Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making

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Summary: A "Must Have" for anyone leading or facilitating meetings!
Review: "Facilitator's Guide..." gives real solutions to meeting issues in a logical, easy to follow format. Especially helpful was the Open Discussion section which gives insight on why the "groan zone" is so critical to fueling innovative ideas within a team. It's easy to read and easy to use as a reference tool. Graphics are simple and to the point. I highly recommend this book to anyone who leads, facilitates or attends meetings!

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Summary: A brilliant book!
Review: After having read about 30 facilitation/negotiation books, I have to conclude that this is the best. A lot of thought has gone into both the process and the presentation of the facilitation process in this book. I always recommend this book to my teaching assistants and often give them a copy free of charge. If you buy just one book in this area, make it this one! By the way, I have no connection whatsoever with either the authors or the publishers involved. I just believe that this is far and away the best book for facilitators. Not only does it have the best ideas, but it also has the best visual presentation of those ideas!

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Summary: This oversized volume is a facilitator's joy.
Review: All in one package are tools for training, helpful hints for group leaders, the dynamics and processes of decision-making, group process skills, agenda design, discussion techniques and more. The authors are obviously masters of their craft, and using their guidelines will undoubtedly enhance the effectiveness of facilitators and workshop leaders. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The book is visually accessible, with one idea per large page, each page a diagram of the presenting issue. In teaching about the dynamics of group decision-making, for example, the text and illustrations move through various stages of divergent thinking, through the "groan zone" of differences and diversity, to arrive finally at convergent thinking and a group decision that is truly participatory. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Groups and their leaders, being human, inevitably get stuck. For this dilemma the authors provide not just skills for problem solving, but "mindsets for problem solving," encouraging the examination of attitudes, values, and underlying philosophies of cooperation, competition, inclusion, expedience and sustainability. With such a checklist we might not only solve any current group crisis, but also avoid future problems by shifting the underlying causes of conflict. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The authors are very trusting of groups and their members. There is no blame on membership or leadership when meetings or workshops are not flowing smoothly. The authors state that "Difficult dynamics are treated as group situations that can be handled supportively rather than as individual personalities that need to be fixed." Advice is given for encouraging members to to work together to tackle "any pattern they may wish to change." This volume does not focus on specific issues such as prejudice, stereotyping , and social oppression; this is a training manual in generic group process. It is a well stocked tool box out of which groups can draw what is needed to address their particular group issues. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ If you are a group leader or member, this book will help improve your understanding and performance. If you are a professional trainer, consultant, or educator, this Facilitator's Guide will likely enhance your skills, smooth your rough edges, and increase your effectiveness. That alone seems worth the price. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~by Paula Green; published in Fellowship July/August 1997; used with permission.

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Summary: Great book!
Review: Although I had never facilitated a meeting before, this book provided me with plenty of good practical ideas and just the right amount of theory to help me successfully facilitate a major brainstorming meeting. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to get up to speed quickly on the subject of facilitation.

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Summary: Beyond Basic Facilitation Skills
Review: Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making provides trainers and facilitators with skills beyond basic facilitation skills training. If you are knowledgable of how facilitation differs from leading and managing, then this is the next book for you.

Of particular use is the model of how participatory decsion making occurs. Understanding this model and sharing it with teams (and management) that you facilitate will take the guess work out of team decision making.

Included also are suggested tools to use at different points in the process of decision making.

Overall, a great resource for facilitators. Useful for both profit and non profit environments.

Rating:
Summary: Beyond Basic Facilitation Skills
Review: Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making provides trainers and facilitators with skills beyond basic facilitation skills training. If you are knowledgable of how facilitation differs from leading and managing, then this is the next book for you.

Of particular use is the model of how participatory decsion making occurs. Understanding this model and sharing it with teams (and management) that you facilitate will take the guess work out of team decision making.

Included also are suggested tools to use at different points in the process of decision making.

Overall, a great resource for facilitators. Useful for both profit and non profit environments.

Rating:
Summary: Good for more than just participatory decision-making
Review: I love this book!

Although it's focus is specifically on facilitating participatory decision making, it is an excellent resource for all who facilitate or teach. I particularly like the concrete suggestions on how to navigate a whole-room discussion (stacking, mirroring, paraphrasing, etc.).

However, my favorite part of this book is a beautifully done 3-page section describing common difficult situations - someone is making jokes in the back, your audience is falling asleep, one person won't shut up. The book goes on to detail the ways that facilitators usually deal with these problems, every one of them a power play of some sort, and offers suggestion for BETTER ways to handle the situation. As a trainer myself, I rely heavily on this book when I conduct "train the trainers" sessions.

Especially for those who train around sensitive or controversial issues, this information is invalauable. Thanks for writing this book!

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Summary: My favorite book on facilitation
Review: I've been facilitating for several years; I often have people ask for a book recommendation , and this is always the one I name. You will find this book useful if you are facilitating for the first time, or if you are an old pro.

Since you can read the table of contents for this book, I won't repeat it here. My favorites are the model (mentioned in several other reviews) and the different ways to build consensus.

There are other books that have more in depth coverage of each of the topics. What Kaner and his colleagues have done is get to the "gems" of those books for you. It is as if a friend read a bunch of literature on this topic and boiled it all down into one easy-to-use manual. (No, I don't know any of the authors :-))

My only complaint about this book is the format. I find the graphics and the multiple fonts a little difficult to read. I usually hand out the book with the disclaimer "it looks a little hokey, but the content is really solid." If you can move past the graphic design, you'll love this book.

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Summary: A labor of love. Useful too.
Review: OK, I'm biased. I'm Sam's brother. But I saw this gang work on this book for YEARS. They brainstormed an underlying theory of group dynamics that drove meetings. By 1983, when I came to California and started attending their meetings, this theoretical work was well underway. The crowd working on it was a collection of psychologists and several other professionals (legal, computing, writing, etc.)

By 1983, they were already training people to be facilitators and recorders.

As the facilitator training developed into a powerful 15-session class, they polished a remarkable set of self-contained slides. The slides illustrated techniques, insights, and overall models of how agreements are reached and how discussions are (or aren't) progressing.

Once the slides were in good shape (for teaching purposes), they spent five years turning them into pages of a remarkably clear, practical, and insightful book.

This is a valuable book for anyone who wants to create and run meetings that promote worthwhile discussions and result in genuine agreements.

--- Cem Kaner

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Summary: How To
Review: This book takes apart the process of participatory decision-making and gives practical, easily workable ways to learn and teach it. It's the best how-to I have seen on this subject.