The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking

Build teams, make better decisions, energize groups, and think out of the box Do you need a resource that you can pull out of your pocket to liven up meetings, trainings, professional development, and teaching? The fifty easily applied techniques in this timely manual spur creativity, stimulate energy, keep groups focused, and increase participation. Whether you're teaching classes, facilitating employee training, leading organizational or community meetings, furthering staff and professional development, guiding town halls, or working with congregations, The Discussion Book is your go-to guide for improving any group process. Each of the concrete techniques and exercises is clearly described with guidance on selection and implementation, as well as advice on which pitfalls to avoid. All of the techniques: Offer new ways to engage people and energize groups Get employees, students, colleagues, constituents, and community members to participate more fully in deliberative decision-making Encourage creativity and openness to new perspectives Increase collaboration and build cohesive teams Keep groups focused on important topics and hard-to-address issues Derived from the authors' decades of experience using these exercises with schools, colleges, corporations, the military, social movements, health care organizations, prisons, unions, non-profits, and elsewhere, The Discussion Book will help you guide discussions that matter.

Table of Contents:
Preface ix User Guide xiii Acknowledgments xix The Authors xxi Introduction 1 1 Circle of Voices 9 2 Chalk Talk 13 3 Circular Response 19 4 Newsprint Dialogue 25 5 Today’s Meet 31 6 Giving Appreciation: The Appreciative Pause–Sticky Note Plaudit 37 7 Rotating Stations 43 8 Snowballing 49 9 Conversational Moves 53 10 Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ) 59 11 Strategic Questioning 65 12 Open-ended Questions 71 13 Nominating Questions 77 14 If You Could Only Ask One Question 81 15 On-the-Spot Questions and Topics 87 16 What Do You Think? 93 17 Clearness Committee 97 18 Team Modeling 103 19 Question Brainstorm 107 20 Narrative Listening and Questioning 111 21 Participation Rubric 115 22 Critical Conversation Protocol 121 23 What Are You Hearing? 127 24 Understanding Check 131 25 Stand Where You Stand 135 26 Think-Pair-Share 139 27 Drawing Discussion 143 28 Musicalizing Discussion 149 29 Structured Silence 153 30 Writing Discussion 157 31 Quick Writes 161 32 Cocktail Party 165 33 Bohmian Dialogue 169 34 Methodological Belief 173 35 Justifiable Pressure 177 36 Hatful of Quotes 181 37 Quotes to Affirm and Challenge 185 38 Jigsaw 189 39 Titling the Text 193 40 Critical Debate 197 41 Single Word Sum-Ups 201 42 Setting Ground Rules 205 43 Canvassing for Common Ground 209 44 Dramatizing Discussion 215 45 Deliberative Polling 219 46 Participatory Decision Making 223 47 Mutual Invitation 229 48 The Three-Person Rule 233 49 Conversational Roles 237 50 Facilitator Summary 243 Bibliography 247 Index 249

About the Author :
STEPHEN D. BROOKFIELD is the John Ireland Endowed Chair at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books including The Skillful Teacher, Teaching for Critical Thinking, and Powerful Techniques for Teaching Adults, from Jossey-Bass. STEPHEN PRESKILL is professor emeritus at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. He is the author, with Stephen Brookfield, of Discussion as a Way of Teaching and Learning as a Way of Leading, both from Jossey-Bass.

Review :
"The Discussion Book" offers new ways to engage people and energize groups; will get employees, students, colleagues, constituents, and community members to participate more fully in deliberative decision-making; encourage creativity and openness to new perspectives; increase collaboration and build cohesive teams; and keep groups focused on important topics and hard-to-address issues." (Reviewer's Bookwatch, May 2016)