Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Five stars? Really? But, Drew, you know Larry. You've worked with Larry for years. You've shared facilitation and coaching clients. Of course you'll give him five stars." That would be a reasonable concern, but let me tell you why this book deserves the best rating it can get. First, the advice just flat out works. Dealing with groups and people as Larry guides is the only way that makes for sustainable learning and change. Anything short of tending the fire will eventually disappoint and disengage others. Indeed, I have had the chance to see Larry do this, and applied it back to what I do. It makes a genuine difference.

Second, Larry has somehow managed to go from his brain and his heart and end up squarely on the written page. If you've ever met him or heard him, you will be struck by how much the book sounds and feels like a conversation with him. Given the stilted and disconnected tones you find from so many writers, I admire the work that Larry has done here to authentically bring himself to the reader. I'm sure you will not miss the irony that that is the same challenge he engages us on to bring to our work. Here he has done it beautifully.

That is why it's a five-star book.

The rich examples Larry uses to illustrate his ideas are clearly based on thoughtful experience in organizational leadership. But I couldn't help thinking about other areas of life experiences where a fire-tending approach could be applied with positive effect. The techniques described in this book provide tools equally well suited for being present and open in the heat of our social and family encounters, or in the cultivation of our passions. (I found the recommendations for acknowledging and adjusting to triggers very relevant to music practice.) This book manages to describe tools and techniques to support formal leadership in a manner that points to a way of being in the world, and deserves a wide audience beyond professional facilitators.

Standing in the Fire addresses an issue all too familiar to those of us in the profession of facilitating high stakes conversations. Group fire - when intense emotion surfaces within a group - is a frightening force that has left all of us seared at one point or another in our lives. In his book, Dressler invites us to reimagine group fire as a potential force for group transformation, arguing that it is the absence of group fire that almost always means apathy, suppression, and nonengagement. By equipping readers with techniques to maintain poise and authenticity in the face of group fire, Dressler equips us to avoid being burned and to channel the high emotions of the group in service of the group's transformation.

I enjoyed Larry Dresslers's Standing In The Fire very much. I think it is relevant for anyone who facilitates anything, including the Restorative Justice and Mediation work with which I am involved. I have already recommended it to several people.

I think it deals with the most challenging aspects of our work as facilitators. I really like the image of the "fire tender" and the ways of "standing" in order to be most effective. I had not thought much about the complexity of what we do and what needs to happen simultaneously in order to be our best before reading this book. Larry's willingness to self-disclose was a comfortable invitation for me to reflect/revisit some of my failures and lessons learned over the years and to think about where my current challenges seem to be as I continue to facilitate. It prompted me to think about the tools I use most often to stay centered and effective and what I might take from this terrific book to add to my toolkit. Very good stuff.

Congratulations on contributing such a well written and insightful work from which all facilitators can benefit!

Great book to take your facilitation of groups to the next level, by taking you to the next level, becoming more aware of the part your words, posture, and emotions play in moving or blocking the group. Practical exercises for your development.

Your mother may have told you not to play with matches, but you can't always avoid fiery exchanges when you facilitate a meeting or lead a group. Organizational development consultant Larry Dressler explains why you should encourage rather than stifle heated discussions. He shares ways to control those personal "hot buttons" - sensitivities you've developed from past experiences - that can make you lose your cool in the heat of the moment. He reveals six steps for dealing with hot topics to help you successfully run a meaningful session when tempers flare. The book is a bit repetitious, and its advice may be familiar to readers of self-help books; however, it does contain practical suggestions and useful anecdotes that do a good job of illustrating its points. getAbstract recommends its expert guidance and practice exercises to anyone who leads or works with teams, whether in the workplace, on the playing field or at home.

The by-line of Standing in the Fire - 'Leading high-heat meetings with clarity, calm and courage' - describes for me what Larry did in his book. That is, he leads an important discussion with his readers with amazing clarity, calm and courage. With clarity, Larry conveyed what it is like to be 'in the fire' and it took me to the many times I experienced what that is like as a facilitator amidst an unsettled crowd. With his calm and thoughtful style, Larry takes readers to the many dimensions of the human condition (ours and the group members) when we encounter highly emotional situations and does so, practically and insightfully. His courage comes through when Larry conveys his wisdom in such instructive and inventive ways. I highly recommend that others stand in the fire with Larry. It seems so much safer with his helpful and supportive messages.

The premise of Standing in the Fire is that what matters most in convening and facilitating meetings is neither the knowledge we possess nor the techniques or methods we might deploy, but rather who we are as we face the heat of group fire. The fire metaphor is revelatory again and again throughout the book because it is so real. Dressler writes from personal experience and with humility. As a fellow seeker on the "inner journey" of purposeful leadership, he reminds us of the ways we get burned intervening in human conflagration and offers us practices to cultivate our capacity to "take the heat" and use its creative energy to serve the group. Standing in the Fire is a powerful and potentially transformational work.

The apt metaphor Dressler uses to lucid effect throughout his book illustrates the fundamental importance of remaining calm and centered in any important engagement. As a business professional involved for years in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures, I have found that being literally cool during intense negotiations leads to a much higher degree of focus on my part, while helping to maintain a civil and professional group atmosphere where important decisions can be made.

Standing In The Fire does a great job of connecting the essential element of being with the practice of facilitation and negotiation, and then illustrating it with authentic examples that added color and humility. His recommendations for practice are wide ranging and insightful, and I've picked a few to try and incorporate into my own life. The hot button diary is probably my favorite.

Another five stars from a colleague who both respects and admires Larry Dressler, his art, craft, and integrity. This takes the approach to facilitation to a much deeper level - one that we professionals don't adequately explore.