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Favorite Books
The following listed books are always handy by my workspace. I refer to these books more often than any others when designing customized facilitation plans and when testing my thinking when creating training materials. Look for my comments on latest books read in my quarterly updates.
"The Art of Focused Conversations" – The Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs
The most dog- eared book I own. This book saves me time by allowing me to quickly and pointedly prepare for a conversation. I have used this for a conversation with one individual and for facilitated sessions with large groups. I love the structure that the ORID methodology offers and the book contains 100 conversations that can be used as is or modified to fit a specific situation.
"The Secrets of Facilitation" – Michael Wilkinson
My admiration for Michael is tall and friendship special. Without a doubt Chapter 2 of this book, The Secrets of Questioning, is the most used chapter of any resource book close to my desk. Think about it; ask better questions and you get better answers. Asking questions is an art and Michael transforms the art into a process. I love process, and this book has it. This book is an all around good guide for facilitating work sessions from preparing for a session to closing and documenting.
"Facilitation at a Glance!" – Ingrid Bens
Your Pocket Guide to Facilitation. I carry this book in my briefcase. Really, I never leave home without it. I use this for work session preparation as well as during the course of a session, when the facilitation plan needs adjusting. This pocket guide explains tools and techniques. For example; you can find a step-by-step process for brainstorming and it also answers questions like, "What is anonymous brainstorming?", "How does anonymous brainstorming work?", as well as gives examples of meeting diagnostic surveys and systematic problem solving worksheets. When I coached internal facilitation teams, I used to put one of these pocket guides in the new facilitator's tool kits.
"Facilitating Uphill" – Ingrid Bens
Although not always easy, as a facilitator we know disruptive or dysfunctional behavior in a work session cannot and should not be ignored. Another of Ingrid's easy to use books, this one addresses how and when to intervene and gives some easy to understand examples of disruptive behavior, along with an explanation of why the behavior could be happening, how to intervene and common facilitator pitfalls. I use this book when preparing for a session. I may uncover some issues from the sponsor interview and the pre-session participant interviews that lead me to try to design out dysfunctional behavior. Also, inevitably from time to time I run into situations in a session that I reflect upon and wish I would have handled differently. This book helps me think through how to avoid repeat situations.
"The FIVE Dysfunctions of a Team" – Patrick Lencioni
A Leadership Fable. If you are and have been new to a leadership team, leading it or one among it, this is a good guide book. I found it an easy read, easy to identify with the situations and understand the solutions recommended. I use this as a quick reference for how to move towards high performance teams.
"The Certified Quality Manager Handbook, Second Addition" – Okes &Westcott
This book includes the body of knowledge that one must demonstrate to become a Certified Quality Manager. I find that this body of knowledge serves me well when working on customized facilitation plans and facilitating work sessions. The range of information is vast, including developing key performance metrics, linkage of strategic initiatives and critical success factors, to process flows, process improvement, value analysis, cost of quality, and much more.
"Designing Organizations for High Performance" - David P. Hanna
The second most dog- eared book I own, and probably the oldest reference book I use on a regular basis. I was introduced and studied extensively High Performance Organization Design back in the 1980s when self-directed work teams were an emerging practice. In the 1990s I fought the "teams don't work" mantra, knowing that most companies were not willing to make the long term investment, they were really looking for the quick fix. I still use this book as a handy reference for designing organizational assessments, assessing process capabilities and root cause analysis, and annual planning renewal of vision, values, and core competencies.
"Understanding Variation, The Key to Managing Chaos" – Donald J. Wheeler
During the past few years working with teams on start-up businesses, I have been reminded on many occasions that it is impossible to plan out all process deviations. This can sometimes cause chaos in a start-up business. Don Wheeler's book is written for the non-statistician to learn how to make data driven decisions. This is so important because one must sort out what is a real problem and what is a normal deviation for the process or system as it is currently designed. I use this book as a refresher for data collection and analysis methods. I find that I frequently recommend this book to leaders who have typical left data analysis and interpretation to some other specialty staff.
"The Rational Project Manager" – Andrew Longman, Jim Mullins
I like this book because I have been a Kepner Tregoe (KT) fan since my manufacturing days and I worked with Jim Mullins to introduce KT problem solving/decision making practices to Turner Broadcasting's Engineering group. Today whenever I start a significant project, I check my thinking against principles in this book, and during the project I will pick up the book from time to time to look for processes or forms ideas.
"Winning in FastTime" - John A. Warden, Leland A. Russell
I first heard of John Warden and the Prometheus process at an annual Baldrige Quality Award Conference in Washington D.C. A company that he consulted with made breakthrough improvements and among other successes won the Baldrige National Quality Award. If you want to ratchet up the strategic planning process, pick up this book and read. I find that I use pieces of Prometheus process when planning a strategic planning session.
"Problem Solving and Decision Making" – Kepner Tregoe
It's true; I carry the pocket guides with me wherever I go. Working with groups, we know that issues can become emotional situations. I prefer to use data to focus a group and drive decision making. KT offers structure, step-by-step process and questions to focus a group. To the degree that a decision is very complicated like selecting a multi-million dollar solution; equipment, technology, vendor contract, etc., KT offers process where multiple individuals can have a voice and the group can still quickly move to consensus,
"Criteria for Performance Excellence" – Baldrige National Quality Program
Having been a Georgia Oglethorpe (state level quality award) senior examiner and customer process advocate, I know the criteria for performance excellence inside and out. I always use it as a frame of reference for designing strategic planning and chartering new teams and businesses sessions.
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