Facilitation

A very good book on one of the most difficult arts that of drawing together a group through facilitation.

The Art of Facilitation is a must read for new facilitators or trainers. It is easy to read and offers practical advice and activities for newcomers to the field of facilitation. This is one of the few facilitation books to offer a chapter on facilitating yourself. Not as advanced as other facilitation books (Masterful Facilitation or Facilitator's Guide to Particiapatory Decision Making) but recommend this as part of any facilitator's library of resources.

The Art of Facilitation is written in simple language. It cuts through the academic tendency to complicate this domain, and in doing so displays the authors mastery of it.

The Art of Facilitation elucidates what it takes to facilitate groups powerfully and provides pathways, tools and processes for this.

This book will provide people new to facilitation with an intellectual analysis of it and old hands clear pathways to doing complex things simply. I use it all the time as a resource in my pratice as a professional facilitator and it is the required text in facilitator training courses which I lead for Zenergy.

I would also recommend Hunter et al's other books: Co-operacy, The Zen of Groups, The Essence of Facilitation.

A very simple book, it does give some insight into facilitation, but I found it very irritating that there were typos on nearly every page! When words like 'expect' are used instead of 'except' the whole meaning has changed. And a whole page of this small guide devoted to how to turn and tear pages from a flipchart? This is a very low level primer on this subject. As a student of cooperative leadership, this book did little to enhance my knowledge of the process of facilitation.

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, Facilitation Skills: Helping Groups Make Decisions by training and development manager and facilitator Gregory B. Putz is a step-by-step guidebook for organizing and promoting cooperation. Facilitation Skills concentrates specifically on the role of the facilitator, whose duty it is to remain neutral and help the team arrive upon a decision, as opposed to the role of team leader. Each individual page offers different tips, tricks and techniques in easy-to-read format that lends itself to browsing or just opening to a page and random. Simple black-and-white sketches illustrate this superbly presented, highly recommended, "user friendly" guide for anyone assuming responsibility for team facilitation.

I own a consulting firm and I needed a good book for my consultants to study to become good facilitators. I ordered and reviewed every facilitation book available on Amazon and sent them all back except this one. This book is well-written and organized, and hits all the important points needed to become a solid facilitator quickly.

Comprehensive, effectively illustrating do's and don'ts based on years of experience. Essential for all consulting firms and in-house IT departments. Based on my experience, JAD techniques have been essential for capturing all system requirements and developing applications in an efficient manner.

I love it .....it is a good boo

The only bad thing about this book is that you can't locate it when you search for books on facilitation. This is one of the most basic and down-to-earth books ever written about group facilitation. Anyone involved in facilitation . . . especially if they're just starting out . . . should get this book. There's something for everyone. Even if you're not facilitating JAD sessions, there's so much to draw from.

Good book - I have gained a lot from this book but it is not an easy read. Take that beat-to-death-ugly phrase, "Masterful Facilitator", out of a few pages, please. Sounds like we're reading about the "Terminator". Good lessons we can all learn concerning change in the workplace - good reality check when dealing with inevitable changes.

This book is a must read for human resource people on up the CEO's. It is easy to follow and has many concrete examples to how to affect self discipline and followship. It is a more simplified book than the "Fifth Discilpine Fieldguide" by Senge but has the same impact.

This book is the classic PNF text. Knott and Voss are the originals for the use of this technique. The book can be confusing at times to read, but read it...then apply the techniques. Then go back and review the techniques again. This text is timeless, you will refer to it often. This is a skill that you develop over many years, and continually improve in. It is the best technique out there! I have been applying this technique for over 20 years, and am still learning and getting better!

I found this book to be filled with valid information but difficult to understand. Some exposure to PNF techniques is necessary to be able to use this book effectively. However, with some exposure this book is a useful tool for those who treat movement dysfunctions. It is very clinical and functional. The pictures are helpful for body and hand positions. The command sections are also helpfu. This book is an asset to any therapist's reference collection.

