NTL in Today's World

 

In 2022, NTL celebrated its 75th Jubilee Anniversary. Over these 75 (now plus) years, NTL has continued to hold its original values and mission as important touchstones, honoring human development, research, experiential learning, inclusion, diversity, and democratic values. This is Our Legacy.

 

Today, NTL has over 150 members in 24 countries. Its invited members are consultants, academics, and leaders from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.  NTL members work together and in their own practices, organizations, and communities to further NTL's contributions to human centered personal, group, and organization development and change. We also practice our values, striving for our own personal and professional development, and offering world-class training and consulting to individuals, groups, and organizations across the globe.

 

Here is how NTL accomplishes its mission:

• • Laboratory Learning Programs: (e.g., Human Interaction; Organization Development; Diversity, Equality, Inclusion; others offered periodically and under development)

 

• • (Coming Soon) Virtual Learning Forums: Short, virtual presentations of key concepts, practices and ideas related to social change in human relations, groups, organizations, and communities.

 

• • Customized Programs for Clients: Working with client organizations to create tailored programs to meet unique identified needs.

 

• • The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (since 1965): A refereed academic journal published for NTL by Sage

 

• • Practising Social Change: An on-line practitioner journal published periodically by NTL featuring articles by NTL members and other practitioner/scholars

 

• • Books published under the NTL's book Imprint via a relationship with Libri Publishing

 

 

The Essence of NTL's Work

 

Today, NTL holds at the core of its mission and values the key components of Kurt Lewin's NTL legacy and 75 years of subsequent work by NTL's talented founders and members:

1. A focus on theory and learning in conjunction with action. In its first decades, NTL attracted top scholars and practitioners of psychology, social psychology, sociology, and management to the intellectual and practice petri-dish that convened each summer in Bethel, Maine. These scholar-practitioners produced the theory and practice literature that remains the basis for much of modern approaches to the development of individuals, teams, and organizations, as well as many of the foundational concepts underlying key aspects of human resource management such as supervisory behavior, motivation, reward systems, and leadership. This research, thought, and action tradition is continued by NTL through its refereed academic journal, the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Practising Social Change, the Institute's digital practitioners' journal that explores contemporary social-change concepts and practices worldwide. NTL's recently established book imprint relationship with Libri Publishing in the UK is providing opportunities for NTL members to publish book length contributions based on their work as thought leaders and practitioners.
2. A human development orientation. NTL's work is predicated on the potential of individuals for personal growth and change. Equitable, inclusive, diverse environments, while just in their own right, are essential for this growth and change to take place.
3. A research-based belief in the power of experiential learning. The T-Group, NTL's unique featured learning process, remains a continuing experiment in the power of experiential, collaborative learning about Self and groups. It is the central learning focus for NTL's Human Interaction Laboratories and continues to foster NTL's development of laboratory learning methods for teaching core human dynamics, organization development, leadership, and personal growth.
4. A belief in the value of diversity and inclusion across differences, and the importance of justice for individuals and groups. These beliefs were guiding forces behind the 1946 New Britain Workshop which birthed NTL. NTL remains committed to these values in its organization and its programs. In addition, NTL members continue to do important diversity, inclusion, and multicultural work in their private consulting practices with organizations and communities in the US and throughout the world.
5. A continuing emphasis on innovative thinking, thought leadership, and practice in organization development and change. NTL members, working through NTL, universities, and in their practices, are active thought-and-practice leaders for advances in collaborative approaches to change in organizations and communities. We stive to bring our legacy work into the present, developing innovative options for contemporary challenges to human relationships at all levels of system. We also seek collaborations with consonant behavioral science, research, practice, and teaching organizations to advance the mission and values of NTL.

 

 

See our Home Page for descriptions of NTL's Programs, Publications, and Services, and our Course Registration Page for a list of upcoming NTL courses.