Chantal Nève-Hanquet and Agathe Crespel provide an accessible and ground-breaking guide to genuinely effective group work, sharing excellent hands-on assistance for coaches and facilitators. Offering a unique selection of guidelines and illustrations for group work, the authors demonstrate the benefits of using creative action methods in practice, helping leaders discover new ways to achieve dynamic group sessions and endowing their work with new vigour, as well as pleasure. Facilitating Collective Intelligence brings together a wealth of knowledge and techniques from psychodrama, Jungian and systemic analysis to inform group facilitation. Throughout the book's four parts, key inner attitudes, questions and action techniques are explored to help facilitators nourish open and flexible forms of communication within groups, stimulate collective intelligence and foster creative approaches to collective problem-solving. With the help of numerous sensitively related case studies, the book guides the reader through the process of achieving more dynamism in group work, fostering creativity, encouraging agility and developing co-construction within groups. It contains more than thirty practical reference sheets which provide an instant aid for implementing the methods and models in the book. Nève-Hanquet and Crespel’s approach advocates the use of actions methods, specifically the ARC model, to encourage 'out of the box' thinking and develop new paths and strategies in working with teams and organizations. Facilitating Collective Intelligence is an invaluable and essential tool in cultivating effective group dynamics for all coaches, coach supervisors and consultants, both experienced and in training. Due to its clear and practical structure, it will also be useful for counsellors, coaching psychologists and other professionals who work with groups, as well as students and academics of coaching and coaching psychology.

Praise for Facilitating Group Learning "In this engaging and accessible book, George Lakey draws on a lifetime's experience to provide a highly practical resource to anyone seeking to understand and respond to the complexities of group work. The book will be invaluable to anyone trying to effect social change through groups while striving to stay simultaneously sane and employed." Stephen D. Brookfield, Distinguished University Professor, University of St. Thomas "I've been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!" Starhawk, author, The Earth Path, Dreaming the Dark, and Webs of Power "George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that challenges us to redefine social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. This book helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members." Denis Lemelin, national president, Canadian Union of Postal Workers "Facilitating Group Learning will ease the way of all who venture into the white waters of facilitation. George clarifies the most basic, complex, and nagging challenges of facilitation, while honoring the realities of individual and social power dynamics and providing real-life examples from the path of continued growth and mastery. A rare gift!" Niyonu D. Spann, founding president, TRV Consulting and Beyond Diversity 101 "This book is a must-read for people who teach adults of any age, no matter what the subject, and care about doing it in ways that yield deep and abiding learning. Wonderfully well-written and rich with psychological and spiritual insights as well as practical strategies, it represents the fruits of a lifetime of transformational teaching and learning by one of the foremost adult educators of our time." Parker J. Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and The Heart of Higher Education

"A new field of collective intelligence has emerged in the last few years, prompted by a wave of digital technologies that make it possible for organizations and societies to think at large scale. This "bigger mind"--human and machine capabilities working together--has the potential to solve the great challenges of our time. So why do smart technologies not automatically lead to smart results? Gathering insights from diverse fields, including philosophy, computer science, and biology, Big Mind reveals how collective intelligence can guide corporations, governments, universities, and societies to make the most of human brains and digital technologies"--Amazon.com.

How to get groups to work with one another within any business organization.

Twenty-four authors describe how they use Action Explorations (techniques from traditional psychodrama) for a wide range of uses, from business coaching to education to personal growth.

Smart leaders know that they would greatly increase productivity and innovation if only they could get everyone fully engaged. So do professors, facilitators and all changemakers. The challenge is how. Liberating Structures are novel, practical and no-nonsense methods to help you accomplish this goal with groups of any size. Prepare to be surprised by how simple and easy they are for anyone to use. This book shows you how with detailed descriptions for putting them into practice plus tips on how to get started and traps to avoid. It takes the design and facilitation methods experts use and puts them within reach of anyone in any organization or initiative, from the frontline to the C-suite. Part One: The Hidden Structure of Engagement will ground you with the conceptual framework and vocabulary of Liberating Structures. It contrasts Liberating Structures with conventional methods and shows the benefits of using them to transform the way people collaborate, learn, and discover solutions together. Part Two: Getting Started and Beyond offers guidelines for experimenting in a wide range of applications from small group interactions to system-wide initiatives: meetings, projects, problem solving, change initiatives, product launches, strategy development, etc. Part Three: Stories from the Field illustrates the endless possibilities Liberating Structures offer with stories from users around the world, in all types of organizations -- from healthcare to academic to military to global business enterprises, from judicial and legislative environments to R&D. Part Four: The Field Guide for Including, Engaging, and Unleashing Everyone describes how to use each of the 33 Liberating Structures with step-by-step explanations of what to do and what to expect. Discover today what Liberating Structures can do for you, without expensive investments, complicated training, or difficult restructuring. Liberate everyone's contributions -- all it takes is the determination to experiment.

This volume describes, analyzes, and critiques the design and evolution of the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS), a National Security Agency-funded big data laboratory. The LAS consists of teams of intelligence personnel, who provide practical understanding of needs, targets, and tradecraft, working collaboratively with university scholars and industry partners of varying disciplines to bring their collective expert knowledge and understanding to improve the tools and tradecraft of intelligence. This book details the theoretical and practical lessons that can be drawn from the LAS for the development of cross-sector, interdisciplinary collaboration. It will inform scholars and practitioners in intelligence, communication, design, management, public policy, political science, and indeed all arenas currently grappling with the desire to engage multiple and diverse stakeholders in the research and development of innovative solutions to the worldâ (TM)s most challenging problems.

How to use group dynamics to make the right decisions? Organizations evolve in a context of change, uncertainty, and complexity. Employees need to understand what is at stake and to participate in decisions. However, if managers and leaders need to mobilize collective intelligence to succeed, they have little or no training in working in large groups. Collaborative design is a development process involving stakeholders. Workshops, led by facilitators from within the company or from external firms, take place during seminars lasting one or more days. In a complex situation such as a merger, the reframing of a project, a business choice, the launch of a product, the development of an organization, or the implementation of a strategy, they bring together from fifteen to more than one hundred and fifty participants around an objective: to analyze the situation, to find out how to deal with and solve a problem, to produce shared representations or decisions, and to commit to action. This book is based on the author's proven practices. It will help executives and managers co-design and co-facilitate these workshops so that they produce tangible results. Very concrete, it is illustrated with various cases such as a large aeronautical company, a research laboratory, an industrial SME, a professional group, a cooperative, or a school. After an introduction on collaborative design, it is organized into four parts: 1. Understanding, imagining, and giving meaning 2. Planning, projecting, and giving substance 3. Expanding, improvising, and giving rhythm 4. Planting, growing, and sustaining life Each of the twenty-seven practical sections can be approached independently thanks to a common plan: issues, keys, and examples. The book is prefaced by Gabrielle Rolland, consultant in change management, speaker and writer on leadership and collective intelligence, and author of "Seniors, votre avenir a un futur" (Laffont, 2009).

The Tao of Democracy presents an increasingly relevant and compelling vision of wiser public policy and vibrant democratic culture. Written by lifelong activist Tom Atlee, The Tao of Democracy is rooted in a simple, yet revolutionary proposition that opens doors to positive democratic change: Given a supportive structure and resources, diverse ordinary people can work together to achieve common ground. Tom Atlee takes readers through numerous examples of how this proposition has been tested and proven hundreds of times around the world in diverse and innovative forms of public conversation. • In Oregon, a nonprofit involved thousands of ordinary citizens in in-depth conversations about how to best use limited health care funds; the result was a mandate by the state legislature to use such community meetings to guide state health care decisions. • In Toronto, Canada, a group of a dozen people widely divergent political views created, over the course of one weekend, a consensus vision for improving the nation as a whole—a feat that parliamentary committees, focus groups, and millions of dollars in funds had been unable to achieve. • In Andhra Pradesh, India, twenty farmers participated in a prajateerpu or citizens’ jury, listening to testimony and cross-examining experts (including international government officials) in order to present the World Bank with practical proposals for managing the state’s agriculture systems. Ideal for community organizers, nonprofit workers, policymakers, and elected officials, The Tao of Democracy illuminates new forms of collective citizenship that can help us achieve creative consensus without compromise, addressing the diversity and complexity of our society while preserving and utilizing our precious individuality. “Tom Atlee paints a vision not of some distant, ideal democracy but of here-and-now practices showing us what’s possible in our immediate future. An important gift for our small, challenged planet!”—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and EcoMind TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Section I: An Overview of Co-Intelligence 1. What Is Co-Intelligence? 2. Tales and Commentaries 3. Wholeness, Interconnectedness, and Co-Creativity 4. Resonant Intelligence Section II: Making a Whole Difference Together 5. Reaching Beyond Adversarial Activism 6. Collective Intelligence 7. Ways to Have Real Dialogue 8. Other Approaches to Co-Intelligence 9. The List Goes On… Section III: Creating a Wise Democracy 10. Democracy and Wholeness 11. Cooperative and Holistic Politics 12. The Canadian Experiment 13. Citizens Deliberate about Public Issues 14. Citizen Deliberative Councils Section IV: Citizenship toward a Wiser Civilization 15. Citizenship Meets Complexxity 16. More Approaches to Deliberative Democracy 17. The Emerging Culture of Dialogue 18. Consensus: Manipluation or Magic? 19. Co-Intelligent Citizenship and Activism 20. The Tao of Democracy Epilogue What You Can Do Bibliography Index

Over the past several years, a team of consultants from the Dilts Strategy Group has conducted a research project to model the key success factors--"the differences that makes the difference"--required to increase the capacity for Collective Intelligence within groups and organizations. The purpose of this study was to identify the latest trends and principles applied by successful teams and organizations to raise their level of Collective Intelligence in order to address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities in the today's economic environment. This book is the story of that adventure, which was itself the expression of a collaborative spirit. That adventure culminated in the development of a Collective Intelligence assessment processes - called the PERICEO Tool - that can allow any team or organization to evaluate and augment its degree of Collective Intelligence. This book itself was formulated and co-written, applying the processes of Collective Intelligence. Through it, the authors aim to share their discoveries and encourage readers from all walks of life to explore and better understand this important and fascinating topic. As co-author Robert Dilts states: "The ability of teams and organizations to foster the conditions for creating a genuine Collective Intelligence is one of the main challenges of our time." This book offers many important insights for how to identify and implement the key success factors that help groups and organizations perform beyond their expectations.