Synopses & Reviews
Many experienced facilitators, OD consultants, coaches, and organizational leaders increasingly find themselves “standing in the fire” -- working in situations where group and community members are polarized, angry, fearful, and confused. Facilitator Larry Dressler has come to believe that simply picking up yet another method or technique won’t help in situations like these. What has a truly transformational impact is what he calls the facilitator’s presence. Cultivating an ability to access a compassionate presence that people experience as open, authentic, and clear in intention during the most difficult situations moves facilitators from being competent professionals to being on a path toward self-mastery.
Standing in the Fire offers a set of self-directed principles and practices that enable facilitators to work on themselves—to keep their emotional balance no matter how overheated things threaten to become. It brings together profound teachings from diverse fields, including western psychology, eastern spiritual practices, the arts, social sciences and medical research. Dressler’s grounded, empathetic approach helps readers reawaken and discover an untapped capacity that comes from within and is expressed as a powerful presence standing in service to a group.
Review
“In this wise and stimulating book, Dressler draws on his rich experience to show us how to bring our personal best to facilitating polarized group situations.”
—William Ury, coauthor of Getting to Yes and author of The Power of a Positive No
Synopsis
Standing in the Fire offers a set of self-directed principles and practices that enable facilitators to work on themselves—to keep their emotional balance no matter how overheated things threaten to become. It brings together profound teachings from diverse fields, including western psychology, eastern spiritual practices, the arts, social sciences and medical research. Dressler’s grounded, empathetic approach helps readers reawaken and discover an untapped capacity that comes from within and is expressed as a powerful presence standing in service to a group.
Synopsis
Real organizational change isn't brought about by decree, pressure, permission, or even persuasion. Sustained change comes when people are passionately and personally committed to a future that they have helped to shape. If you want to turn your organization's cynics into owners, give them a voice in the decisions that impact their work.
Consensus Through Conversation shows how.
Consensus is a cooperative process in which all of a group's members develop and agree to actively support a decision. It's not mere acquiescence--consensus goes several steps beyond, transforming people from resigned instruction-followers to dedicated champions of an idea. Larry Dressler shows you exactly how to prepare for a successful consensus-building process, takes you step-by-step through that process, and offers tips for success and traps to avoid. Throughout, he provides a host of tools and examples that make this an eminently practical and immediately useful guide.
Consensus Through Conversation will give you the tools you need to use consensus effectively in your organization. It is a handy, vital reference that you will turn to again and again in your efforts to tackle high stakes issues, make high quality decisions, and build enthusiasm and commitment to action.
Synopsis
"Standing in the Fire" offers a set of self-directed principles and practices that enable facilitators to work on themselves--to keep their emotional balance no matter how overheated things threaten to become. It brings together profound teachings from diverse fields, including western psychology, eastern spiritual practices, the arts, social sciences and medical research. Dressler's grounded, empathetic approach helps readers reawaken and discover an untapped capacity that comes from within and is expressed as a powerful presence standing in service to a group.
Synopsis
High-Heat Meetings Require a Coolheaded Leader
Whether you facilitate meetings for a living or simply as part of your job, you’ve surely found yourself “standing in the fire”—at the center of a group that is polarized, angry, fearful, and confused. Veteran facilitator Larry Dressler has found that what makes the crucial difference in these situations is the leader’s presence. You have to master a way of being that allows you to remain effective no matter how hot things get.
Dressler shows how to cultivate six “stances”—mental, emotional, and physical— that will keep you steady, impartial, purposeful, compassionate, and good-humored,. Drawing on his own experiences and the insights of thirty-five distinguished practitioners, he helps you keep your cool and make the kind of inventive, split-second decisions these pressure-cooker situations demand.
Table of Contents
Ch. 1: The Dynamics of the Fire: Facilitating High-Heat Meetings
Ch. 2: A New Kind of Presence: The Facilitator’s Path to Self-Mastery
Ch. 3: Seven Embodied Principles for Facilitating in the Fire
Ch. 4: Practices: The Path of Facilitator Self-Mastery
Ch. 5: From Standing to Dancing in the Fire: Committing to the Path of Self-Mastery