A practical guide to getting work done in a changing workplace, by Richard G. Weaver and John D. Farrell, published in 1997.

Book review by William L. Nobles, WELD Intern, March 2004.

Definitely the type of text that could and is used in the workplace and classroom to help managers deal with a change in education, government, business and other nonprofit organizations. The authors explain that to become a successful facilitator, one must reorganize and use four key elements of the facilitation model: task, self, group, and process.

Task is at the center of the model because helping people be clear about their task is the single most important thing a facilitator does. Every action a facilitator takes should help groups move closer to completing that task.

Knowing yourself is recognizing your own values, beliefs, needs, perspectives, experiences, and capabilities, and understanding how they affect your facilitation. This book helps you examine your behavior and how you can be most effective.

Group is the third most essential element of facilitation. Each group has unique characteristics and many common dynamics. Through understanding group dynamics, facilitators have people develop into a cohesive, productive, healthy work group. For instance dealing with conflict or improving productivity are examples of understanding group facilitation.

Last is the process of facilitation. Process is defined as " what a facilitator does to help a group get its work done". The tools discussed in this book deal with planning, solving problems, and finishing work. Both theoretically strong and practical, this book offers readers tools for managing change and organizational boundaries to achieve the result they want. The author explains how individuals, groups, and organizations experience change and what facilitators do to help. Managers as Facilitators is a great reference book with a tremendous resource of tools.

One area I found to be intriguing was facilitation in boundary management. In the simplest of terms, a boundary is something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent. Group boundaries define a variety of limits for individuals and groups. There are four main types of boundaries; boundaries between individuals, 'how to work together' boundaries, elements of work boundaries, and imposed boundaries.

The most common and understood boundary is boundaries between individuals. This category describes the impact of how individuals experience each other. The foundation of any group's activities is its members must honor the interaction between individual group members to be most effective.

For individuals to be most effective as a group, they must agree on the how to work together boundaries. These boundaries include those concerning how the group completes units of work, uses resources, and assigns accountability for tasks. By addressing this boundary the biggest opportunity for quality and productivity improvement can be made for groups and organizations.

To be productive, groups must challenge what they believe to be true, expand what they know, change their behaviors, and respond differently emotionally. This is referred to as the elements of work boundaries. This helps a group determine where they wish to reposition particular boundaries, identify specific, concrete approaches and tools they can use to push them.

Last but not least, groups do not operate in vacuums with unlimited resources to accomplish what ever they choose. These are limits established by others, the imposed boundaries. Some of these limits are set consciously, such as work that needs to be done and the resources made available. Other boundaries such as ethics and policy exist more in the background and are only occasionally considered. Failure to honor these boundaries can lead to serious problems within groups, so they must not be forgotten about.

Overall this is a wonderful desk reference and should not be taken as light reading, but the principles are challenging and will force you to stretch and take a risk.