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 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.This groundbreaking book offers suggestions for the facilitator who must cultivate a strong presence, trustworthiness, and creativity, and have a clear understanding of the group's goals, needs, culture, and external conditions, such as pressures, requirements, and constraints. The extreme facilitator draws on a wide range of techniques that are driven by the needs of the group, not by the techniques themselves. To be truly effective, the facilitator must call on all of the group's physical, intellectual, emotional, intuitive, creative, and spiritual capacities.Extreme Facilitation will help both experienced facilitators and those new to the process become more confident and competent when faced with the most daunting challenges.