Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Second Edition

  • 3h 58m
  • Sam Kaner
  • John Wiley & Sons (US)
  • 2007

Facilitative behaviors and skills are essential for anyone who wants to work collaboratively in groups and organizations today. Facilitative skills honor, enhance, and focus the wisdom and knowledge that lay dormant in most groups. These skills are essential to healthy organizations, esprit de corps, fair and lasting agreements, and to easily implement actions and plans.

Sam Kaner and the team from Community At Work have been developing and articulating these tools to further democratic action and to enable people from all walks of life to work together in more constructive and productive ways. The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making will give readers additional tools and insights to enable effective, participatory action and the potential to achieve strong, principled results and positive social change. Anyone wanting to increase their understanding of group dynamics and improve their skill at making groups work more effectively will benefit from this valuable book.

About the Authors

Sam Kaner, Ph.D., is the founder of Community At Work. His first fulltime job as a facilitator was in 1978. In the decades since, he has dedicated his career to studying and teaching collaborative processes, and to consulting with innovative organizations that seek sustainable solutions to the world's toughest problems.

Lenny Lind is president of the organization development firm CoVision. He is a pioneer in the field of computer-assisted meetings and he is a codeveloper of WebCouncil - a fast feedback system designed for facilitators. Lenny is the creative force who crafted the design of this book.

Catherine Toldi, M.A., is a collaboration specialist and Zen Buddhist priest. She specializes in working with educators, non-profit managers and community organizations. For 30 years, she has supported her clients and students to bring both structure and heart to their planning and problem-solving efforts.

Sarah Fisk, Ph.D., is an organization development consultant specializing in collaborative systems change and participatory decision-making. As a senior associate at Community at Work, she devotes her consulting practice to helping groups and individuals develop their ability to be authentic in pursuit of sustainable solutions to complex situations.

Duane Berger, M.A., is director of Insights & Applications at Community At Work. He has studied group dynamics and participatory decision-making for 30 years, and he has been a co-thinker and co-developer of virtually all of the Community At Work models and methods for putting participatory values into practice.

In this Book

  • Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Second Edition
  • Foreword to the First Edition By Michael Doyle
  • Introduction
  • The Dynamics of Group Decision-Making
  • Participatory Values
  • Introduction to the Role of Facilitator
  • Facilitative Listening Skills
  • Chartwriting Technique
  • Facilitating Open Discussion
  • Alternatives to Open Discussion
  • Brainstorming
  • Tools for Managing Long Lists
  • Dealing With Difficult Dynamics
  • Effective Agendas: Desired Outcomes
  • Effective Agendas: Process Design
  • Principles for Building Sustainable Agreements
  • Gathering Diverse Points of View
  • Building a Shared Framework of Understanding
  • Developing Inclusive Solutions
  • Importance of Clear Decision Rules
  • Striving for Unanimity
  • Reaching Closure Step by Step
  • Facilitating Sustainable Agreements
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