Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage
Shows that the key to effectively leading difficult meetings lies not in acquiring more tools and techniques but in your state of mind Offers dozens of stories, exercises and practices to help readers cultivate a grounded, compassionate, purposeful presence Draws on Dressler’s interviews with 35 distinguished experts in facilitation, negotiation, organizational development and leadership High heat meetings seem to be happening in more and more organizations these days. Situations where participants are polarized, angry, fearful, confused. If you facilitate meetings for a living, all your well-learned techniques won’t help you in volatile and unpredictable situations like this. If you lead meetings as simply one part of your job, you probably feel even less able to cope. The answer is not another technique—not something you do to people. Veteran facilitator Larry Dressler has learned the hard way that when stakes are high, outcomes uncertain, and emotions running wild what makes the crucial difference is the leader’s presence. To work with people in high-heat meetings you have to work on yourself. Standing in the Fire shares not just Dressler’s experiences but also the insights of 35 iconic facilitators, leaders, conveners, and change agents, all with an eye to helping you stay grounded and focused enough to make the kind of inventive, split-second decisions these pressure-cooker situations demand. He outlines the mindsets, the emotional and physical ways of being that will enable you to master yourself so you can remain firmly in service to the group, and offers dozens of practices for cultivating these capabilities before, during and after any meeting. In meetings as in the natural world fire can be creative rather than destructive—but only if handled skillfully. Standing in the Fire gives you everything you need to keep from being draw into the inferno yourself and instead become a masterful fire tender.
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Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage
Shows that the key to effectively leading difficult meetings lies not in acquiring more tools and techniques but in your state of mind Offers dozens of stories, exercises and practices to help readers cultivate a grounded, compassionate, purposeful presence Draws on Dressler’s interviews with 35 distinguished experts in facilitation, negotiation, organizational development and leadership High heat meetings seem to be happening in more and more organizations these days. Situations where participants are polarized, angry, fearful, confused. If you facilitate meetings for a living, all your well-learned techniques won’t help you in volatile and unpredictable situations like this. If you lead meetings as simply one part of your job, you probably feel even less able to cope. The answer is not another technique—not something you do to people. Veteran facilitator Larry Dressler has learned the hard way that when stakes are high, outcomes uncertain, and emotions running wild what makes the crucial difference is the leader’s presence. To work with people in high-heat meetings you have to work on yourself. Standing in the Fire shares not just Dressler’s experiences but also the insights of 35 iconic facilitators, leaders, conveners, and change agents, all with an eye to helping you stay grounded and focused enough to make the kind of inventive, split-second decisions these pressure-cooker situations demand. He outlines the mindsets, the emotional and physical ways of being that will enable you to master yourself so you can remain firmly in service to the group, and offers dozens of practices for cultivating these capabilities before, during and after any meeting. In meetings as in the natural world fire can be creative rather than destructive—but only if handled skillfully. Standing in the Fire gives you everything you need to keep from being draw into the inferno yourself and instead become a masterful fire tender.
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Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage

Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage

Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage

Standing in the Fire: Leading High-Heat Meetings with Clarity, Calm, and Courage

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Overview

Shows that the key to effectively leading difficult meetings lies not in acquiring more tools and techniques but in your state of mind Offers dozens of stories, exercises and practices to help readers cultivate a grounded, compassionate, purposeful presence Draws on Dressler’s interviews with 35 distinguished experts in facilitation, negotiation, organizational development and leadership High heat meetings seem to be happening in more and more organizations these days. Situations where participants are polarized, angry, fearful, confused. If you facilitate meetings for a living, all your well-learned techniques won’t help you in volatile and unpredictable situations like this. If you lead meetings as simply one part of your job, you probably feel even less able to cope. The answer is not another technique—not something you do to people. Veteran facilitator Larry Dressler has learned the hard way that when stakes are high, outcomes uncertain, and emotions running wild what makes the crucial difference is the leader’s presence. To work with people in high-heat meetings you have to work on yourself. Standing in the Fire shares not just Dressler’s experiences but also the insights of 35 iconic facilitators, leaders, conveners, and change agents, all with an eye to helping you stay grounded and focused enough to make the kind of inventive, split-second decisions these pressure-cooker situations demand. He outlines the mindsets, the emotional and physical ways of being that will enable you to master yourself so you can remain firmly in service to the group, and offers dozens of practices for cultivating these capabilities before, during and after any meeting. In meetings as in the natural world fire can be creative rather than destructive—but only if handled skillfully. Standing in the Fire gives you everything you need to keep from being draw into the inferno yourself and instead become a masterful fire tender.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781605097725
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 03/01/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 216
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Larry is the founder of Blue Wing Consulting, a firm that helps organizations mobilize positive change. He has worked with a wide variety of organizations, including Nissan Motors, USC University Hospital, Starbucks, Washington State Attorney General's Office, Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Cisco Systems, New Belgium Brewing, and Mitsubishi.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1:  The Dynamics of the Fire:  Facilitating High-Heat Meetings
Ch. 2:  A New Kind of Presence:  The Facilitator’s Path to Self-Mastery
Ch. 3:  Seven Embodied Principles for Facilitating in the Fire
Ch. 4:  Practices:  The Path of Facilitator Self-Mastery
Ch. 5:  From Standing to Dancing in the Fire: Committing to the Path of Self-Mastery

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