Forbidden Agendas: Strategic Action in Groups

"Forbidden Agendas" presents a new approach to groupwork for consultants, therapists, psychodramatists and teachers - anyone who works with groups. The book is specially written for the person who is "called in" when a group or organization is in trouble, or who is asked to run a group with special needs. Antony Williams draws on his experience as a family therapist, teacher and psychodramatist to provide safe action processes suitable for groups and organizations where new solutions are required. He shows that the use of strategic action methods creates a space where spontaneity can thrive, and where group leaders can chip away at the "forbidden agendas", the invisible loyalties that prevent group members from behaving in ways that make them happy. Sometimes these loyalties have been formed long ago, pacts kept even with the dead; sometimes they are current, attempting to protect or obey other people in the group. The book is designed to build on the leader's practical skills of "warming-up" a group for change, and is studded with examples, exercises, and alternative ways of encountering the challenges of change in groups.