Formazione e resistenze al cambiamento. Il lavoro con un gruppo di ispettori penitenziari

Abstract

Training and resistance to change. A group of prison inspectors

 Change has always been a delicate and complex process for individuals, groups and organizations who live it. The present work deals with a process of reorganization which involved a prison in Lombardy. It analyzes the resistance to change generated in a group of fifteen inspectors and their evolution along a training program that has seen them involved. The contribution is intended to carry out an exploratory survey on the role of group device activated by training, as a device able to accompany and let resistance evolve to change. In order to understand if and how the micro-temporary organization created during the training was able to accompany the subject to treat the defences emerging from the process of change, a content analysis of the transcripts of seven training sessions was performed. The analysis made it possible to highlight certain types of resistances of the group such as the displacement of problems, the individual reading of the same, the prevalence of the complaint and the expectation of a messianic apical figure who decides how to intervene. The development of the course, through specific proposed activities and actions taken by the trainer, has allowed the group to make a gradual transition to a more active and purposeful position. The resistors were accepted and nurtured, giving way to the emotions (frustration, anger, fatigue, etc.) to find the word, and then be released to make way for a new group-thinking about the change.