Extreme Facilitation picks up where other books on the topic leave off to present a revolutionary method that helps large, unwieldy, adversarial, and apparently dysfunctional groups achieve consensus and reach objectives on divisive and contentious issues no matter how long the group has been struggling. Throughout the book, expert facilitator Suzanne Ghais shows how extreme facilitation - which puts on the emphasis on creativity, flexibility, and customization - can change how group members interact with one another and how participants view the issues even in the most challenging and exceptionally difficult situations. Extreme Facilitation covers the preparatory phases of the process, including assessment, convening, and contracting. Ghais also offers vital information on process design and tips for handling situations that many facilitators find particularly challenging.
Every manager, every coach, every HR professional, every trainer, every team leader - anyone who needs to get the best out of a group needs to know how to facilitate.
WE'VE ALL EXPERIENCED the challenges associated with working with groups, but The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups turns the idea of "difficult groups" on its head. Rather than view groups as inherently difficult, it looks at the factors that make working with groups difficult. Individual chapters focus on challenges such as involving dissenters, building external perspectives, reducing complaining, adapting to cultural differences, incorporating diversity, facilitating inclusion, working virtually, resolving identity-based conflict, transforming unproductive behavior patterns, preventing workplace harassment, and strengthening accountability. The book first provides a framework for thinking systemically about the many and varied ways in which working with a group can be difficult. Building on that framework, the contributors each address three basic issues: How the group is difficult a description of a real group and the observable phenomena that reflect the group's difficulty. Why the group is difficult an exploration of the underlying causes of the difficulty. What you can do about it what you can do as a group facilitator, leader, or member to help the group.
Have you ever had to speak in a public meeting about your company’s or agencies plans, projects or programs? Have you attended a public meeting where people’s emotions were high? Do you want to learn how professional meeting facilitators deliver best outcomes? Professional facilitator, Dave Hardy, shares his unique insights learned from facilitating over 1,500 meetings. What are the techniques facilitators use to avoid an angry public meeting? How do they manage these meetings when they know many people will be angry? What are some of the unique situations that arise and how should you address them? In “Who Are These People and Why Are They Yelling at Me? The art and science of managing large angry public meetings” Hardy provides lessons for engaging the public in a meaningful manner. He gives essential tips for preparing for potential angry meetings and takes you step by step through the dynamics of how to help the group achieve dialogue. Essential facilitation tools and techniques are presented to support ‘extreme facilitator training’. Hardy teaches these facilitation techniques through real examples, academic insight and humour.
Facilitation is the art of helping others to do things for themselves. It is fundamental to the engagement challenges within the current business environment. In this revolutionary book, the first to examine the link between business facilitation and employee engagement, Mike Parkes provides practical techniques to achieve success in leading a team through using this unique method. The facilitator is external to the team, independent and objective. Business facilitation is a line manager’s role in engaging the team to take greater responsibility for the problems, issues and solutions in the workplace. Although the manager may seek to be objective, they undoubtedly have a vested interest in the outcome. This is the route to encouraging more positive engagement and empowerment, and as a result far greater business results. Drawing on real work situations, Parkes offers practical frameworks, examples and exercises that enable the reader to readily apply the ideas back in the workplace. He combines this with a thorough understanding of business facilitation and the skill of employee engagement, resulting in original material that has not only been tried, tested and proven to work but is also recognised as cutting edge by practitioners in the field. Business Facilitation captures the author’s 25 years of experience in working through challenging situations with some of the UK’s most prestigious companies including Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Royal and Sun Alliance, Deloitte, Gap, B&Q and VW Group (Volkswagen). "I have run over 500 courses using these techniques, training thousands of line managers and this book supports that training with the model that I have developed." Parkes comments on the inspiration behind Business Facilitation
The Princeton Guide to Ecology is a concise, authoritative one-volume reference to the field's major subjects and key concepts. Edited by eminent ecologist Simon Levin, with contributions from an international team of leading ecologists, the book contains more than ninety clear, accurate, and up-to-date articles on the most important topics within seven major areas: autecology, population ecology, communities and ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere, conservation biology, ecosystem services, and biosphere management. Complete with more than 200 illustrations (including sixteen pages in color), a glossary of key terms, a chronology of milestones in the field, suggestions for further reading on each topic, and an index, this is an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, research ecologists, scientists in related fields, policymakers, and anyone else with a serious interest in ecology. Explains key topics in one concise and authoritative volume Features more than ninety articles written by an international team of leading ecologists Contains more than 200 illustrations, including sixteen pages in color Includes glossary, chronology, suggestions for further reading, and index Covers autecology, population ecology, communities and ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere, conservation biology, ecosystem services, and biosphere management
Whatever their discipline, engineers are routinely called upon to develop solutions to all kinds of problems. To do so effectively, they need a systematic and disciplined approach that considers a range of alternatives, taking into account all relevant factors, before selecting the best solution. In Problem Solving for Engineers, David Carmichael demonstrates just such an approach involving problem definition, generation of alternative solutions, and, ultimately, the analysis and selection of a preferred solution. David Carmichael introduces the fundamental concepts needed to think systematically and undertake methodical problem solving. He argues that the most rational way to develop a framework for problem solving is by using a systems studies viewpoint. He then outlines systems methodology, modeling, and the various configurations for analysis, synthesis, and investigation. Building on this, the book details a systematic process for problem solving and demonstrates how problem solving and decision making lie within a systems synthesis configuration. Carefully designed as a self-learning resource, the book contains exercises throughout that reinforce the material and encourage readers to think and apply the concepts. It covers decision making in the presence of uncertainty and multiple criteria, including that involving sustainability with its blend of economic, social, and environmental considerations. It also characterizes and tackles the specific problem solving of management, planning, and design. The book provides, for the first time, a rational framework for problem solving with an engineering orientation.
