Subject: Invitation to register for the Interpersonal Relations Lab at obts.org!!!
Greetings, OBTS Colleagues!
If you are planning to attend the outstanding 2015 OBTC Teaching Conference for Management Educators at the University of La Verne in southern California (45 min. east of LAX), please consider attending the Interpersonal Relations Lab (IR Lab) as a pre-conference professional development activity. Newcomer, long time OBTC attendees, and doctoral students are all enthusiastically invited.
What is an Interpersonal Relations Lab? It is facilitated experiential learning, focused on the here and now, in an unstructured small group setting. It provides a unique opportunity to its participants to receive the elusive feedback we all need about our behavior so we can choose what to modify to our benefit. The Lab, using the technology of the classic T-group, creates a culture in which the norm is to reveal how one is feeling and thinking about another person in the moment. This allows each participant the opportunity to learn what is impossible to learn in daily life in society -- how others perceive him or her. The honest feedback one can receive in the IR Lab is exceedingly rare in our culture.
Quality teaching depends on the ability to interact effectively with others, to have sufficient emotional awareness and competence to handle difficult interpersonal situations, and to create emotional intimacy - all of which are skills one can develop in the IR Lab.
Participation in the IR Lab is also an excellent way to make connections with members of the OBTS community. The IR Lab experience has allowed a many members of OBTS to develop lasting friendships with colleagues who have been supportive over the years, both professionally and personally.
The Interpersonal Relations Lab has been an OBTC pre-conference activity for the past 25 years. This year's IR Lab will take place immediately prior to OBTC, from 6 pm on Sunday, June 14 to 3:15 pm on Wednesday June 17. This T-group experience is a true bargain at a cost of $545 compared to NTL's T-group, the Human Interaction Lab, which costs $3450 for tuition plus several thousand dollars for the cost of hotel and meals. You can pay by PayPal or by credit card on the IR Lab pages at obts.org.
T-group technology is at the foundation of organizational development and management education. Its chief limitation lies in that it is very difficult to train persons in its effective and responsible usage. OBTS has among its members a few who are excellent T-group facilitators and are willing to provide this service to the IR Lab with no remuneration and out of dedication to their field.
To get much more information about the Interpersonal Relations Lab and view the biographies of this year's facilitators, go to http://obts.org/irlab.
Please contact Esther Hamilton, the IR Lab Dean, with any and all questions you may have:
Telephone: 828 254 0408
Email address: esteken@aol.com
Remember, space will be limited in the IR Lab. See you at the IR Lab and OBTC!!!
Warm regards,
Esther Hamilton