Extreme Facilitation: Guiding Groups Through Controversy and Complexity

I love this book! I teach facilitation & have recommended Extreme Facilitation (EF) to my students. If you are an experienced facilitator, EF's insights will improve your practice; if you are a new facilitator or just thinking about learning the facilitator's skill set, EF will help you understand what the craft is all about; if you are a manager, or work with community/non-profit organizations, and have not used the services of a facilitator, EF will change your mind. Extreme Facilitation is important because once you know and use the facilitator's skills, you will save time, money & avoid a lot of the pain involved in getting two or more people to work out their differences & unite toward a common goal. Ms Ghais accurately demonstrates in words what a facilitator does and the benefits of using these skills. Her descriptions of the practice of facilitation, particularly of its role in conflict resolution, have a realness not found in many books.

You don't generally think of books like this as "page-turners", but I could not put it down. In Extreme Facilitation, Suzanne Ghais has moved away from the cookbook (techniques-based) view of facilitation found in many other books and training materials, and has captured the core principles that underlie successful facilitation in extreme situations. For example -- there are no "difficult" people in a group; rather "difficult" behaviors reflect needs or interests that have not yet been identified or adequately addressed. Once these needs or interests are understood by the group and dealt with, the "difficulty" usually passes. I started reading the book while stuck on a process design for a complicated project. The book's direct and insightful approach unlocked my creativity and allowed me to trust my instincts -- ie, the book facilitated my own thinking in the same way that "extreme facilitation" empowers difficult groups to work together productively. Ms. Ghais' approach to the topic is transformative. Michele Straube, mediator/facilitator in Salt Lake City.

The author has produced an extremely comprehensive and well written book on facilitating in the most challenging situations. Such situations call for more depth, adaptability and strategy than is addressed in other books on facilitation; this book's aim is to provide powerful, highly focused guidelines for the toughest facilitation challenges. The author takes a situational-facilitation approach: the successful approach must be tailored to the unique nature of the facilitation challenges of the moment. Because the book focuses on the more contentious predicaments, conflict resolution is infused throughout this work. The profile of the extreme facilitator is one who is an architect of custom processes, has a deep understanding of the group, can draw on a wide knowledge base of possible techniques, has a strong personal presence, and is able to employ all of the group's capabilities. This book delves into the critical details, providing guidance on preparing for and conducting the facilitation process, focusing on each of a groups capabilities-physical, intellectual, emotional, initiative, creative, and spiritual. The book is filled with a wealth a good ideas, illustrative stories, and useful insights.