Co-operacy [Paperback]

Dale Hunter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 1998

How to create a workplace based not on hierarchy but on consensus-based relationships, teams, and groups.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Authors Dale Hunter, Anne Bailey, and Bill Taylor are all experienced facilitators. Their first book, The Zen of Groups—The Handbook for People Meeting With a Purpose, has been warmly accepted internationally.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (May 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555611621
• ISBN-13: 978-1555611620
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,458,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Dale Hunter is a group facilitator, mediator, coach and author in the field of facilitation. She is a co-founder and director of Zenergy Ltd. a New Zealand-based company providing facilitation, mediation, and coaching services to government, business and community sectors.

Dale facilitates conferences, public meetings, seminars and workshops both in New Zealand and internationally. She is also a mediator trained by world leaders in this field. Her client base includes local and central government, business, NGOs and special interest groups.

The Zenergy 8-module Diploma of Facilitation, co-designed by Hunter, now has 1500 people who have have participated in one or more modules. In addition, Dale has led facilitation training workshops in Europe, USA, Canada, China, Malaysia, South Africa and Taiwan.

Dr. Hunter is a member of the Generative Change Community, Asia; a sustaining member of the International Association of Facilitators; a former board member as Vice Chair International (2001-2007) and was instrumental in the development of the IAF Code of Ethics for Group Facilitators.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The uses of consensus and how to build it., June 9, 2000

By 

Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Co-operacy (Paperback)

"Co-operacy", say the authors, "is a word we coined to describe the technology of collective or consensus decision making as distinct from democracy or autocracy. By technology we mean beliefs, values, methods, processes and techniques that enable collective decision making to work successfully"

The authors say that their purpose in this book is 'to explore and develop ways in which working together co-operatively as peers can become easier, more effective and more accessible'. They succeed. It is well structured to open and address important questions about working in relationship, and it contains useful tools and exercises to help to develop cooperative working. Perhaps the main virtue of the book is its simplicity and directness.

The three parts first lay out the underlying ideas, then explore the relationships within which a peer approach can be applied and finally offer over 60 exercises designed to help in developing peer partnerships.

The underlying belief on which their processes are based is that 'the best decisions for social organisation are made by involving everyone affected by the decision'. There are very strong parallels between the philosophies and processes that they advocate and those that are necessary to successful search conferences (see authors like Weisbord "Discovering Common Ground' and Bunker and Alban 'Large Group Interventions'). The difference is that Hunter and her colleagues are exploring how widely these beliefs and processes can be used across the whole range of decision making and interaction.