From Ingrid Bens, the author of the best-selling book Facilitating with Ease!, comes the next-step resource for project leaders, managers, community leaders, teachers, and other facilitators who want to hone their skills in order to deal with complex situations. Advanced Facilitation Strategies is a field guide that offers practical strategies and techniques for working with challenging everyday situations. These proven strategies and techniques are based on experience gleaned from hundreds of facilitated activities in organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. Both novice and seasoned facilitators who have had firsthand experience designing and leading meetings will benefit from this reality-based playbook. Advanced Facilitation Strategies is filled with the information facilitators need to Become better at diagnosing facilitation assignments and creating effective process designs Broaden their repertoire of tools to make impromptu design changes whenever they are needed Learn to be more resilient and confident when dealing with dysfunctional situations and difficult people.

The Secrets of Facilitation delivers a clear vision of facilitation excellence and reveals the specific techniques effective facilitators use to produce consistent, repeatable results with groups. Author Michael Wilkinson has trained thousands of managers, mediators, analysts, and consultants around the world to apply the power of SMART (Structured Meeting And Relating Techniques) facilitation to achieve amazing results with teams and task forces. He shows how anyone can use these proven group techniques in conflict resolution, consulting, managing, presenting, teaching, planning, selling, and other professional as well as personal situations.

Of all the skill sets that support the shift from a traditional management role to a more collaborative approach, none is more relevant than that of the role of the facilitator. The beliefs, behaviors, and practices of facilitation are precisely what all leaders need to acquire and put into action. In Facilitating to Lead! renowned facilitation expert Ingrid Bens applies her proven concepts of facilitation to the leadership role and demonstrates that facilitation is an effective work style, not merely a meeting technique. Throughout the book, Bens outlines the organizational and personal benefits of facilitative leadership and includes useful checklists to help leaders determine the situations when facilitative leadership is most appropriate to apply. Because empowerment is a core issue in the implementation of facilitative leadership, the book presents a four-level model that reframes empowerment from a vague concept to a concrete structuring tool.

Results Based Facilitation (RBF) is an approach to designing, participating in, and facilitating meetings to get results. The RBF approach helps groups move from talk to action by focusing on meeting results and by developing an accountability framework for action commitments. The RBF process is designed to produce actions that lead to results within programs, organizations, and communities. Results Based Facilitation: An Introduction provides an overview of RBF theory and practice methods and a brief description of the four foundation competencies. The 2nd Edition has been updated and reformatted for easier reading.

Praise for Facilitating Group Learning "In this engaging and accessible book, George Lakey draws on a lifetime's experience to provide a highly practical resource to anyone seeking to understand and respond to the complexities of group work. The book will be invaluable to anyone trying to effect social change through groups while striving to stay simultaneously sane and employed." Stephen D. Brookfield, Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas "I've been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!" Starhawk, author, The Earth Path, Dreaming the Dark, and Webs of Power "George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that challenges us to redefine social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. This book helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members." Denis Lemelin, national president, Canadian Union of Postal Workers "Facilitating Group Learning will ease the way of all who venture into the white waters of facilitation. George clarifies the most basic, complex, and nagging challenges of facilitation, while honoring the realities of individual and social power dynamics and providing real-life examples from the path of continued growth and mastery. A rare gift!" Niyonu D. Spann, founding president, TRV Consulting and Beyond Diversity 101 "This book is a must-read for people who teach adults of any age, no matter what the subject, and care about doing it in ways that yield deep and abiding learning. Wonderfully well-written and rich with psychological and spiritual insights as well as practical strategies, it represents the fruits of a lifetime of transformational teaching and learning by one of the foremost adult educators of our time." Parker J. Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and The Heart of Higher Education

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