Across all cultures parenting is the foundation of family life. It is the domain where adult mental health meets infant development. Beginning in pregnancy, parenting involves many conscious and unconscious processes which have recently been shown to affect a child's development significantly. This book focuses on pregnancy and the first year of life, providing a thorough account of the points of encounter between adult and infant psychiatry. In a fresh and comprehensive way, it summarises knowledge about early parenting, including a critical analysis of parenting, what it means to be a "good enough parent", and its relationship to infant, parent and family outcomes. In addition to the psychiatric dimension, the book emphasises the biological aspects of parenting, parental psychopathology and normal and abnormal infant development. Praise for Parenting and Mental Health: “Tyano, Keren, Herrman and Cox have edited a thoughtfully prepared guide on normal and abnormal parenting. They have, with enormous skill and wisdom, helped to unite the important aspects of pregnancy, infant and childhood development and parenting for adult and child and adolescent psychiatrists. World-class internationally recognized clinicians and researchers help make this book useful throughout the world. This is a masterful, culturally sensitive and important book which provides a long overdue and much needed guide on relationships among children, parents and families.” —Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S., Professor and Associate Chair for Integrated Medical and Psychiatric Services, Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, USA “During recent decades, progress in the field of infant mental health has been revolutionary; at the same time, there has been rapid development in women’s mental health. By bringing these two together, this pioneering book leads its readers to the vital new focal point around perinatal mental health. The book integrates the origins of developmental psychiatry in attachment and systemic contexts and shows concretely how relationship experiences and biology interact when new life begins. After describing the fascinating world of early parenting, the book focuses on problems, difficulties and disorders during this phase of life and above all on how to support, intervene and treat disorders in parenting. When infants, mothers and fathers are understood in a holistic way, professionals in many fields will be able to promote the transmission of meaningful life through parenthood and parenting.” —Tuula Tamminen, Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Tampere, Finland; Past-President of World Association for Infant Mental Health, President of European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Cover design by Reouth Keren
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the issuesinvolved in Lifelong Learning supported by Information andCommunication Technology (ICT). In this overview, the following issuesare discussed: "Lifelong Learning in the Digital Age" contains reviewed papers byinvited authors, as well as a comprehensive report with resourcematerials produced by a Focus Group of invited participants in theLifelong Learning Working Track at the e-Train conference, "E-TrainingPractices for Professional Organizations." The conference wassponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing(IFIP), Technical Committee 3 (Education), and was held in Pori, Finland in July 2003."Lifelong Learning in the Digital Age" will help both decisionmakers and educational designers to deal with the issues connectedwith Lifelong Learning. Solutions will have to be unique for eachculture and each country, but this book will certainly inform andshould considerably assist decision-making and problem resolution.
The Freudian Dictionary provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to essential Freudian terms and concepts. Organized conceptually, the book is grounded in detailed and meticulous readings, and covers the full range of Freud’s writings and subjects. It also provides an overview of the development, vicissitudes, and syntheses of Freud’s unique lines of thought. Contemporary developments in psychoanalytic thought have aspired to surpass their Freudian origins. But this comprehensive guide to Freud’s work provides a touchstone for those wishing to clarify these roots, and the foundations of the discipline itself. It will be a valuable companion to psychoanalysts in practice and training across a range of schools, as well as a reference work for sociologists, artists, philosophers, historians and other scholars.
