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Extreme Facilitation: Guiding Groups Through Controversy and Complexity
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.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 24, 2019
Super helpful!
January 7, 2010
Hmm, maybe two and a half. The last two chapters were sort of useful...
Mostly I think I found the title/blurbs for the book misleading; they could have been written in a way more in touch with what it actually covered. Because although they both emphasize working with groups, the book itself does not really discuss how ongoing meeting process and facilitation fit together with group development, especially in groups with long-lasting conflicts or dysfunction. The "facilitator" as understood by the author is a professional, paid for and brought in by the group, but not part of it. While obviously professional facilitation is a valuable thing, the skill of facilitation also needs to be practiced by those working long-term with groups, and there's unfortunately little in this book for them.
Furthermore, it seemed rather unsure about whether it was an introduction to facilitation for beginners or an in-depth examination for more advanced facilitators. One would expect a book on "extreme facilitation" to give more detailed consideration to process methods, but the attention to them here is quicker and less substantive than in many intro books.
I did find the last two chapters helpful, in which the author considers the use of both one's personal spiritual resources and that of a group's in facilitation, and then finally breaks down her process with a given group more thoroughly. The latter was especially nice, given that the way examples are used throughout the rest of the book were too often quite vague, making them generally unmemorable and without the texture or detail to help one see how they could apply to one's own situations.
Mostly I think I found the title/blurbs for the book misleading; they could have been written in a way more in touch with what it actually covered. Because although they both emphasize working with groups, the book itself does not really discuss how ongoing meeting process and facilitation fit together with group development, especially in groups with long-lasting conflicts or dysfunction. The "facilitator" as understood by the author is a professional, paid for and brought in by the group, but not part of it. While obviously professional facilitation is a valuable thing, the skill of facilitation also needs to be practiced by those working long-term with groups, and there's unfortunately little in this book for them.
Furthermore, it seemed rather unsure about whether it was an introduction to facilitation for beginners or an in-depth examination for more advanced facilitators. One would expect a book on "extreme facilitation" to give more detailed consideration to process methods, but the attention to them here is quicker and less substantive than in many intro books.
I did find the last two chapters helpful, in which the author considers the use of both one's personal spiritual resources and that of a group's in facilitation, and then finally breaks down her process with a given group more thoroughly. The latter was especially nice, given that the way examples are used throughout the rest of the book were too often quite vague, making them generally unmemorable and without the texture or detail to help one see how they could apply to one's own situations.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews