Differentiation at Work

New participant applications for 2024-2025 are now open. Click the “2024-2025 Application Form” button at the top of this page to register online. The application process includes a completed online application form, a non-refundable application fee of $50, and an interview with one of the program heads.

When the program leaders have received the completed application, applicants will receive one of two responses:

1) If the applicant seems to lack sufficient background in Bowen theory, the applicant will be invited to consider another Learning and Development program in Bowen theory.

2) If the applicant seems to have sufficient background in Bowen theory, they will receive an invitation for a 20-minute phone conversation with one of the program leaders.

After that phone conversation, program leaders will confer. Successful applicants will be invited to join Differentiation at Work as participants in the 2024-25 program year. Once accepted to the program, participants will receive information about the consultation process.

Please subscribe to the Bowen Center newsletter for notifications of our registration openings and for general Bowen Center updates.

The purpose of Differentiation at Work is to rigorously consider how Bowen theory can be useful in managing, living, and thriving in the emotional system of the workplace.

This course is intended to invite research-minded practitioners to be part of advancing the application of Bowen theory to organizational leadership. It is not meant for passive consumers of content, but for partners, ready to help develop the emerging framework, adding their own thinking and experience along the way.

VIRTUAL SESSIONS:

Mondays, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST, on the following dates:

September 16, 2024 | October 21, 2024 | November 18, 2024 | December 16, 2024 | January 20, 2025 | February 17, 2025 | March 17, 2025 | April 14, 2025 | May 19, 2025 

*IN-PERSON SESSION:

Sunday, April 27, 2025 | 9:00 am - 4:00 pm EST | Washington, D.C. (exact venue location will be communicated to participants in advance)

• Each monthly session, lasting three hours, will feature a guest presenter who has deep experience applying Bowen theory to leadership and organizational evolution.

• Each presenter will answer a series of questions about their experience, both positive and negative, and the learning that has guided their professional practice.

• There will be time for a robust exchange with the presenter after which a faculty member gives a presentation relevant to leading and consulting to organizations from a Bowen theory perspective.

• There will be time for a high degree of participant discussion in each session.

• Between each monthly session, participants will be asked to complete readings, short video viewings, and respond to questions.

• Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation of their thinking related to the course (followed by a 10-minute question and answer period).

• Beginning in October, participants will work with a Bowen Center faculty as a consultant to meet every month, for a total of 8 individual consultation sessions.

• *In addition to the 10 monthly sessions, participants will be asked to attend 2 Bowen Center conferences during the 2024-2025 program year: (1) 2024 November Symposium (2) 2025 Spring Conference. Attendance is free for DAW participants.

This in-person session, on the heels of the Bowen Center Spring Conference, will be an in-depth exchange on the nature of help, consulting to complex systems, and a focus on promoting research in the application of Bowen theory to work systems. In addition, this day is an incubator for an ongoing community and conversation of practitioners rooted in theory, anchored in relationships only made possible by in-person contact. This session will take place on Sunday, April 27, 2025 in the Washington, D.C. area. Participants will be sent logistics and venue information well in advance of the date.

• SEPTEMBER 16, 2024: Ms. Victoria Harrison - "Climate Change and Being Part of the Natural World: What it Means for Work Systems and Us All"

• OCTOBER 21, 2024: Dr. Patrick Stinson - "Diagramming Unrelated Systems"

• NOVEMBER 18, 2024: Dr. Laurie Lassiter - "A Natural Systems View of the Triangle"

• DECEMBER 16, 2024: Ms. LeAnn Howard - "From Ants at Work to Humans at Work"

• JANUARY 20, 2025: Dr. Christopher Burnett - "Workplace Physics: Energy, Anxiety, and Human Relationship Systems"

• FEBRUARY 17, 2025: Dr. Dan Papero - “Considering Differentiation, Togetherness and Individuality”

• MARCH 17, 2025: Dr. Bob Noone - ”The Emotional System and Evolution”

• APRIL 14, 2025: Dr. Walter Smith (via recording) - "Use of Differentiation of Self to Design A Child Abuse Prevention Program"

• APRIL 27, 2025 (In-Person): Kathy Wiseman and Jake Morrill - Participant Presentations

• May 19, 2025: TBD

The focus of the program is the application of Bowen Family Systems thinking to the world of work, as well as related or unrelated social systems.

Each participant is expected throughout the course to:

• Clearly articulate/write about how they are defining themselves at work, new insights they might gain about their principles of leadership and self-management, and communicate their thinking and experience

• Present their specific goals for future work on differentiation of self in their important organizations

• Enhance the participants’ ongoing work with their personal Bowen theory consultant

The full tuition for 2024-2025 is $3,300. This can be paid by choosing one of the payment schedule options below:

1. PAY IN FULL SCHEDULE 

Pay in full on or before August 1st.  
Total:   $3300 for tuition

2. TWO - PAYMENT PLAN SCHEDULE 

• Payment 1 of 2 (due by 08/1/2024): $1,700 USD 

• Payment 2 of 2 (automatic 3 months after payment 1): $1,700 USD 

Total:   $3400 (includes a $100 service fee for payment plan)  

3. FOUR - PAYMENT PLAN SCHEDULE  

• Payment 1 of 4 (due by 08/1/2024): $850 

• Payment 2 of 4 (automatic 1 month after payment 1): $850 

• Payment 3 of 4 (automatic 2 months after payment 1): $850

• Payment 4 of 4 (automatic 3 months after payment 1): $850

Total:  $3400 (includes a $100 service fee for payment plan)  

**Once the program begins, the Bowen Center does not offer refunds.

There are no continuing education credits available for this program.

Over the years, Differentiation at Work has focused on the application of Bowen Systems Theory to the workplace. Several books have addressed the application of Theory to the workplace and there has been an ongoing interest in the field for many years, which has been operationalized by a course rooted in Theory and interested in the application to the workplace. While Dr. Bowen often mentioned the similarities between Theory in the family system and in the work system, very little has been researched and written. Kent Webb, Jake Morrill and Kathy Wiseman are dedicated to applying the theory in ways that will prove useful to the business and administrative community.

Kathleen Wiseman, MBA

Program Head

President of Working Systems, Inc; Faculty of The Bowen Center; Co-founder of Navigating Systems. Kathleen Wiseman’s professional focus has been applying Bowen theory to family enterprises, families of wealth, leadership coaching, and organizational change. In addition to working with clients, Ms. Wiseman works with the professionals that support them. Her goal for co-leading Differentiation at Work is to develop the application of Bowen theory to organizations by creating a body of knowledge that considers differentiation of self as the cornerstone concept. Thinking systems is challenging in a cause and effect world; Bowen theory in organizations is focused on creating new system approaches in complicated work organizations.

For program questions, please email Kathy Wiseman or Jake Morrill.

Email the Learning & Development Coordinator, Rachel Burnham, for any administrative inquiries.