Publications
Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making
by Sam Kaner with Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger
The third edition of this ground-breaking book continues to advance its mission to support groups to do their best thinking. It demonstrates that meetings can be much more than merely an occasion for solving a problem or creating a plan.
For a free copy (PDF) of Facilitative Listening Skills (Chapter 4) , .
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Noteworthy reviews from leaders in business and public service organizations
The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation
edited by Sandy Schuman PhD
The International Association of Facilitators is the global authority for standards and practices of group facilitation. This book has 33 chapters written by many of IAF’s most influential members, including Sam Kaner, Roger Schwarz, David Sibbet, David Straus, Marvin Weisbord and Sandy Janoff, Dale Hunter, John and Maureen Jenkins, James Troxel and a host of others whose names are familiar to the world community of professional facilitators.
Sam Kaner’s chapter is Promoting Mutual Understanding For Effective Collaboration in Cross Functional Groups. Drawing heavily from a real-life case study, Sam provides an in-depth description of the communication challenges that make multi-stakeholder collaboration so challenging. And the writing style makes good use of Kaner’s trademark visual modeling of complex interpersonal processes. Ultimately, this chapter explains and makes a powerful case for adopting the four classic guiding principles that have become influential to so many facilitators of collaborative initiatives.
For a free copy (PDF) of this chapter, click here.
To learn more or purchase this book: Amazon.com
Creating a Culture of Collaboration
edited by Sandy Schuman PhD
This book is regarded as a modern-day classic on the art and practice of collaboration within an organization.
The editor, Sandy Schuman PhD, has named Sam Kaner as “one of the world’s leading experts on collaboration.” Dr. Schuman invited Sam to author the lead chapter of this book.
Sam’s chapter centers on an engaging, round-table discussion with five transformational leaders – all CEOs or executive directors who have been Sam’s organization development clients. They trade insights and share war stories as they discuss their guiding principles and strategies for putting participatory values into practice.
For a free copy (PDF) of this chapter, click here.
To learn more or purchase this book: Amazon.com
Discover Your Inner Strength
interviews with Sam Kaner, Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy, Ken Blanchard and others
This book contains transcripts of “radio interviews” with twenty-two recognized experts in the field of organization development. Pictured on the book’s cover are noted authors Sam Kaner, Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy and Ken Blanchard.
The conversation with Sam Kaner focuses on the challenges and best practices for participating in a collaborative problem-solving process. The interviewer digs in to Sam’s views about dialogue, difficult dynamics and consensus-building. The goal is to help readers strengthen their own collaborative mindset.
For a free copy (PDF) of this chapter, click here.
(Sam’s chapter is also available in Spanish, upon request.)
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Virtuous Meetings: Technology + Design for High Engagement in Large Groups
by Lenny Lind and Karl Danskin
This book describes a new methodology that integrates communications technology into meeting design, to completely transform how meetings feel, and what they accomplish.
Virtuous meetings are collaborative, generative meetings that create convergent outcomes. They make the best possible use of each participant’s energy and ideas, and the most respectful use of each participant’s time. The principals and tools provided in this book transforms even the largest meetings into hands-on working sessions.
For a free copy (PDF) of Chapter One, Realizing Virtue in Large Group Meetings , click here.
To learn more or purchase this book: Amazon.com
The Handbook of Large Group Methods: Creating Systemic Change in Organizations and Communities
edited by Barbara Benedict Bunker and Billie T. Alban
Bunker and Alban are considered to be the definitive experts on the broad range of methods for collaboration in large groups.
Lenny’s chapter in this book is Using Interactive Meeting Technologies in Large Groups: Overcoming the Challenges of Time, Commitment, and Geographic Dispersion. In this chapter, Lenny and his co-authors Karl Danskin and Todd Erickson describe the theory and technique of the CoVision method, which can be used with large groups regardless of whether the participants are meeting face-to-face or on virtual platforms from any location in the world.
For a free copy (PDF) of this chapter, click here.
To learn more or purchase this book: Amazon.com