Consensus Through Conversation: How to Achieve High-Commitment Decisions - Softcover

Dressler, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442963808 ISBN 13: 9781442963801

Publisher: ReadHowYouWant, 2012

Synopsis

If you are a consultant, manager, meeting facilitator, team leader, community organizer, or simply someone who is involved in lots of group decisions, Consensus Through Conversation was written for you. Consensus Through Conversation is a portable, easy-to-read reference to help you facilitate and participate in consensus decision-making processes. It contains the basic principles and methods for making consensus work, whether in the corporate boardroom or in the community meeting hall. This book was developed as a companion to Consensus Cards, a tool I developed to assist groups in making consensus-based decisions. The book can be used on its own or in conjunction with this tool....Consensus can be a powerful and transformative tool. However, it is by no means a panacea that will transform your organization into a perfectly democratic or otherwise utopian world. Your job as a leader will be to decide when and where to use a consensus-based approach (see Guidelines in section entitled ''Consensus Defined,'' Chapter 1).

About this title

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

"An invaluable companion for all those who train, facilitate, run, or design high-stakes meeings...Dressler's well of wisdom is awe-inspiring."
--Susan Scott, author of Fierce Conversations and Fierce Leadership

"A book for anyone who feels called to stand in hard places and help people find life-giving ways to proceed."
--Parker Palmer, author of A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, and The Courage to Teach

"Practical, insightful, and filled with entertaining stories. I recommend this book for anyone working in the arena of public engagement and deliberation."
--Sandy Heierbacher, Director, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation

About the Author

For more than fifteen years, Larry Dressler has designed and facilitated conversations and learning experiences that elicit new insights and inspire action in organizations. He is sought out by executive leaders as a trusted advisor on how to weave candor, commitment, collaboration and continuous learning into the fabric of the workplace. As the founder of Blue Wing Consulting, Larry has traveled throughout the country speaking, consulting, and connecting with people who embody what he calls ''Wide-Awake Leadership.'' He has worked with a wide variety of organizations, including Nissan Motors, USC University Hospital, Starbucks, Washington Department of Ecology, Pediatric AIDS Foundation, U.S. Federal Protective Services, and Cisco Systems. Described by clients as a ''gentle instigator of breakthrough conversations,'' Larry's work has brought him to interesting places including the headquarters of companies in 30 industries, a ''circus school'' in Colorado, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and Skid Row, Los Angeles. Whether in a corporate boardroom, on a factory floor or underneath a rainforest canopy, Larry's special talent for posing powerful questions and setting collaboration in motion is at the heart of his work. Larry's education combines the disciplines of social psychology and business strategy. He earned his BA degree in Sociology from UCLA and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. He has also completed post-graduate coursework in Organizational Psychology. He lives with his wife, Linda in Boulder, Colorado.

Edition details

• Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1442963808
• ISBN 13: 9781442963801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152