Facilitating Breakthrough: How to Remove Obstacles, Bridge Differences, and Move Forward Together

Making progress on complex, problematic situations requires a new approach to working together: transformative facilitation, a structured and creative process for removing the obstacles to fluid forward movement. People today face increasing complexity and decreasing control. They need to work with more people across more divides. But the traditional ways of advancing-subsuming individual interests to the good of the whole, or providing total autonomy for all stakeholders to work out their own solution-aren't adequate to resolving these difficult situations. Drawing on his experiences working with Black people and white people in post-apartheid in South Africa, First Nations people and the government in Canada, multiple stakeholders in war-torn Columbia, and many more, Kahane describes what he calls transformative facilitation. It combines the two approaches, cycling back and forth between them. The facilitator pays careful attention to what is going on in the group and decides which approach will work best at any given moment. Adam Kahane describes precisely what the facilitator needs to watch for and how to manage the delicate balance between a focus on the collective and a focus on specific stakeholder needs. This book is for anyone who helps people collaborate in any setting. Not only does it offer a way to facilitate breakthroughs, it is a breakthrough in itself.

About the Author :
Adam Kahane has more than thirty years of experience in more than fifty countries working with thousands of leaders to transform social systems at all scales (organization, city, country, and globe). His work has addressed many of the most important challenges of our time, including racial oppression, violent conflict among warring groups, insecurity and inequity, drug problems, social unrest, unsustainable food systems, and climate change. Kahane is a bestselling author whose six books have sold nearly a quarter million copies collectively: Solving Tough Problems, Power and Love, Transformative Scenario Planning, Collaborating with the Enemy, Facilitating Breakthrough, and Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems. Edgar H. Schein is the author of numerous books and is chairman and cofounder of the Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute. He recently retired from the position of the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has received multiple lifetime-achievement awards from associations, such as the American Society of Training Directors, the Academy of Management, and the International Leadership Association. Peter Schein is the cofounder and COO of the Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute. His expertise draws on over twenty years of industry experience in marketing and corporate development at technology pioneers, with a focus on the underlying organizational culture challenges that growth engenders in innovation-driven enterprises. Edgar H. Schein is the author of numerous books and is chairman and cofounder of the Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute. He recently retired from the position of the Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has received multiple lifetime-achievement awards from associations, such as the American Society of Training Directors, the Academy of Management, and the International Leadership Association. Peter Schein is the cofounder and COO of the Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute. His expertise draws on over twenty years of industry experience in marketing and corporate development at technology pioneers, with a focus on the underlying organizational culture challenges that growth engenders in innovation-driven enterprises. Jeff Hoyt is a voice talent and an Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator.