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The Workshop Book

I was first exposed to structured methods of consensus decision making about thirty years ago. I have run staff meeting that way over the course of my leadership of several organizations. I've used methods developed by Quakers, political movements, and other communities of practice. The Technology of Participation methods of the Institute for Cultural Affairs are a fairly mature set of techniques that you can learn from a 2002 book by Brian Stanfield called The Workshop Book. It describes the general principles, specific tools and their application, the responsibilities of different roles, and the application of these methods to various sizes of groups. If you love the magic of turning diverse creative agendas into powerfully committed group action, then I highly recommend this book. Posted: 11/18/06; 3:26:59 PM #

Alliances, Coalitions, and Partnerships

Joan Roberts is a terrifically clear-headed and visionary consultant from Toronto. Her book-- Alliances, Coalitions, and Partnerships -- is one of the best on the subject of collaboration that I have read. Her strengths include the practicality of her taxonomies and her head-on examination of the topic of power and control. She looks closely both at concrete models and systems of inter-organzational collaboration, as well as the tools and capacities needed with an organization, in order for it to succeed as a collaborator. We need these ideas if we, as a sector, are going to transition successfully into the era of networks. Posted: 11/18/06; 3:11:23 PM #

Tools for Conviviality

I recently decided to reread Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich. It was written in 1973 and I read it for the first time in 1978. His vision of criteria for tools that empower people to be empowered producers rather than consumers of industrial production has some powerful tensions and synergies with contemporary themes of post-scarcity society in the age of the Net. This powerful work is worth revisiting. Posted: 11/18/06; 3:06:00 PM #

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