Preface to the Third Edition xvii

What The Skilled Facilitator is About xvii

Who This Book is For xix

How the Book is Organized xix

Features of the Book xxii

What’s Different in the Third Edition xxiii

Part One The Foundation 1

1 The Skilled Facilitator Approach 3

The Need for Group Facilitation 3

Most People Who Need to Facilitate Aren’t Facilitators 3

Is This Book for You? 4

The Skilled Facilitator Approach 8

Experiencing the Skilled Facilitator Approach 10

Making the Skilled Facilitator Approach Your Own 11

Summary 12

2 The Facilitator and Other Facilitative Roles 13

Choosing a Facilitative Role 13

Basic and Developmental Types of Roles 23

Serving in Multiple Facilitative Roles 25

When It’s Appropriate to Leave the Role of Facilitator 25

The Group is Your Client 28

What is Your Responsibility for the Group’s Results? 29

Summary 33

3 How You Think is How You Facilitate: How Unilateral Control Undermines Your Ability to Help Groups 35

How You Think: Your Mindset as an Operating System 36

Two Mindsets: Unilateral Control and Mutual Learning 37

How You Think is Not How You Think You Think 37

The CIO Team Survey Feedback Case 38

The Unilateral Control Approach 41

Values of the Unilateral Control Mindset 41

Assumptions of the Unilateral Control Mindset 45

Unilateral Control Behaviors 46

Results of Unilateral Control 50

Give-Up-Control Approach 55

How Unilateral Control Reinforces Itself 55

How Did We Learn Unilateral Control? 56

Moving from Unilateral Control to Mutual Learning 57

Summary 58

4 Facilitating with the Mutual Learning Approach 59

The Mutual Learning Approach 59

Values of the Mutual Learning Mindset 61

Assumptions of the Mutual Learning Mindset 75

Mutual Learning Behaviors 77

Results of Mutual Learning 80

The Reinforcing Cycles of Mutual Learning 84

Are There Times When Unilateral Control is the Better Approach? 85

Summary 86

5 Eight Behaviors for Mutual Learning 87

Using the Eight Behaviors 87

Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions 89

Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information 94

Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean 97

Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent 99

Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions 101

Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences 103

Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps 114

Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues 117

Learning to Use the Behaviors 119

Summary 120

6 Designing and Developing Effective Groups 121

How a Team Effectiveness Model Helps You and the Teams and Groups You Work With 122

The Difference between Teams and Groups—and Why It Matters 122

How Interdependence Affects Your Work with Teams and Groups 127

The Team Effectiveness Model 128

What’s Your Mindset as You Design? 132

Team Structure, Process, and Context 133

Team Structure 134

Team Process 139

Team Context 143

Interorganizational Teams and Groups 150

Helping Design or Redesign a Team or Group 150

Summary 153

Part Two Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups 155

7 Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups 157

What You Need to Diagnose 158

What You Need to Intervene 160

The Mutual Learning Cycle 160

Summary 163

8 How to Diagnose Groups 165

Step 1: Observe Behavior 165

Step 2: Make Meaning 171

Step 3: Choose Whether, Why, and How to Intervene 178

Challenges in Diagnosing Behavior and How to Manage Them 186

Summary 192

9 How to Intervene with Groups 193

Key Elements of the Intervention Steps 193

Using the Mutual Learning Cycle to Intervene: An Example 196

Step 4: Test Observations 198

Step 5: Test Meaning 200

Step 6: Jointly Design Next Steps 203

How to Move through the Intervention Steps 205

Choosing Your Words Carefully 209

Summary 212

10 Diagnosing and Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors 213

How Mutual Learning Behaviors Differ from Many Ground Rules 213

Contracting to Intervene on Mutual Learning Behaviors 214

Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors 218

Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions 220

Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information 220

Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean 221

Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent 222

Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions 223

Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences 225

Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps 227

Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues 230

Summary 231

11 Using Mutual Learning to Improve Other Processes and Techniques 233

Using Mutual Learning to Diagnose and Intervene on Other Processes 233

Diagnosing and Intervening When Groups are Using a Process Ineffectively 235

Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That are Incongruent with Mutual Learning 237

Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That Espouse Mutual Learning: Lean and Other Continuous Improvement Approaches 244

Summary 246

12 Diagnosing and Intervening on Emotions—The Group’s and Yours 249

The Challenge 249

How People Generate Emotions 250

How Groups Express Emotions 252

Managing Your Own Emotions 254

Deciding How to Intervene 256

Intervening on Emotions 259

Helping People Express Emotions Effectively 259

Helping People Reduce Defensive Thinking 259

Helping the Group Express Positive Emotions 265

When People Get Angry with You 267

Learning from Your Experiences 267

Summary 268

Part Three Agreeing to Work Together 269

13 Contracting: Deciding Whether and How to Work with a Group 271

Why Contract? 272

Five Stages of Contracting 272

Stage 1: Making Initial Contact with a Primary Client Group Member 274

Stage 2: Planning the Facilitation 283

Stage 3: Reaching Agreement with the Entire Group 293

Stage 4: Conducting the Facilitation 295

Stage 5: Completing and Evaluating the Facilitation 295

Summary 297

14 Working with a Partner 299

Deciding Whether to Partner 299

Dividing and Coordinating the Labor 306

Allocating Roles within Your Division of Labor 308

Developing Healthy Boundaries between You and Your Partner 310

Debriefing with Your Partner 314

Summary 314

15 Serving in a Facilitative Role in Your Own Organization 317

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internal Facilitative Role 317

