Theme Centered Interaction (TCI) Workshop Organized at TISS-Mumbai

Theme Centered Interaction (TCI) Workshop Organized at TISS-Mumbai

The Center for Social and Organizational Leadership (CSOL), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, continued with its series of lectures on leadership and related areas with the Theme Centered Interaction (TCI) Workshop that was held on the 3rd of February, at the Naoroji Campus in TISS.

TCI looks at the respect for one's self, for others, for the common task and the actual situation are central issues. TCI promotes the understanding of working together in groups, respect for the uniqueness of each specific group, its constituency, its goals, its particular condition in time and space, which increases the efficiency of the group's actions. TCI has been successfully applied over a period of 30 years in Europe and the USA, mainly in education but in organizations as well, for training, personal development, working with groups, leading meetings and conferences, etc. The system is applicable from the smallest group (i.e., counseling) to the largest (i.e., town meetings).

The workshop was conducted for corporate and working professionals of Human Resource Development area and for students from the Institute.

The workshop saw the ideas of the various constituents that interplay in the organisation (I, We, IT and the Globe) being discussed at length. Then, there ere the axioms that were essential for guiding the interaction between these four elements which were shared with the group. The last part of the TCI theory included the postulates that have to be kept in mind when a person seeks to lead a team through TCI. The session, which lasted for about three hours, was full of Small Group Activities (SGAs) and practical discussions anchored by the coach, so as to help assimilate the knowledge better with the participants.

The resource person and Coach for the Workshop was Prof. Hermann Eppler from Switzerland. He is an architect by profession, leading a architectural firm for over thirty years. He has taught Architectural Design on Construction (including computer aided architectural design) at the University level. This occupation showed him the necessity to know more about pedagogy, didactics and working with groups, and he got acquainted with the System of Theme Centered Interaction, a method specially suited to work with groups. He has experiences with TCI for over 25 years. He has a diploma as a Group Leader with TCI from the Ruth Cohn Institute for TCI International in Basel, Switzerland and facilitated many workshops in Switzerland, China, Siberia and India. He has served as a member of the Board of the Ruth Cohn Institute for TCI International and as a President of this Institute.

The workshop was interactive and used data from extensive research that Prof. Tojo Tachchenkery from the George Mason University had done in various firms in India and USA. The Centre of Social an Organizational Leadership (CSOL), which is affiliated to the School of Management and Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai has conducted workshops of such nature in the past too. In the past, there have been many including a workshop on Appreciative Inquiry that was conducted by Prof. Tojo Tachchenkery for corporate and students alike.

The participants said that it was indeed new experience. One of the delegates, Amit Masram, remarks, "Theme Centered Interaction strengthens the ability of the individual to realize his or her specific potential together with other individuals in the group. Post this workshop, I have realized what 'respect' is and how it plays with the dynamics in our interaction with our near and dear." Another delegate, Ashutosh Srivastava, remarks, "Stunning! Going one step beyond I have realized in a nut shell that "the whole is more then the sum of its parts."

Concluded.

Contributed by -
Ramanathan V.,
Media Relations,
Batch of 2005-2007, PM & IR,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

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