The Handbook for Working with Difficult

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.

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.

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.

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

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials