Originally set up as a non-profit association, the Nodo Group is today a Social Enterprise in the field of organizational and community training and development. Its members, who come from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, share an interest in promoting an ethical and democratic approach to the problems of work groups and organizations. Through its members, the Group conducts professional development, consultancy, and research activities.
The observational focus of its studies and interventions with organizations are conscious and unconscious relational processes among individuals, as well as between and within work groups.
This approach is based on the assumption that organizations are social systems that do not exclusively operate according to rational criteria but are strongly influenced by emotional factors, which interfere at various levels in the definition of strategies and objectives, the unfolding of work processes, decision-making, and the assigning of responsibilities.
The quality of human relations within an organization impacts on people’s lives, well-being, and creativity, affecting how they engage with the roles and tasks assigned to them to. These factors in turn have consequences for the success of the organization and its capacity for change.
The Nodo Group simultaneously brings to bear a further, action-research perspective on organizational problems, which is informed by the theory of open systems as applied to social contexts. Organizations are complex realities that reflect and continuously change as a function of broader societal processes. Vice versa, a single element of an organization, such as an individual, a workgroup, a role, or a function, acts as a fractal with respect to dynamics and processes that affect the entire organization. Such a systemic approach fosters the capacity to generate connections between individual organizational settings and the broader context, opening up new work scenarios and approaches.
The Nodo Group’s research and interventions concern:
- organizational processes, and especially their “grey areas.”
- quality of work and work relationships
- capacity for planning and achieving desired goals
- sensitivity to personal needs and organizational well-being
- the emotional atmosphere of a work environment
- managing stress, safety, conflict, and anxiety about change
- opportunities for learning and development, both on the part of individuals in various roles and at the organizational level.
Mission
The Nodo Group’s mission, or – to draw a concept from the Tavistock method – its primary task, is to promote the exploration and understanding of conscious and unconscious relational processes in individuals, groups, organizations, and society, as tools for managing change and enhancing development and well-being. To this end, it organizes:
- Professional development events, conventions, and seminars with leading Italian and international experts
- Research activities on relational dynamics in social organizations
- Special interest study or supervisory groups set up directly by individual members
Activities can be open to the public or for members only.
Based on demand from organizations in the public, private, and community sectors, the Social Enterprise offers:
- Consulting services aimed at enhancing understanding and management of tasks and roles, as well as: the management of transition processes; the phases of innovation; operational impasses; delegation; accountability; leadership; and relationships at all levels of the organization.
- Supervision and consultancy services for work groups: exploring the subjective, intersubjective, and systemic processes – both psychological and relational – implicated in membership of social groups and work activities, with particular attention to interpersonal, intergroup, interinstitutional, and intercultural conflict and the promotion of organizational well-being.
- Systemic-psychodynamic and experiential training for the development of professional soft skills.
- Executive coaching .
- Systemic-psychodynamic coaching for individuals or groups.
The Nodo Group annually organizes the “ALI” (Authority, Leadership and Innovation) Conference, the leading Italian version of the Group Relations Conference, in collaboration with the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundations Trust in London, and – for some years now – innovative spin-offs of the latter: Learning from Action and Energy, Creative Collaboration and Well-being in Organizations.
History
For over twenty-five years, the Nodo Group’s professional team has conducted research and delivered training and consulting services in the area of human relations and group and organizational dynamics. It works in partnership with the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, the Tavistock Institute in London, and other Italian and international scientific institutions.
Origins
The scientific association
In 2000, the Nodo Group was formally set up as a non-profit scientific association headed by Mario Perini.
The training agency
It subsequently reverted to its original mission as a multi-professional centre, expanding its membership base to include other practitioners and interested members of the community; this move enabled the Group to recruit and harness both the energy and resources of volunteers and the cross-cutting, interdisciplinary skills that are increasingly needed to explore contemporary reality and conduct professional development, guidance, and helping interventions.
From association to social enterprise
Over the past few years, the Group has implemented a series of training and consulting projects in public and private organizations, and specifically: seminars and courses on institutional analysis for managers, professionals, trainers and helpers; courses in executive coaching and management consulting; Balint groups for the helping professions; seminars and interventions on the themes of organizational growth and well-being, social dreaming, conflict management, communications, and the management of workgroups.
In 2021, the Nodo Group formally became a social enterprise.
The founders
Founding member and former scientific director of the NODO Group, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and organizational consultant, a member of SPI (Società Psicoanalitica Italiana), IPA (International Psychoanalytical Association) and ISPSO (International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations), and co-founder of Sloweb, an association that works to promote a more mindful digital culture. Mario trained in institutional analysis and group relations at the Tavistock Institute (Leicester Conference). He delivers consultancy services to healthcare organizations, businesses, public administration departments, consultancy companies, and community sector organizations, and has in-depth expertise in institutional supervision, professional and managerial development, Balint groups, and executive coaching. He runs a private psychotherapy and executive coaching practice, lectures at the University of Turin’s Post-graduate School of Health Psychology, and is the author of numerous papers and books including “L’Organizzazione nascosta” (F.Angeli, 2007, 2015) and “Lavorare con l’Ansia” (F.Angeli, 2013).
Aged 80, married since 1968, is a sociologist, who initially worked in the banking sector (for 15 years) and completed his degree in sociology as a mature student (University of Trent). For about twenty years, he headed up Settimo Torinese City Council’s Progetto DISABILITA’, a project aimed at developing new community services for persons with disabilities: from facilitating their reception into the universal school system, to setting up day centres, to providing employment services. Since 1992, he has been running his own practice, Studio IL NODO. In collaboration with Mario Perini and Elio Vera, he has organized numerous professional development activities – seminars (including a series on ‘institutional analysis’ conducted by Dr. Anton Oholzer of the Tavistock Clinic in London), courses, and internships – targeting social workers, business managers, and ordinary members of the community, at “IL NODO” Studio and as a member of the NODO Group (up to 2003).
He delivers consultancy, professional development, and project supervision services to social services agencies. He is editor of the journal “Prospettive Sociali e Sanitarie”, and contributes articles to the publication “Appunti sulle politiche sociali”.
Founder in 1968 and Honorary President since 2009 of the business school CESMA (Centro Esperienze e Studi di Management e Amministrazione) in Milan, has founded or played an active role in numerous other organizations in the field of managerial training. He is a past-president of the Technical Scientific Committee of AFORISMA Business School and ETDF (European Training and Development Federation), as well as an emeritus member of EFMD (European Federation for Management Development). From 2006 to 2009, he was a member of SIETAR EUROPA (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research), of which he founded the Italian branch in 2007. For three years, he was a member of the editorial board of CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT, an academic journal published by the English publishing house EMERALD. He is a member of the editorial board of the HRM journal “Direzione del Personale” and a historic member of AIF (Italian Association of Trainers), in which he has held a number of positions. Since 2006, he has been a volunteer teacher of Italian with the Rete Scuole Senza Permesso Milano, a network of non-profit and voluntary organizations that work with immigrants. He began his professional career as a marketing executive at Henkel, Unilever, CPV, Young & Rubicam, and Chesebrough Ponds.
Organization
Board of Directors
An arts and philosophy graduate, Erica has held senior posts in the Piedmont Regional Civil Service, with responsibilities ranging from culture, universities, and research, to innovation and European projects. In this capacity, while in charge of the organizational well-being of regional civil service staff and sitting on the Equal Opportunities Committee, she organized and supervised training projects in collaboration with the Nodo Group. Her special area of expertise is the community sector. She is a member of the Nodo Group’s coaching team. She has been president of the Nodo Group since 2019.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapist, group analyst, and organizational consultant.
Franca provides both clinical and organizational consulting services to public and private companies. She has taught at the universities of Perugia, Rome, and L’Aquila. Senior fellow of the University College of London. Consultant and director for Italian and international Group Relations Conferences. As Chair of the Social Dreaming international Network, she designed and directed the first two editions of the Annual Training Course for Social Dreaming hosts. Member of OPUS (UK) and ISPSO.
A psychologist and psychotherapist by training, Luca is a social entrepreneur and past president of the Nodo Group. He is president of Fondazione Rosa dei Venti (www.rosadeiventi.org), executive director of therapeutic residential centres for adolescents, an organizational trainer and consultant, a member of OPUS, and the founder of the International Network of Democratic Therapeutic Communities (INDTC). He has designed and co-directed innovative group relations events, including: “Energy, creative collaboration, and well-being in organizations (ECW)” and “Learning from Action LFA”. National basketball coach. Member of the Italian society of journalists. Author of: Adolescenti difficili, autobiografia di una comunità per minori and I ruoli in comunità terapeutica (Ananke).
Psychologist and psychotherapist. Since 1997, she has worked in hospitals and family services centres in the Veneto Region, with responsibility for planning counselling services and for adoption and fostering projects. She has led the Juvenile Division of the Office of the Public Guardian, and is currently Head of Psychology Services at Padua General Hospital. Lecturer in Clinical Psychology on the postgraduate courses in cardiac surgery and cardiology and lecturer in research and professional ethics on the degree course in neuroscience at the University of Padua. Author or co-author of 70 national and international publications in the fields of gynaecology and psychosomatic obstetrics, sterility and adoptive parenting, children’s hospital patient rights, the organization of family services centres, psychosomatics and cardiac disease, neuropsychological factors and heart disease, organizational dynamics.
She has completed an executive master’s degree in organizational development based on the Tavistock Method and provides training and consulting services to organizations, especially in the field of healthcare. Biancarosa has participated in several national and international Group Relations Conferences and numerous psychodynamic and systemic training seminars on organizational dynamics. She has been a member of the Nodo Group for about 20 years.
Clinical psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist (Scuola di Psicologia Psicoanalitica, Turin), trainer and supervisor of healthcare personnel. Specializes in individual adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Coordinator of therapeutic centres in Piedmont, Lombardy, and Liguria. Alessandro collaborates with the Psychology Faculty of the University of Turin as an internship tutor. He is currently clinical director at a therapeutic residential centre as well as practising privately as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Leader of Balint groups (SRBA, Rome).
