The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups How They Are Difficult, Why They Are Difficult and What You Can Do About It

by Schuman, Sandy

• ISBN13: 9780470190388
• ISBN10: 0470190388
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-26
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

There are many books on working with difficult individuals. Here is the first edited collection on how to work with difficult groups. With contributions from leading group experts such as Richard Hackman, Ingrid Bens, Roger Schwarz, Sam Kaner, David Sibbett and others, this book helps readers understand what makes groups ineffective and what they can do to help them be more effective. Specific topics include how to work with multi-lingual and global groups and hostile or polarized ones; working virtually; managing multi-layers of management; dealing with quiet or verbal team members, and more.

Author Biography

Sandy Schuman has been helping organizations work more effectively to solve complex problems and make critical decisions for more than thirty years. He is a group facilitator, collaborative process advocate, and storyteller. He helps groups create shared meaning, make critical choices, and build collaborative relationships. He facilitates problem-solving and decision-making processes for a wide variety of public management and policy issues and provides training in group facilitation, decision making, systems thinking, conflict management systems, and organizational communication. He is the editor of the International Association of Facilitators handbook series: The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation, Creating a Culture of Collaboration, and Working with Difficult Groups.

Table of Contents

Preface

About the Contributors

Introduction: Working with Difficult Groups: A Conceptual Framework

Make sense out of what makes working with groups difficult

Keeping Difficult Situations from Becoming Difficult Groups

Dissenters need support, or the group risks going off track

Building an External Focus: Avoiding the Difficulties on an In-grown Team

The critical importance of an external perspective

The Downside of Communication: Complaining Cycles in Group Discussions

Help teams get out of the complaining loop and turn to solution-oriented interaction instead

Facilitating Multicultural Groups

Customize structures and processes to match groups' cultural preferences

Interpersonally Hostile Work Groups: Precipitating Factors and Solutions

A group perspective on workplace harassment and bullying is essential to understanding and preventing it

Diversity by Design: Creating Cognitive Conflict to Enhance Group Performance

Ill defined, diversity might undermine its purpose

Facilitating Inclusion: Study Circles on Diversity and Student Achievement

Bridging differences in culture and ethnicity can foster academic achievement

Overcoming Sources of Irrationality That Complicate Working in Decision-Making Groups

Six factors make working with this group difficult in many different ways

Working Without Rules: A Team in Need of a Different Picture

Affirmative language encourages new views of a team's past and future

Interaction Archetypes: Keys to Group Difficulty and Productivity

Identify the repetitive behavioral sequences that reduce a group's ability to produce results

Virtual Teams: Difficult in All Dimensions

Group members working virtually and interdependently face enormous challenges

Politics of the Arts: Challenges in Working with Nonprofit Boards

A confessional tale; lessons learned while facilitating an arts board in transition

Competitive Group Interactions: Why They Exist and How to Overcome Them

Groups are less cooperative than individuals learn how you can reduce intergroup conflict

Active Facilitation: How to Help Groups Break Through Mutual Stalemate

Groups may abdicate their responsibilities waiting until another group makes the first move

Mediating History, Making Peace: Dealing with the Messy Stuff in the Conciliation Process

Identity-based conflicts will not achieve long-term solutions through resource-based settlements

Deep Democracy: Multidimensional Process-Oriented Leadership

Learn to track the shifting roles of group members

Authentic Relationships and Collective Psychological Capital

How leader behavior can undermine group success

How Leaders Can Make Diverse Groups Less Difficult: The Role of Attitudes and Perceptions of Diversity

Perceptions that lead to subgrouping can override the positive effects of diversity

The Hero's Journey: Helping Inflexible Groups and Inflexible Facilitators Get Unstuck

Use the Hero's Journey as an analytical and facilitation tool to help groups and facilitators get out of difficulties

Difficult Groups or Difficult Facilitators? Three Steps. Facilitators Can Take to Make Sure They Are Not the Problem

Facilitators can unknowingly contribute to the difficulties their grou's experience

Key Terms

References

Name Index

Subject Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.