A Manual for Group Facilitators

by The Center for Conflict Resolution
Re-published by the Foundation for Intentional Community

This handbook is an informal outline detailing useful and effective techniques to help groups work well. More than a simple “how to,” the manual contains a discussion of the values, dynamics, and common sense behind group process that have been verified by our own experience.

Inside you’ll find helpful tools for…

• How to plan a workshop
• Sample agendas
• How to get a meeting started on the right track
• Useful information about group process, communication and dynamics
• How to deal with conflict in groups
• Crisis intervention
• Creative problem solving, and much more

A Manual for Group Facilitators is a valuable resource for communities needing trained facilitators, anyone planning or presenting a workshop, trainers and teachers of all kinds.

89 pages, Paperbound, 8.5″ x 11″ or Digital Download
ISBN: 0-9718264-0-4
Authors: Brian Auvine, Betsy Densmore, Mary Extrom, Scott Poole, Michel Shanklin
Cover: Lindsay McGowen, Illustrations: John Dallman (unless otherwise credited)

Laird Schaub, nationally recognized group process consultant, says “High quality meeting facilitation is neither a parlor trick, nor the result of mastering techniques. It comes instead from adopting a cooperative and agreement-hungry mind set, where you are open to surprises and ever eager for the creative possibilities of new information. It comes from trusting the process, without knowing ahead where it will lead. It comes from working with energy as well as with content. A Manual for Group Facilitators is the best introduction available for creating the kind of meeting culture where these attitudes can flourish.”

This book is often purchased in companion with Building United Judgment: A Handbook for Consensus Decision Making.

Building United Judgment describes the techniques and skills which groups can apply to make the principles of consensus work effectively. Whether you are new to consensus or a “practiced hand,” whether your group uses consensus in the “classic” form or wants to apply consensus principles to your own decision making structure, this book provides a thorough review of practical methods that can make your efforts work.