WE'VE ALL EXPERIENCED the challenges associated with working with groups, but The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups turns the idea of "difficult groups" on its head. Rather than view groups as inherently difficult, it looks at the factors that make working with groups difficult. Individual chapters focus on challenges such as involving dissenters, building external perspectives, reducing complaining, adapting to cultural differences, incorporating diversity, facilitating inclusion, working virtually, resolving identity-based conflict, transforming unproductive behavior patterns, preventing workplace harassment, and strengthening accountability.
The book first provides a framework for thinking systemically about the many and varied ways in which working with a group can be difficult. Building on that framework, the contributors each address three basic issues:
- How the group is difficulta description of a real group and the observable phenomena that reflect the group's difficulty.
- Why the group is difficultan exploration of the underlying causes of the difficulty.
- What you can do about itwhat you can do as a group facilitator, leader, or member to help the group.
Table of Contents:
Preface xi
Sandor Schuman
About the Contributors xv
Introduction
Working with Difficult Groups: A Conceptual Framework xxix
Make sense out of what makes working with groups difficult.
Sandor Schuman and John Rohrbaugh
One Keeping Difficult Situations from Becoming Difficult Groups 1
Dissenters need support, or the group risks going off track.
Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff
Two Building an External Focus: Avoiding the Difficulties on an In-grown Team 17
The critical importance of an external perspective.
Deborah Ancona and David F. Caldwell
Three The Downside of Communication: Complaining Cycles in Group Discussions 33
Help teams get out of the ‘‘complaining loop’’ and turn to solution-oriented interaction instead.
Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock and Simone Kauffeld
Four Facilitating Multicultural Groups 55
Customize structures and processes to match groups’ cultural preferences.
Donna Rae Scheffert and Mary Laeger-Hagemeister
Five Interpersonally Hostile Work Groups: Precipitating Factors and Solutions 77
A group perspective on workplace harassment and bullying is essential to understanding and preventing it.
Jana L. Raver and Ingrid C. Chadwick
Six Diversity by Design: Creating Cognitive Conflict to Enhance Group Performance 95
Ill defined, diversity might undermine a group’s purpose.
Michael Cassidy
Seven Facilitating Inclusion: Study Circles on Diversity and Student Achievement 113
Bridging differences in culture and ethnicity can foster academic achievement
Mark A. Clark and John Landesman
Eight Overcoming Sources of Irrationality That Complicate Working in Decision-Making Groups 137
Six factors make working with this group difficult in many different ways.
Dennis S. Gouran
Nine Working Without Rules: A Team in Need of a Different Picture 153
Affirmative language encourages new views of a team’s past and future.
Ann Lukens
Ten Interaction Archetypes: Keys to Group Difficulty and Productivity 169
Identify the repetitive behavioral sequences that reduce a group’s ability to produce results.
Steven Ober
Eleven Virtual Teams: Difficult in All Dimensions 189
Group members working virtually and interdependently face enormous challenges.
Thomas A. O’Neill and Theresa J. B. Kline
Twelve Politics of the Arts: Challenges in Working with Nonprofit Boards 207
A ‘‘confessional tale’’—lessons learned while facilitating an arts board in transition.
Richard W. Sline and Anna C. Boulton
Thirteen Competitive Group Interactions: Why They Exist and How to Overcome Them 223
Groups are less cooperative than individuals—learn how you can reduce intergroup conflict.
Taya R. Cohen, Brian P. Meier, Verlin B. Hinsz, and Chester A. Insko
Fourteen Active Facilitation: How to Help Groups Break Through ‘‘Mutual Stalemate’’ 237
Groups may abdicate their responsibilities waiting until another group makes the first move.
Celia Kirwan and Wes Siegal
Fifteen Mediating History, Making Peace: Dealing with the ‘‘Messy’’ Stuff in the Conciliation Process 251
Identity-based conflicts will not achieve long-term solutions through resource-based settlements.
Dagmar Kusa, Adam Saltsman, and Philip Gamaghelyan
Sixteen Deep Democracy: Multidimensional Process-Oriented Leadership 275
Learn to track the shifting roles of group members.
Stanford Siver
Seventeen Authentic Relationships and Collective Psychological Capital 293
How leader behavior can undermine group success.
Füsun Bulutlar
Eighteen How Leaders Can Make Diverse Groups Less Difficult: The Role of Attitudes and Perceptions of Diversity 311
Perceptions that lead to subgrouping can override the positive effects of diversity.
Astrid C. Homan and Karen A. Jehn
Nineteen The Hero’s Journey: Helping Inflexible Groups—and Inflexible Facilitators—Get Unstuck 323
Use the Hero’s Journey as an analytical and facilitation tool to help groups and facilitators get out of difficulties.
Carol Sherriff and Simon Wilson
Twenty Difficult Groups or Difficult Facilitators? Three Steps Facilitators Can Take to Make Sure They Are Not the Problem 339
Facilitators can unknowingly contribute to the difficulties their group’s experience.
Glyn Thomas
Key Terms 353
References 367
Name Index 401
Subject Index 409
About the Author :
Sandy Schuman has been helping organizations work more effectively to solve complex problems and make critical decisions for more than thirty years. He is a group facilitator, collaborative process advocate, and storyteller. He helps groups create shared meaning, make critical choices, and build collaborative relationships. He facilitates problem-solving and decision-making processes for a wide variety of public management and policy issues and provides training in group facilitation, decision making, systems thinking, conflict management systems, and organizational communication. He is the editor of the International Association of Facilitators handbook series: The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation, Creating a Culture of Collaboration, and Working with Difficult Groups.