How Your Internal Facilitative Role is Shaped 320

Shaping Your Facilitative Role 321

Changing Your Facilitative Role from the Outside In 329

Summary 330

Part Four Working with Technology 333

16 Using Virtual Meetings 335

Choosing Which Type of Virtual Meeting Technology to Use—If Any 336

The Challenges That Virtual Meetings Create 339

Designing and Facilitating Virtual Meetings to Meet These Challenges 341

Summary 345

Notes 347

Acknowledgments 361

About the Author 363

About Roger Schwarz & Associates’ Work with Clients 365

The Skilled Facilitator Intensive Workshop 367

Index 369

PRAISE FOR THE SKILLED FACILITATOR

"This book replaces about a dozen that I have on my shelf. It has become the book on facilitation that aspiring and accomplished consultants should read."
—Geoffrey Bellman, author of The Consultant's Calling and Extraordinary Groups

"There is no better guide for how to intervene effectively in organizational groups than Roger Schwarz. His incredibly useful third edition of The Skilled Facilitator adds a framework that makes clear distinctions among roles such as coach, consultant, and facilitator, and makes cogent recommendations for each role. At the heart and soul of Schwarz's wisdom is the notion of mindset—that we must first consider and alter our own thinking before we can work productively with the complexity of group dynamics."
—Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School and author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy

"The Skilled Facilitator is essential reading for every group facilitator, consultant, and team coach to be grounded in the values, assumptions, principles and practice of group facilitation. In the third edition, Roger Schwarz continues to address these matters thoughtfully, coherently, and comprehensively so readers can help groups create the results they need."
—Sandor P. Schuman, editor of The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation: Best Practices from the Leading Organization in Facilitation

"The heart of Roger Schwarz's approach to facilitation is mutual learning between the facilitator and group and between all members of the group. As he points out so aptly, mutual learning is a different mindset than unilateral control and when under stress it is common for facilitators to default to control. This book provides a launching point for the deliberate practice required to facilitate high performing work groups."
—Jeffrey Liker, Professor, University of Michigan and author of The Toyota Way

"I'm deeply grateful to Roger Schwarz, the modern master of facilitation theory and practice, for giving us a sleeker, tighter, and more modern version of his magnum opus. For many years, my Wharton students have reaped the powerful rewards of his earlier edition's careful instruction; it's changed their minds and their lives. With this seamlessly coherent and crucially substantial upgrade to what was already the field's gold standard, future students of collective action seeking a rigorous, highly practical method have a yet wiser guide."
—Stew Friedman, author of Total Leadership and founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program

The third edition of The Skilled Facilitator by Roger Schwarz is the thoroughly revised and updated resource that has become the standard reference in the field. Well grounded in research and theory, this comprehensive and integrative approach to facilitation is designed for consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers, and anyone who helps groups realize their creative and problem-solving potential. The Skilled Facilitator approach is a proven systems approach in which all the parts fit together and reinforce each other because they are based on the same set of core values, assumptions, and principles. This enables groups to achieve three results: stronger performance, more productive working relationships, and greater individual well-being.

While retaining the essential information from the previous editions, this new edition offers completely revised models of group effectiveness and mutual learning. Roger Schwarz highlights the roles of the consultant, coach, and trainer, and offers a detailed explanation of how to approach a situation depending on the facilitative role. In addition, there is a completely new chapter on facilitating virtual meetings using conferencing technology.

The Skilled Facilitator explores the foundational skills needed to work from a productive mindset, explains how to adopt the effective mutual learning approach, and includes ideas for determining the right role for the right situation. Experienced facilitators and those new to the profession will have the information needed to effectively observe a group, figure out what is happening that is limiting the group's effectiveness, and when to intervene to help the group become more successful. In addition, the author offers step-by-step instructions for reaching an agreement to work with a group and offers advice for deciding whether to work with a partner. Schwarz also includes suggestions for working internally within your organization.

The real-life stories and verbatim examples from the author reveal how to effectively apply the Skilled Facilitator approach in everyday practice and the pitfalls to avoid. The author explains how using this proven approach will strengthen improvement processes and create a psychologically safe learning environment for training. In addition, Schwarz provides help for coaches who work with teams and individuals in real-time.

Facilitation skills are essential in many kinds of work. For anyone who wants to hone their skills and bring them up-to-date, The Skilled Facilitator is their go-to reference.