational Practice – Online

This interactive introductory workshop invites an orientation to key concepts of systemic leadership and consulting practice.  It also provides a sound basis for joining the The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice.

Systemic practical theory helps leaders and consultants to orientate within, make sense of and act intelligently in the organisational system, in ways that enable organisational tasks, roles and responsibilities to be meaningfully developed within a multiplicity of contexts such as organisational cultures, relationships and identities.

Our contemporary organisational experience is often fragmented or machine like. The frameworks offered here enable a focus on organisational concerns about effectiveness and efficiency shaped by a commitment to reflect on the ways we all contribute to the social realities of the organisational system from within an ethical frame. Systemic approaches, methods and techniques relate to the organisation as a network of conversations, respecting and giving meaning to the responses of organisational actors, with the commitment to building imaginative future realities.

Specific contextual models and tools are offered in this workshop for considering the coordination of meaning and action for organisational members and for identifying domains of experience within organisational conversations.

To facilitate engagment with these ideas the number of participants is limited to 12.    

Theoretical foundations

• Systemic and social constructionist theory of communication (CMM)
• Domains of Systemic Practice
• Critical management theory
• Research into systemic reflexivity and organisational emergence

Facilitators

Dr. Christine Oliver and Dr. Martin Miksits

Venue

This is an online workshop conducted with the platform ZOOM.  This workshop includes inputs, open dialogue and small group exercises.  Participants require a laptop, PC or notebook with a stable internet connection.

Cost and Registration

The cost for the workshop is £160. 

This fee does not include VAT. Terms of cancellation are set out on the online registration form below.

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. Organisations registered for VAT, such as businesses, local government and governmental organisations, universities and the NHS, will be billed the full course cost plus VAT.

This course is subject to a minimum of four participants. In case the course start has to be cancelled or deferred for any reasons participants will be reimbursed whatever they have paid.

We welcome your interest.  Please register using the form below.

Dr Martin Miksits

Dr Christine Oliver

Join the Discovery Call

Curious about how systemic leadership can support deeper, lasting change in your organisation or consulting practice?

Join us for a discovery call to explore The Diploma in Systemic Leadership and Consulting Practice. This is a chance to:

• Learn more about the structure and intent of the programme
• Get a feel for the approach and ethos behind our work
• Ask questions and hear from others considering the journey

We’ll offer a short presentation to orientate you to the programme, followed by plenty of space for dialogue and reflection.

This call is ideal for:

• Consultants, coaches, and leaders working with complexity, transformation, or change
• Those who sense the limits of conventional tools and want to deepen their capacity for systemic insight
• Anyone considering the Diploma and wanting to explore whether it’s a good fit

Whether you’re actively deciding or just exploring, you’re very welcome.

👉 Reserve your place and register below.