Bringing Meetings Back from the Dead

One of my favorite books on facilitating meetings is “Death By Meeting,” by Patrick Lencioni. It’s framed in the form of a fable that is not only easy reading, but also helps you relate to the message. The message lays out the two main reasons meetings are usually so poor and what to do about [...]

Creativity Generator for Managers

Our feature article in this issue Creativity Generator for Managers, is comprised of a short 15-question quiz, by Dr. Robert Epstein, to assess your ability to inspire creativity in others. Your scores will identify your current competency levels and will alert you to additional practices that may help you inspire more creativity in your groups [...]

OIVEY, the Lost Secrets of Intervention

This week, I want to keep it light and playful, and as always, practical. Harry Webne-Behrman is a close friend and co-leader of the JOFC workshop in Madison and an expert on conflict resolution. Harry loves trying to teach me Yiddish phrases and loves it even more when I try to use them. Last week [...]

Build Your Facilitation Competencies

For anyone with even the most basic experience in facilitation, it becomes quickly apparent that facilitation is as much an art as it is a science. Much of what we find to be effective resonates with our personal style and is gleaned over with time with practice. With that said, there are also some competencies [...]

Setting the Stage for Inspired Workshops

This week’s article, Setting the Stage for Inspired Workshops, explores actions you can take to start facilitating your group before you actually meet. We explore the use of media ranging from books, articles, movies, plays, blogs, and music. If you have any suggestions to add to the list, please post them here and I’ll add [...]