Unlocking the secrets of effective facilitation with these books
Facilitation is a key skill for anyone looking to lead workshops, programs, courses, meetings, or retreats effectively. Great facilitators help groups achieve their goals by fostering open communication, encouraging participation, and guiding the group toward productive outcomes. Whether you’re new to facilitation or looking to sharpen your skills, the following list of top books on facilitation offers valuable insights, practical tools, and proven strategies to enhance your effectiveness.
1. “The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Coaches, and Trainers” by Roger Schwarz
Roger Schwarz’s “The Skilled Facilitator” is considered a classic in the field. It provides a solid foundation in facilitation skills and techniques, emphasizing the importance of developing a collaborative mindset. The book covers essential topics such as creating a safe environment for open dialogue, managing group dynamics, and guiding groups toward effective decision-making.
Amazon Description:
The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Trainers, and Coaches, Third Edition is a fundamental resource for consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers, and anyone who helps groups realize their creative and problem-solving potential. This new edition includes updated content based on the latest research and revised models of group effectiveness and mutual learning. Roger M. Schwarz shows how to use the Skilled Facilitator approach to: boost improvement processes such as Six Sigma and Lean, create a psychologically safe learning environment for training, and help coaches work with teams and individuals in real-time. This edition features a new chapter that explains how to facilitate virtual teams using conferencing technology.
Facilitation skills are essential in many kinds of work, and if you are looking to bring your skills up to date it is critical that you rely on trusted information like the knowledge offered in this go-to reference.
2. “Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making” by Sam Kaner
This guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to make group decision-making more inclusive and effective. Sam Kaner provides a deep dive into participatory methods that ensure every voice is heard, helping groups move from conflict and confusion to alignment and action. The book is filled with practical tools, such as the “Facilitator’s Guide to Charting,” which helps visual learners stay engaged and on track.
Amazon Description:
The third edition of this ground-breaking book continues to advance its mission to support groups to do their best thinking. It demonstrates that meetings can be much more than merely an occasion for solving a problem or creating a plan. Every well-facilitated meeting is also an opportunity to stretch and develop the perspectives of the individual members, thereby building the strength and capacity of the group as a whole.
This fully updated edition of The Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making guides readers through the struggle and the satisfaction of putting participatory values into practice, helping them to fulfill the promise of effective group decision-making. With previous editions already embraced by business and community leaders and consulting professionals around the world, this new book is even more insightful and easy to use.
3. “Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers” by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo
“Gamestorming” is a dynamic resource for facilitators who want to use games and activities to stimulate creativity and innovation in group settings. This book offers a collection of exercises designed to help teams break out of their usual thinking patterns and engage in creative problem-solving. It’s particularly useful for those looking to inject energy and fun into workshops and meetings.
Amazon Description:
Great things don’t happen in a vacuum. But creating an environment for creative thinking and innovation can be a daunting challenge. How can you make it happen at your company? The answer may surprise you: gamestorming.
This book includes more than 80 games to help you break down barriers, communicate better, and generate new ideas, insights, and strategies. The authors have identified tools and techniques from some of the world’s most innovative professionals, whose teams collaborate and make great things happen. This book is the result: a unique collection of games that encourage engagement and creativity while bringing more structure and clarity to the workplace. Find out why — and how — with Gamestorming.
4. “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters” by Priya Parker
Priya Parker’s “The Art of Gathering” focuses on the purpose and intention behind every meeting, workshop, or event. Parker argues that the success of any gathering depends on how well it’s planned and facilitated. This book provides a fresh perspective on the principles of gathering, emphasizing the importance of creating meaningful connections and experiences for participants.
Amazon Description:
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive–which they don’t have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play.
Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn’t, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings–conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp–and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience.
The result is a book that’s both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue–and how you host and attend them.
5. “The Facilitator’s Fieldbook” by Thomas Justice and David W. Jamieson
This comprehensive guide provides a wealth of practical tools and templates for facilitators of all levels. “The Facilitator’s Fieldbook” covers everything from designing workshops and meetings to managing difficult situations and evaluating outcomes. It is an essential resource for facilitators looking for detailed instructions and ready-to-use materials.
Amazon Description:
The completely revised third edition of this longtime go-to resource for novice and experienced facilitators provides new team-building exercises as well as updated information on virtual meetings, mediation, strategic planning, and much more.
6. “The Art of Focused Conversation: 100 Ways to Access Group Wisdom in the Workplace” by R. Brian Stanfield
This book is a valuable resource for facilitators looking to guide productive conversations in the workplace. It provides 100 conversation frameworks that can be used to tackle a wide range of topics, from problem-solving to team-building. Each framework is designed to help facilitators draw out the wisdom and insights of the group, ensuring that every voice is heard.
Amazon Description:
Communication within many organizations has been reduced to email, electronic file transfer, and hasty sound bytes at hurried meetings. More and more, people appear to have forgotten the value of wisdom gained by ordinary conversations. The Art of Focused Conversation convincingly restores this most human of attributes to prime place within businesses and organizations, and demonstrates what can be accomplished through the medium of focused conversation.
7. “Designing & Leading Life-Changing Workshops: Creating the Conditions for Transformation in Your Groups, Trainings, and Retreats” by Ken Nelson, David Ronka, Lesli Lang, Liz Korabek-Emerson, and Jim White
This book is a comprehensive guide to designing and leading workshops that are not only informative but also transformative. It covers various aspects of workshop design, including setting intentions, creating a safe space, and guiding participants through a journey of self-discovery. It’s ideal for facilitators looking to create deep and meaningful experiences for their participants.
Amazon Description:
This comprehensive guidebook equips you with everything you need to successfully facilitate personal growth and collective wisdom in workshops, retreats, and trainings. Featuring a range of ready-to-use exercises, templates, worksheets, and checklists, this results-driven guide empowers you to confidently create and fine-tune your workshops with confidence and skill.
Discover the tools needed to design workshops that resonate deeply with participants, fostering lasting change and growth. From planning and execution to earning trust and igniting original thinking, this comprehensive resource covers it all.
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This is one of my favorite books because it shares so many great activities you can facilitate and design your sessions with. We’ve done a number of posts in the past on Liberating Structures.
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Top Books on Facilitation Conclusion
Each of these books on facilitation offers valuable insights and practical advice for facilitators who want to improve their skills and create more effective and engaging group experiences. Whether you are leading a small team meeting or a large workshop, these resources provide the tools and techniques you need to facilitate with confidence and creativity. For more resources on facilitation and workshop design, be sure to explore other articles on our website. Check out our facilitation training too!