Conference "Business psychology: theory and practice" through the eyes of students
3rd year student of the HSE Natalia Kokorina for the first time took part in the organization of the conference "Business psychology: theory and practice and participated in several conference events. She described their impressions of the conference in the following report:
Conference "Business psychology: theory and practice" took place from the 10th to 12th of November 2016 and attracted a large number of students and professionals in the field of business psychology not only from different cities of Russia but also from foreign countries.
The first day of the conference began with a welcome from organizers and performances by Natalia Ivanova, academic head of the master's program "Psychology in business". She spoke about the latest achievements in the field of business psychology, about the development sector in General, master program "psychology in business" and some other directions of business psychologists. Thus, from the outset, a friendly atmosphere was established, which certainly helped the conference go in a bright and active way. Welcoming remarks were also made by the Vice-President of the Association of business Pirogov Olga Kozinskaya, who invited all who wished to join the Association and help to develop it.
Then the floor was taken by Olga Deineka, doctor of psychological Sciences, acting head of Department of political psychology of St. Petersburg state University, author of the first dissertation on the subject of economic psychology. Olga started her speech with the words: "Good practice does not happen without good theory". Therefore, the emphasis in her
speech was made on the issue of differentiation of concepts and objectives of Economics and business. "Can budget money make a profit? -Yes!" answer some state employees," reports to listeners Olga about the interesting observation of professional activities. Therefore, in the opinion of the speaker, the distinction between economy and business remains an important topic.
Ended the speech with a story about the prospects of business psychology - the use of experience in NGOs and reforming in education and health, as the formulation of laws in these areas based on human rational, may not be proper and correct choice without regard to psychology. Next, in the role of speaker was Marina Kulinich, having an interesting occupation by the facilitator, a specialist in working with groups of people.
The performance was held in the format of the game - the master class, there was a constant interaction with the audience. After the so-called experience and "warm-up" Marina Kulinich held a small digression into the practices of and error strategy.
The speaker also told about the system “ОРИД” - 4 stages, which can explain how people perceive new information.
"Facilitation is an honest conversation": during the master class, the participants shared their professional challenges, observations, asking questions - it was a dialogue between participants and speaker.
The performance had a great success, during a coffee break Marina everybody wanted to talk and discuss professional issues.
And then...
There was even more vivid activity. The conference room began to move.
It was Timothy Nestic’s speech.
In game format ("world café") and using brainstorming participants discussed the important issues of the present and past of business psychology. We, students, also participated in this process - it was interesting. First, communication. Members - people of different ages, status and backgrounds, so communication with them was very interesting. Secondly, it was"brainstorming." And thirdly, the observation process itself, how people think, communicate, and come to shared solutions and ideas. Overall, a very effective method to answer the presented questions in the format of a conventional lecture/ seminar would be very difficult: not enough strength, patience, people would quickly get tired. In this case, it was active, interesting and the time passed quickly.
The first day of the event ended with the General gathering in a circle and discussing the day.
I also managed to participate in some follow-up activities of the conference.
So, I was impressed by Talina Vengrzhanovskiy, which talked about what is coaching, how is the development of leaders in a changing world and about other questions in the field of coaching. Wheel of comprehensive development leader – one of the main tools of coaching, as “motivated employee is another employee," said Talina. In her report, she outlined the strict difference between a coach and mentors, psychotherapists, counsellors; told about the system of HiPo (Higher Position) – system of development the leaders. Then, each participant received the sheets and have experienced the system of the art of coaching – identification of the problem and its solution with subsequent visualization using paper and pencils. The silence in the hall, the participants, leaning on a chair with your eyes closed is transferred to the place where they are well and their problem is solved...so was the process of the art of coaching. Having experienced it myself, I can say that the system can be effective, but to work with you need solitude, so in the conference room it was difficult.
Then Master class of Natalia Grushko began.
Dealt with various rapid techniques for development of creativity as a business consultant and client. We held business game, which involved all participants using a special card addressed "for" and "against" counseling.
"What is creativity?", "What relates to structural components of creativity?" - these and other questions were discussed during the speech of the speaker.
Several volunteers talked about their condition at the moment of creative activities using "metaphors resource status". It was the smooth completion of the main part of the 3-day marathon of the active and fruitful work.
The last day ended with the conference’s summing up, the gratitude of the organizers and participants. A shared impressions about the last 3 days. The organizers told about the prospects of work and follow-up activities in the field of business psychology, which will be held by Higher School of Economics.
"The HSE does not cling to the old, looking forward," said one participant. We can say that the conference on business psychology is evidence of this.