For anyone planning a meeting, conference, or party, as icebreaker will help to get the event off to an excellent beginning. This book offers not only opening icebreakers but refreshers to use when the group is rnning down and a lot of "just for fun" games which would be adaptable to many age groups and types of gatherings.

The author provides easy to read and understand instructions for the icebreakers. Group size, materials needed (many require no preparation), time needed, and potential goal (if any) are laid out simply and are easy to find.

I would recommend this book highly. Good luck with your event planning.

There are many books for facilitators. The vast majority seem to focus on activities, with a section devoted to facilitation. This is a book that assists experiential education practitioners with the Essential Elements of Facilitation. If only every book title were as true to the content. Priest, Gass and Gillis have succeeded in authoring a succinct, yet comprehensive book. At my office, this selection will become required reading for new and experienced facilitators.

As an experienced facilitator you will likely find this book to be an excellent reference book. If you are new to the field, you will likely find this book invaluable.

I have recommended no other professional book more frequently over the past year.

Izzy does a great job of making the format of the book simple yet engaging. His explaination of the games with goals, group size, time, process and variations for each of the games is very helpful. It is written so that a sales team leader could pick it up and have some great games to get his/her team thinking creatively, working on teamwork and self confidence. My only complaint as a past performer and current instructor is that it isn't long enough. Write another.

Given the pedigrees of the *two* authors (Peter Handley and the Michael Lawlor) this book *should* have been an absolute knockout. But it isn't.

Each chapter starts with a short extract from the hypothetical introduction of AL training into a mythical pottery manufacturer - Glospot Ltd. - designed as an intro to the subject matter of the chapter. I personally found these pieces too short and poorly written (especially the dialogue), and eventually came to dread facing yet another piece of stilted and (in my perception) vaguely patronising prose.

The main text is primarily concerned with Accelerated Learning (about which both authors obviously know a great deal), with occasional references to NLP, about which they seem to *understand* considerably less (the description of 'anchoring' on page 123 verges on the ludicrous).

To my mind the key paragraph in the whole book is to be found on page 132:

"There are a number of other memory techniques which can be useful when studying. These include the 'Loci System', the 'Chain of Links', the 'T for I' system, and creating sentences in which the initial letter of each word stands for words which are to be remembered. They are described in Michael Lawlor's book 'Inner Track Learning'.

Maybe it's just me, but I strongly object to this practice. I believe the authors should describe the techniques, or not mention them at all - certainly not as an advert for another book by the same author.

I was equally non-plussed by the choice of the HBDI (Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument) as the preferred tool for determining someone's learning (Chapter 8). The HBDI is a very closely guarded product and (according to the text) only the staff of the Ned Hermann Group(UK) are authorised to score the questionnaires, at £35 each. That's nearly enough to purchase the highly successful Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Manual, complete with questionnaire and scoring details and a licence for *unlimited* personal use.

Both of the authors have long since founded their own training establishments, and I couldn't help feeling that this book might have been a whole lot richer and more detailed in it's descriptions of the various techniques if the authors hadn't had to deal with this apparent conflict of interest.

When I found myself purchasing multiple copies of "The Creative Trainer" this holiday for bright young students who have a passion for training, I knew this book deserved a review. I have discovered the healing benefits of Accelerated Learning and NLP applied to corporate training for several years, and this is the best review and application of those techniques that I have found. Its attributes include: Well organized, easy to read, extremely useful reference section, and a score of brief introductions to the valuable tools and techniques it could take years to discover on your own. An important addition to academic books on the topics of instructional design and delivery and a useful introduction to tools used by outstanding trainers and consultants in organizations today.

Facilitation Made Easy is a good basic book for the beginning facilitator. It provides step by step instruction on how to set up your workshop. It provides a good overview of listening skills, conflict resolution, how to keep things moving along, managing time and many other useful skills. I used it as a guideline for my first Joint Application Development workshop and got very good reviews on the workshop. I recommend the book to anyone who is responsible for bringing a diverse group of people together for the purpose of getting something accomplished.