Facilitating with Ease! Core Skills for Facilitators, Team Leaders and Members, Managers, Consultants, and Trainers

by Ingrid Bens

Since the publication of the first edition of Facilitating with Ease! in 2000, this bestselling book has become the "go-to" reference for anyone who wants to become skilled in the art of facilitation. This thoroughly revised and updated third edition includes easy-to-follow instructions, techniques, and hands-on tools. Facilitating with Ease! offers the basics on running productive meetings with confidence and includes the information needed to train others to become skilled facilitators as well. Filled with dozens of exercises, surveys, and checklists that can be used to transform anyone into an effective facilitator, this revised editioncovers new topics such Why and when leaders should facilitate and how to manage neutrality Diversity, globalization, new technologies, and employee engagement When leaders should facilitate and when others should do it Sharing facilitation with others This new edition also includes meeting design template, surveys, and questionnaires Praise for Facilitating with Ease! "Facilitating With Ease! provides clear and effective guidelines for group facilitation. In China we are using this book to help organizations develop facilitative leaders who can successfully invoke the spirit of cooperation and team synergy." ?Ren Wei, professional facilitator, X'ian, China "Facilitating With Ease! helps beginners as well as experienced facilitators find their way among different aspects of facilitation. Easy to understand, this book provides insight into the principles of facilitation and examples of practical applications for concrete situations." ?Sieglinde Hinger, Siemens Corporation, Austria "Facilitating with Ease! is the fundamental read if you want to be an effective facilitator. We refer to it all the time and consider it a core competency for our consultants." ?Ian Madell, managing director, LEVEL5 Branded Business Advisors, Toronto, Canada "If you're only going to buy one book on facilitation, this is the one to buy! That's what we tell the managers, consultants and facilitators who attend our facilitation training programs. It's a gold mine of ideas, resources and practical tools." ?Ronnie McEwan, director, Kinharvie Institute, Glasgow, Scotland "I have been using Ingrid's materials for many years and find her books to be far above everything else out there. This latest revision builds on what was already great and will surely increase the effectiveness of any practitioner." ?Mark Vilbert, program leader, Boeing Leadership Center

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Leadership, Professional Development, Communication, Amazon

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 10, 2000

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource. The facilitation processes are a bit shallow and requires additional research, but great starter guide for new facilitators.

[Renata Calvoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book

Love the content! The structure and topics of discussions were extremely helpful and easy to follow! I believe it could be used as a reference material!

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great content, tricky to absorb in audiobook format. Picking up the regular book as well for reference and pulling out the tools as needed.

[Shannon Marie Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reads far more like a workbook than a textbook and I found it very practical.

[Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a useful guide and one I will probably revisit as a refresher. The bonus materials are beyond amazing and helpful!!!

[Fran Cormack · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have read on facilitation. So much to take away and experiment with.

[Patrik Gustafsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers allt good practices on facilitation. Clarifications on what to think of when. And also bridges what I am considering leadership with great tips there also.

[Valerie Ott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it for work. I wouldn't recommend it unless you need to know about facilitation.
Did you know that the word facil in Spanish means easy?
Facilitation isn't always easy.

[Leo Stranius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jos vedät paljon työpajoja ja erilaisia kokouksia antaa tämä kirja hyvät perusvinkit tähän työhön.

[Gordon Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bestseller, and it is now in its third edition, so it is clearly meeting a need and contains a lot of excellent material. However, several elements of the presentation leave a lot to be desired. The most glaring deficiency is in the grammar, particularly in the first three chapters, which, in some places, is so bad it is distracting. The worst example is in the table on page 41: “Be facilitative for the sections of the meeting in which it’s important to: accountability can be shared” (obviously this should read “share accountability” – since “to” in this context indicates that the next word is an infinitive, the table entry must begin with a verb, not a noun). Line spacing varies, sometimes within entries, in some cases there is no space between sentences, most of the time there is one space, and sometimes there are two spaces. In addition, there are carriage returns and extra spaces within sentences in places for no apparent reason.

I have fewer criticisms of the content, much of which is excellent. However, I remain unconvinced that it is impossible to have an effective meeting without a flip-chart, periodic process checks, and a set of group norms posted in the meeting room. I have been in several very effective meetings that have used none of these.

The biggest omission from this book is an index. I understand the author’s concern for informality, but if it becomes necessary to check on a particular point of procedure, it is not always easy to find it quickly using only the Table of Contents.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I use this facilitator's guide in teaching my class on team leadership skills, I think it is an excellent and very practical adjunct to any OD specialist's library. Included are numerous pragmatic recommendations, tools, assessment instruments and ideas, and so forth for facilitating in various contexts. From the author's extensive experience as a facilitator and OD consultant, it addresses:

- Understanding facilitation
- Facilitation stages
- Knowing your participants
- Creating participation
- Effective decision-making
- Facilitating conflict (very important!)
- Meeting management

I find myself going back to this book from time to time for refreshment or to prompt new ideas for my own practice.

[Christophe Addinquy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meeting facilitation is something we often do in freestyle. It leads to ineficient ones, tehrefore a big waste of time : no agenda, no action plan, discussion going off track in best cases. This book can quickly become a reference book of recipies to manage the facilitation process, setup agenda and resolve conflicts.
The format is pretty unusual as it looks more like a training support material than a book. But it's fine, it make the book more practical, even if the reading is less linear.
ma note de lecture en français ici

[Adama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book with practical "How To" for every occasion

As a team leader regularly facilitating team meetings, I found this book extremely useful. The book is full of practical and implementable tips and tools to facilitate various types of meeting.

It can be used as a handbook you can quickly refer to before each meeting in order select the right tool or approach to achieve sessions objectives or facilitate decisions makings process.

[Toni SCRUMptious · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not be put off that this book was published in 2000, it is absolutely full of useful information.
It's rather hefty to trawl through cover-to-cover, as I did, but it is well worth it!
Contents:
1. Understanding Facilitation
2. Facilitation Stages
3. Knowing Your Participants
4. Creating Participation
5. Facilitating Conflict
6. Effective Decision Making
7. Meeting Management
8. Process Tool for Facilitators
9. Process Designs.

[Shawn]

using it for school right now, will comment once the course is done, but I've heard great things from everyone whose read this book.

[Brian Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of practical tips and tools that will really help me facilitate. like many self help books, it's hard to read cover to cover but will be a great resource for the future.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changes the concept of a meeting.

[Chris Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful book, packed full of ideas, techniques and reminders of bad habits to avoid

[Richard Kalmeijer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great book. Well structured. All the important aspects of facilitation are mentioned and explained. Gives the reader a lot of tools and checklists

[Pia Vilmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tämä kirja jokaisen fasilitaattorin hyllyyn! Käytännöllinen, runsas ja erittäin selkeä opas fasilitoinnin kaikille osa-alueille.