Participants utilise Action Research methodology to undertake change projects within their own or client organisations. This means participants will need to be working in a consultant or change agent role in these projects, designing and implementing appropriate interventions. This may take participants beyond the current boundaries of their job, thus they will need to have their organisation's authorisation for such activities. The Graduate Diploma is a two year part-course. This is a three-day orientation workshop held in late February.
Participants meet each other and explore their personal learning agendas.
Emphasis is placed on journal work, reflection and issues inherent in organisational consulting. Emphasis is placed on the consultant as action researcher, on models of change and on the client-consultant relationship. Participants begin work on their first change project for the program. In this workshop, participants spend five days exploring the physco-dynamics of group life. They learn about different levels of analysis for understanding groups, and also about themselves as individuals and group members.