Understanding Facilitation

Facilitation is emerging as an exciting profession. It is being used in a wide range of situations and occupations, including workplaces, leisure and health activities, organizational planning and community development. This book provides a readable introduction for newcomers to the topic as well as a critical analysis of established and current theory for existing practitioners. It will be useful for managers, staff developers, innovators, and social and community workers.

A facilitator helps groups of people to enable them to interact more effectively in a wide range of situations and occupations, including workplaces, organizational planning, leisure and health activities and community development. Facilitation is an emerging and exciting profession.

"Facilitating with Ease! offers a revised edition of the best-selling resource that includes easy-to-follow instructions, techniques, and hands-on tools that team leaders, consultants, supervisors, and managers have used to learn the basics of facilitation. New to this edition is information on why and when leaders should facilitate and how to manage neutrality; new material on diversity, globalization, new technologies, employee engagement; a wealth of new tools, techniques, and tips on when leaders should facilitate and when others should do it, a tool for sharing facilitation with other; and a website that includes meeting design template, surveys, and questionnaires"--

“Collaboration Explained is a deeply pragmatic book that helps agile practitioners understand and manage complex organizational and team dynamics. As an agile coach, I’ve found the combination of straightforward advice and colorful anecdotes to be invaluable in guiding and focusing interactions with my teams. Jean’s wealth of experience is conveyed in a carefully struck balance of reference guides and prose, facilitating just-in-time learning in the agile spirit. All in all, a superb resource for building stronger teams that’s fit for agile veterans and neophytes alike.” —Arlen Bankston, Lean Agile Practice Manager, CC Pace “If Agile is the new ‘what,’ then surely Collaboration is the new ‘how.’ There are many things I really like about Jean’s new book. Right at the top of the list is that I don’t have to make lists of ideas for collaboration and facilitation anymore. Jean has it all. Not only does she have those great ideas for meetings, retrospectives, and team decision-making that I need to remember, but the startling new and thought-provoking ideas are there too. And the stories, the stories, the stories! The best way to transfer wisdom. Thanks, Jean!” —Linda Rising, Independent Consultant The Hands-On Guide to Effective Collaboration in Agile Projects To succeed, an agile project demands outstanding collaboration among all its stakeholders. But great collaboration doesn’t happen by itself; it must be carefully planned and facilitated throughout the entire project lifecycle. Collaboration Explained is the first book to bring together proven, start-to-finish techniques for ensuring effective collaboration in any agile software project. Since the early days of the agile movement, Jean Tabaka has been studying and promoting collaboration in agile environments. Drawing on her unsurpassed experience, she offers clear guidelines and easy-to-use collaboration templates for every significant project event: from iteration and release planning, through project chartering, all the way through post-project retrospectives. Tabaka’s hands-on techniques are applicable to every leading agile methodology, from Extreme Programming and Scrum to Crystal Clear. Above all, they are practical: grounded in a powerful understanding of the technical, business, and human challenges you face as a project manager or development team member. · Build collaborative software development cultures, leaders, and teams · Prepare yourself to collaborate—and prepare your team · Define clear roles for each participant in promoting collaboration · Set your collaborative agenda · Master tools for organizing collaboration more efficiently · Run effective collaborative meetings—including brainstorming sessions · Promote better small-group and pair-programming collaboration · Get better information, and use it to make better decisions · Use non-abusive conflict to drive positive outcomes · Collaborate to estimate projects and schedules more accurately · Strengthen collaboration across distributed, virtual teams · Extend collaboration from individual projects to the entire development organization

A Practical Guide to Group Facilitation introduces a unique threefold approach to facilitation, blending Person-Centered Practice, system knowledge, and method expertise together. It serves as a comprehensive resource for facilitators seeking to enhance their professional skills. The book delves into the significance of Person-Centered Practice as the cornerstone of facilitation, exploring personal facilitator qualities like congruence, empathic listening, and unconditional positive regard, inspired by the principles of Carl Rogers. It successfully integrates Jane Loevinger's personal development theories with facilitator skill development, illustrating the symbiotic relationship between personal growth and effective facilitation. Additionally, the book incorporates Nonviolent Communication (NVC) into the facilitator's toolkit, offering practical strategies for navigating challenging situations. It covers a spectrum of facilitation methods, from structured approaches to the Person-Centered style of Carl Rogers, equipping facilitators to face diverse group contexts. Presenting valuable skills and insights to enhance professional practice, this book will be highly relevant reading for facilitators, mediators, and those offering training. It will also be useful reading for professionals in participatory processes such as coaches, team leaders, organizational leaders, managers, and mentors.

The facilitator's task of opening up discussion, getting ideas into the open and setting broad future direction is essential if a group is to reach consensus on a particular outcome and it is now one of the key techniques used in meetings and workshops. Facilitation Made Easy provides a practical introduction to the essential skills needed and will help readers develop a facilitation style that is unbiased and enables control without being overpowering. With detailed examples, proven tips for success, checklists and a self assessment guide to help readers test their own personal approach to facilitation, the book will help readers to: Understand the facilitator's role Develop the ideal structure for workshops and meetings Control agendas and help to focus the outcome of meetings Deal with difficulties. This third edition also includes a new chapter on facilitating virtual meetings, explaining the mechanics of virtual teams, the pros and cons of virtual meetings, use of technology and tips on setting up, facilitating and participating in virtual meetings

Shows the techniques of facilitation in action. Presents real-life examples of common pitfalls and demonstrates the facilitation strategies needed to avoid them.