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Lemons to Lemonade
No more unproductive meetings! Find out how to keep discussions on track, squash conflict without wounding pride, and deal with interruptions, disputes, and other time wasters.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781452261010
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2013
- Page Count: 200
- Publication date: June 20, 2013
Price: $26.95
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Description
No more unproductive meetings! The complete guide to getting the most out of every gathering of educators.
Do your meetings spiral angrily out of control? Or simply not make the most of the participants’ talents? Lemons to Lemonade by Robert J. Garmston and Diane P. Zimmerman is the playbook you need to promote civil, productive discourse, detailing:
- How to prepare yourself to facilitate the discussion and keep it on task
- Best practices for squashing conflict without wounding pride
- Methods for dealing with “frowners,” “interrupters,” “subject-changers,” “humorists,” and other time-waster types
With this book, you will never waste another opportunity for problems to get solved by the combined powers of capable minds. Take a look at the facilitator proficiency scale.
“Garmston and Zimmerman have written a book that is the perfect blending of theory and research with very practical, user-ready techniques for facilitating meetings AND for dealing with specific challenges. I would LOVE to see this kind of training offered for administrators!”
—David Chojnacki, Executive Director
Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools
Key features
The techniques outlined in this book are organized from novice to expert, providing interventions for all kinds of meeting snafus. While this is essentially a how-to book, we want to stress the importance of personal wisdom—your own experiences and reflections.
This book encourages positive interventions on the part of the facilitator. To intervene means to take action in order to change what is happening or might happen in order to prevent counterproductive behaviors and increase group productivity and learning. It offers multiple solutions to help facilitators increase their intervention repertoires and chances for success.
From Lemons to Lemonade will aid in resurrecting the positive energy and good will that should pervade group settings. Readers will be able to anticipate and prevent problems before they occur and gain confidence in addressing those that still sneak in the door. Time will be used more effectively. Greater senses of positivity will prevail. Groups will gain faith in their own power to make a difference in their work.
Author(s)
Robert J. Garmston
Robert J. Garmston is Emeritus Professor of Educational Administration at California State University, Sacramento. He is co-developer of Cognitive Coaching with Art Costa and co-developer of Adaptive Schools with Bruce Wellman. He has worked as an educational consultant and made presentations and conducted workshops for teachers, administrators, and staff developers on leadership, learning, and personal and organizational development in twenty-four countries on five continents. Formerly an administrator and teacher in Saudi Arabia and the United States, his work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish. Bob lives in El Dorado Hills, California, near his five children and five (bright and cute) grandchildren.
Diane P. Zimmerman
DIANE P. ZIMMERMAN, Ph.D. is a writer and consultant focusing on entrepreneurial learning and schools that make a difference. She obtained her Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development from the Fielding Graduate Institute. She recently retired as a superintendent of schools after a 36-year career in education that was rich in leadership, facilitation and conflict management.
Trained originally as a speech therapist, Diane worked early in her career as a teacher, speech therapist, program manager, and Assistant Director of Special Education in Fairfield, California. She subsequently became a principal in Davis, California and served consecutively in two schools over 13 years before being promoted to Assistant Superintendent for Personnel. In 2002, she began a nine-year journey as a superintendent of Old Adobe School Union School District, a small suburban elementary school district in Petaluma, California. She prides herself in moving the district’s teachers from contentious union interactions to cooperative collaborations as productive, interest-based educators who collectively set the highest standards possible for their school district.
Diane has been an active in professional development all of her career. While obtaining her administrative credential, Diane was assigned to Bob Garmston as her intern coach. This early career interaction turned into a life-long intellectual partnership and Diane joined the Cognitive Coaching consulting consortium founded by Bob Garmston and Art Costa.
Diane has taught in administrative training programs at several northern California universities and over the past 20 years has written and consulted in the areas of Cognitive Coaching, teacher supervision and evaluation, facilitation, stages of adult development, assessment of leadership skills, and constructivist leadership.
Leadership and mediation of conflict has always been a part of Diane’s life. She was encouraged to assume leadership roles throughout her career, from early work supervising in a family restaurant business, to her first teaching job in a new special education program, through her years as a principal. Throughout her career, she has been involved in handling divergent opinions and mediating conflict. She gained a substantive reputation as the “in house” expert in facilitation and her staff valued her ability to create learning communities long before “professional learning communities” were popularized
Table of Contents
About the Authors
Introduction
To Intercede Is To Lead
Why Read This Book
Problem Locater
Chapter 1. The Novice to Expert Journey
We All Begin as Novices
Accomplished Means Competent
Uninformed
Novice
Proficient
Accomplished
Highly Accomplished Expert
Proficiency Scale
Attributes of the Expert
Chapter 2. Building Personal Confidence
Connecting Mind and Body
1. Breathe
2. Try Progressive Relaxation
3. Walk
4. Center Yourself Physically
5. Over Prepare. Over Prepare
6. Address the Stress of Conflict
7. Check Your Negative Predictions at the Door
8. When Stuck, Move
9. Maintain Your Identity as a Facilitator
10. Monitor Your Need to Know
11. Take Care to Arrange the Room
12. Create a "Circle of Excellence"
Chapter 3. Intervention Principles
Principles Guide Decisions
1. Compassion
2. Precise Language
3. Congruence
4. From Low to High Risk
Chapter 4. Deciding to Intervene
Establish Meeting Standards
Set Working Agreements
Evaluate Working Agreements
Clarify Tasks
Intervene as Necessary
Deciding to Intervene with an Ad Hoc Group
Intervening Preemptively
1. Is the Agenda Relevant?
Plan the Beginning
Cluster Reports
Mix Strategies
2. Is Engery Waning?
Around the Room and Back Again
Card Partners
The Card Stack and Shuffle
3. Are Emotions Ratcheting Up?
First Turn/Last Turn
4. Might the Group be Heading Toward Conflict?
Grounding
Deciding When to Intervene
1. Is Intervening Important?
2. Am I the Best Person to Intervene?
3. Are My Observations Accurate?
4. Will It Be Quick or Take Time?
5. Can the Group Learn From It?
Chapter 5. Common Group Issues
Getting Attention
Attention First
Refocusing
Common Signal
Physical Proximity
Verbal Proximity
Redirecting Engagement
Join a Whole Table That is Off Task
Refocus Serial Storytelling
When Workflow is Hampered
Address a Refusal to Follow Directions
Assist with Difficulty Transitioning
Address Uneven Finishes with Group Work
Engergize a Quiet Group
Managing Your Emotions
Positional Thinking--Power Struggles
From Positions to Interest
Chapter 6. Managing Common Challenges
Low Engagement
Knitters
Non-participants
Daydreamers
Silent Participants
Frowners
Distracteds
Distruptive Group Members
Broken Records
Long-winded Speakers
Humorists
Inappropriate Humorists
Latecomers and Early Leavers
Resisters
Side Talkers
Know-It-Alls
Monopolizes
Misinformants
Interrupters
Subject-Changers
Cell Phones and Texting
Chapter 7. Strategies for Advanced Facilitation
1. Group Conflict
Grounding
Existing State--Desired State
2. Demoralizing External Events
Desired State
Third Point
Redirect Resistance
Pace and Lead
Structured Interviews
3. Disputes
Stop the Dispute Early
Verbalize the Issue
Acknowledge Each Position
Identify the Sources of Information
Check Perceptions
Reframe the Conflict as an Asset
4. Dissenting Views
Paraphrase Partner
Pace the Emotion
Redirect the Attack
Reframe the Opposition
Help Groups Utilize Styles
Assumptions Wall
Brainstorm Questions
Disperse to Agree
5. Personal Attacks
The Six-Step Response
Step Between Opposing Members
Change the Narrative
Enlist the Group in Solving the Problem
6. Challenges to the Leader
Process Commercial
Engage With More Intensity
Engage With Less Intensity
Request Civility
7. Subgroup Manipulation
Decision Matrix
Values Decision Matrix
Require a Quorum
Pace, Lead and Poll
One-Minute Advocacy
Alternate Microphone Advocacy
8. Sabotage
9. Irresolvable Conflict
Polarity Management
Reviews
"Reading Lemons to Lemonade is like having an expert at your side for every human occasion. Brilliantly to the point, Garmston and Zimmerman anticipate and deal with every issue imaginable when it comes to working with groups. Cycling in and out of principles and practical solutions (including providing sample responses) the authors have provided a succinct and comprehensive guide for becoming experts at working with people in all situations."Michael Fullan, OC Professor Emeritus
OISE, University of Toronto
"Garmston and Zimmerman have written a book that is the perfect blending of theory and research with very practical, user-ready techniques for facilitating meetings AND for dealing with specific challenges. In particular, I appreciated the focus on reflection, the notion of the levels of expertise, and the many concrete examples of specific facilitating challenges. I would LOVE to see this kind of training offered for administrators!"David Chojnacki, Executive Director
Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools
"Given that there is continuing turnover in educational leadership, it seems critical that effective practices be revived and renewed in order to sustain their impact. This book addresses that need not by simply reintegrating, but by refining and amplifying effective practices. More importantly the purpose of this book is to further the effectiveness of those 'being led,' and the interventions offer clear and powerful guidance for leaders wishing to amplify collective thinking power of a group."Mark Cary, Retired Principal
"This book's major strengths include: its focus on an area that needs much support, its use of cognitive coaching as the basis for strategies and techniques, and the focus on strategies and minimizing theoretical ideas."Dr. John F. Eller, Professor
St. Cloud State University
Indeed, that is just what I found. I predict that you will too!"
"Before I opened this book, I tried to predict what I would find based on the authors’ prior writings. Here’s what I thought: The book will offer sage yet practical advice in response to common challenges faced by school leaders. It will offer specific and transferable processes and strategies to enhance individual and collective performance. It will be enjoyable to read.Jay McTighe, Educational Consultant
Indeed, that is just what I found. I predict that you will too!"
"I thought this was great! I got so many good ideas to help me become a better facilitator."Robbie Schranz, Literacy Coach
Waupun Area School District
The strategies shared in Lemons to Lemonade help facilitators understand the needs of particular groups and address specific group dynamics in order to ensure collaborative efforts are fruitful and enjoyable for participants."
"Anyone who is in the position of facilitating team meetings will find Lemons to Lemonade: Resolving Problems in Meetings, Workshops, and PLCs, an incredibly useful resource. Authors Robert J. Garmston (co-founder of the Center for Cognitive Coaching) and Diane P. Zimmerman (a teacher, principal, superintendent and leadership trainer) share strategies and protocols for managing 'the unexpected occurrences that crop up when groups of people work together.' They seek to help readers use these events 'to build group cohesion, productivity, and learning.'Lyn Hilt, Elementary Instructional Technology Integrator/Coach
The strategies shared in Lemons to Lemonade help facilitators understand the needs of particular groups and address specific group dynamics in order to ensure collaborative efforts are fruitful and enjoyable for participants."
Pennsylvania
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.