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Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter

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Don't Just Do Something, Stand There: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter
The title, Don't Just Do Something, Stand There, caught my attention and knocked me off balance. As a member and leader of a number of organizations over the course of 76 years, I have often been referred to as an "activist." The reverse of the title has been almost a mantra of mine. If something needs to be made right, is it not my job to do something? Anything less is a kind of cowardice, and I become an accomplice to the wrong-doing. You would think I would know better, but
the problem seems to be getting worse. The book came my way none too soon.
In college at Penn State, in the 50's, William Werner, a literature professor, said to me in an aside, "There are two reasons to read: one is the confirmation of something you already are familiar with and appreciate; second, is the thrill of new experience." His comments have stayed with me throughout these many years better than the contents of the course in The European Novel that I took with him.
I did find much in the book that I already know and apply, drawing from psychology, group dynamics, organizational development, etc. and presented in a readable, user-friendly manner. My copy is full of notes in the margin of comments like "yes," and of exclamation marks. And for sure, there was also much that was new, again drawing from the same fields, but with practical examples that made the reading alive and here and now, and answered questions that had come to me a moment earlier. The authors have years of hands-on experience throughout the world in their work, and have done their homework, learning from and sharing relevant research in the field.
What surprised me was a third dimension that emerged - a challenge to some of the ways I have come to work, both employed and as a volunteer. Is it too late to teach an old dog new tricks? I hope not. For example, one of the things I loved was in the section, Principle 4 - "Let People Be Responsible." I quote from the anecdote on page 78, "Legitimizing Opposition In A Tense Community Meeting." The issues were so contentious that the sponsor had hired security people to head off potential violence. At the start of the meeting, Lisa, the meeting manager, carefully set up the structure of a number of ground rules. For example, "We are here because we want everyone's ideas, even those you may consider 'wrong' or 'silly.'" During the meeting, one person rose and spoke in a way that attacked the facilitator verbally in an attempt to derail the meeting. The group was flabbergasted and told him to sit down. Lisa now invoked the ground rule she had established in setting up the structure for the meeting. This is how she responded.
"This is what Jim is thinking right now, and you are not required to agree or disagree with him." By using the ground rule to cushion her own shock and to support the dissenter, she defused the attack and the people returned to the task.
The book is full of hands-on examples of this kind that bring you right into room in experiencing the "Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter." Eighteen useful and delightful illustrations by Jock Macneish are sprinkled effectively throughout the text.
Weisbord and Janoff's book, Don't Just Do Something, Stand There, has been, on all counts, a kind of tonic for me. The book has helped me - in this third half of life - to move from wanting to learn more skills of what to "do" - to beginning to experience a "letting go" and to move into allowing a to "be" - a just stand there. In effect to trust, and use the group more fully.
I recommend Don't Just Do Something to anybody who ever said, "Oh, no, not another meeting," and also to the folks like me who look forward to the next one.

Dr. Robert E. Young, Associate Professor, Eastern Virginia Medical School [retired]
676 words

As someone who has followed the work of Marv Weisbord and Sandra Janoff for a long time, I was not sure what they would have to say here that was new. So I was delighted and amazed to see the fullness and depth of their understanding about meeting management and facilitation. They make clear here why our conventional assumptions about how to get important things done with groups of people (not merely run common meetings) are way past outmoded. Then they give you specific techniques for managing others and managing yourself whenever people gather to do to useful work. If you ever expect to get anything done in a meeting, this is the (actually quite short) volume for you.

This book is much more than a menu for how to run meetings more effectively, although yes, it is filled with strikingly simple and practical steps to make a gathering of any kind more humane and productive. But in a deeper context, it embodies a particular theory and philosophy of leadership and planning that recognize that every person does the best they can with what they have, and that people come equipped with the capacity for extraordinary cooperation if given a chance to use their own experience and wisdom. Moreover, it is based on a set of principles that synthesize a century of research on the conditions and structures that are most likely to bring out the best in human beings, regardless of nationality, politics, culture, and other boundaries. It provides the reader with tools to create an environment and energy level that celebrate the magnificent diversity of our species and, at the same time, enable the discovery of common ground and shared aspirations. Such a balance between honoring diversity and discovering common ground provides the foundation for previously unlikely action to make the world more just and peaceful. As I reflect on my 30 years as a physician, public health leader, and public servant, I now realize, after reading this remarkable book, that remarkable outcomes are indeed possible when people gather and engage in the higher level of dialogue and conversation represented here. The principles, exquisitely described in this book, provide powerful guideposts for creating humane public policy and systems. More, the application of these principles can pave the way for effective grassroots programs that continue for years. By demonstrating that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results when given the time and space to work from their own experience and uniqueness, Weisbord and Janoff make a major contribution to the urgent challenge to keep hope alive in our troubled world.

There are very few people anywhere who know more about how to lead and run groups than Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff. Twenty years ago they designed Future Search Conferences. Since then they have used these conferences to work with businesses, organizations, communities and diverse cultural groups around the world. Even more importantly, they have trained hundreds of other people to lead and run these conferences. Unlike other books that teach you about group techniques for your tool kit, this book talks about the person carrying the tool kit. The authors share what they have learned about the skills you need for group work: how to become conscious and discern the energy and spirit in groups; how to develop a positive attitude; how to create workable boundaries and structures; how to sense changes and transitions; how to handle confusion and chaos; how to respect the self-organizing capacity of groups; how, to determine how, when, and if you should intervene; how to build positive relationships in a group; and how to foster and support emerging visions. It's all in the book-in plain language, descriptive images and meaningful stories. If you lead or run groups, regardless of the process, or even if you are simply a participant in a group and want to help your group become more effective, this book, based upon years of practical experience, will prove invaluable.

Most books (and courses) on how to run more effective meetings offer prescriptions based in a paradigm that effective meetings are those in which agenda, participation, information and decision making are as controlled as possible for the sake of efficiency. But participants in such meetings have natural reactions to any sense of being controlled and tend to argue positions or withdraw from discussion and never really commit to act on the outcomes. There is another paradigm for meetings, one of engagement. Marv and Sandra have been among the leading practitioners of this other way of meeting through their work, teaching and writing.

This book lays out the tools, philosophy and behaviors for leading meetings that engage others. Their approach is distinctly different from almost every other meeting book or course that I know (and I have made a pretty comprehensive study of this field). If you already own a book on meeting design and facilitation, you need this one to give you different insights into how this can be done better. If you are looking for your first book on meetings, this is a great place to begin. For me, after 15 years as a student and practitioner of more effective meetings this book will help me continue my learning with each meeting I run.

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!: Ten Principles for Leading Meetings That Matter is a practical guide to organizing and leading productive business meetings. Rather than fruitlessly try to change someone's behavior, Don't Just Do Something, Stand There! emphasizes the importance of changing the conditions under which people interact. Packed with techniques for helping people discover common ground, apply dissent to positive and productive use, and promote responsibility through action in oneself and others, Don't Just Do Something, Stand There! is both insightful and inspirational. "Act when you hear people make statements so emotionally charged that they put themselves at risk of being isolated or labeled... Sometimes people jump in to challenge the statement, putting the speaker on the defensive. The temptation is to let the antagonists have it out while everybody watches.... You can do better. What is needed now is neither confrontation nor a search for 'truth'. Rather, you need to head off the split so that people keep working. The best way to do that is to get an informal subgroup for the risk taker... Usually we discover they have a spectrum of frustrations. Speakers see that they are not alone. Frustration is OK. Confrontation is avoided. Everyone has new information on where others stand. The group moves on." An absolute "must-read" for business leaders, human resource personnel, and group managers of all fields.

I have just stepped into the world of facilitation six months ago after switching from Investmente Banking to Human Resources at my company. My personal interest consists in helping people find insipration in their places of work, and this book was a powerful guide since it starts stating that we don't have to teach anything to anybody; rather, it focuses on describing how to set appropriate conditions so that people can be able to cooperate, one meeting at a time.

the title of my review is due to the fact that I just re-read the book for the third or fourth time, and there always seems to be more ideas in there than the previous times, and the principles deepen each time through. this is a sign of a masterful piece of work, and sandra and marv are certainly masters of facilitating meetings. i think this is by far the best book out there on leading/facilitating meetings.

Weisbrod and Janoff have distilled over 30 years of experience leading groups in this less than 200 page tome. The book outlines an approach to group work that focuses on the work-to-be-done and those that must, eventually, do the work and live with the results. In this approach a pernicious problem that I've encountered in my 30+ years in the world-of-work is moderated. 'Over-performing' organizational consultants that 'fill awkward spaces' with directions (to the group) around 'how' something should be done so that we don't encounter 'difficult' silences or conflicts. When the organizational consultant shifts the focus of activities from the group's work to themselves (how ever subtly), this moves the focus from the client doing (frequently) hard work to feeling 'good' about themselves ... at the expense of getting the organizational and task work done . Clients are frequently relieved to have someone get them off the emotional and developmental 'hook' and collusion between the organizational consultant and client is typically out of awareness.

Just one of the reasons to add this book to your library is it's broad and deep developmental and theoretical background : John and Joyce Weir - self-differentiation, Claes Janssen's - Four Rooms of Change, Lawrence & Lorschs' work and most importantly for me, Yvonne Agazarian's Systems-Centered Theory that dramatically expands our knowledge of the boundaries between clinical and social psychology. Persons familiar with a psychoanalytic approach to organizations will recognize the value of 'Stand There' when organizational consultants are tempted to take a convenient shortcut out of situations that are "complex, internally contradictory and basically irreducible to an unambiguous context" (A.N. Shore - 1997) to a convenient model of reality, i.e. back to 'feel-good' as THE primary outcome.

A very worthwhile work. I recommend their approach strongly.

The book came quickly and was in the promised shape. Will definitely but from this seller in the future.