CASE CONFERENCE SERIES
October 20, 2023
1:30-3:00PM on zoom
Matías Sanfuentes, PhD
WHAT LIES BENEATH RESILIENCE: Shared Leadership in the Chilean Miners’ Catastrophe

During times of severe crisis and turmoil, as experienced globally in the last few years, leadership is a critical resource in staying connected with social and organizational reality. This presentation will first describe how the 33 Chilean miners, trapped almost two-thousand feet below ground for 69 days, shared forms of leadership that activated group resilience. Qualitative data reveals how the miners as a group engaged in shared agency. A sophisticated work capacity and a constructive relational dynamic evolved, helping them absorb severe strain and anxiety. Their distribution of leadership was essential for promoting collective sense-making and emotional containment. There will also be an opportunity to think together about how some of what has been learned from this paradigmatic case might be applied to contemporary organizations within their complex and shifting reality

Matías Sanfuentes, Ph.D. is a Clinical psychologist who holds a doctorate, in Psychoanalytic Studies from the University of Essex, UK. He is Associate Professor, and Director of the Training Program in Coaching and Organizational Change, School of Business, University of Chile. He is also Adjunct Researcher, Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES); research interests include leadership, organizational change, gender studies, organizational culture and identity, and the psychoanalytic study of organizations.  Matias is Co-Editor of the journal Organisational and Social Dynamics, and member of ISPSO (International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations) and OPUS (Organization for Promoting Understanding of Society). He is an organizational consultant and psychodynamic psychotherapist.

Moderator: Frances Unsell, M.Div., LP, is a Psychoanalyst, and Organizational Consultant. In addition to her psychoanalytic clinical experience, she has consulted to organizations and their senior leaders for over 35 years. Trained at both Tavistock Institute’s Leicester Working and Training Conferences and The Grubb Institute, she also designs and leads Organizational Role Conferences as well as supervises other consultants who wish to deepen and broaden their approach. Frances has presented at IPTAR’s Gould Center Case Conferences and is now a member of its Steering Committee. She serves on the Board of the A.K. Rice Institute, is a member of both ISPSO (International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations) and OPUS (Organization for Promoting Understanding of Society). She practices in Darien, CT.

Learn more on the The Gould Center’s website: https://www.iptar.org/gould-case-conference-series-what-lies-beneath-resilience-shared-leadership-in-the-chilean-miners-catastrophe/