Product Description

Large Group Interventions are methods used to gather a whole system together to discuss and take action on the target agenda. That agenda varies from future plans, products, and services, to redesigning work, to discussion of troubling issues and problems. The Handbook of Large Group Methods takes the next step in demonstrating through a series of cases how Large Group Methods are currently being used to address twenty-first-century challenges in organizations and communities today, including:

• Working with widely dispersed organizations, and the problem of involvement and participation
• Working with organizations facing a serious business crisis
• Working with organizations in polarized and politicized environments
• Working in community settings with diverse interest groups
• Working at the global level and adapting these methods for cross-cultural use
• Embedding and sustaining new patterns of working together in organizations and communities

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321072 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Review
"Overall, the book is well planned and presented. True to the editors' preference, each chapter is essentially a story about approach to a particular problem." (PsycCritiques, 09/06/2007)

Review
"There is nothing more important in a complex, global interdependent world than to have some road maps and driving instructions on how to manage change in large systems. Bunker and Alban have provided the essential concepts of Large Group Methods, case examples, and, most important, prescriptions for how to manage large systems change successfully. This is a must-read for all enterprise managers."
—Edgar H. Schein, Sloan Fellows Professor of Management-Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management

"This book offers an exceptional look at large group process, brought to life by powerful stories from real organizations and communities. There’s no better way to understand the methodology and its potential. This extraordinary collection of stories demonstrates the power of large group processes in a variety of organizational settings. I can’t imagine a better way to understand the methodology and its potential to impact organizations of all kinds."
—June Delano, senior practice leader, The Monitor Group

From the Inside Flap
Written by the founders¿of the field of Large Group Interventions and the coauthors of the classic book on the topic, Handbook of Large Group Methods provides¿a much-awaited¿comprehensive overview of the¿new methods and illustrates how these methods are being applied today.

Large Group Interventions are methods used to gather a whole system together to discuss and take action on the target agenda.¿That agenda varies from future plans, products, and services, to redesigning work, to discussion of troubling issues and problems.¿The Handbook of Large Group Methods takes the next step in demonstrating through a series of cases how Large Group Methods are currently being used to address twenty-first-century challenges in organizations and communities today, including:

• Working with widely dispersed organizations, and the problem of involvement and participation
• Working with organizations facing a serious business crisis
• Working with organizations in polarized and politicized environments
• Working in community settings with diverse interest groups
• Working at the global level and adapting these methods for cross-cultural use
• Embedding and sustaining new patterns of working together in organizations and communities

The authors offer a comprehensive overview of Large Group Methods currently in practice, including new methods¿such as Appreciative Inquiry, The World Café, and AmericaSpeaks.¿They also address the use of interactive technologies, graphic facilitation, scenario planning, and conflict resolution strategies in large groups.

Customer Reviews

Two Experts Share Their Knowledge
Billie Alban and Barbara Bunker are well-known in the field of organization development, and in use of large group methods in particular. Their earlier work, Large Group Interventions, is considered THE basic introduction to the multiple methods that have developed for engaging whole systems in organizational change. The current book, which contains a wide range of case studies, shines because of Alban and Bunker's thorough analysis of what the studies have to say. Like good teachers they have organized the material in ways that make sense (e.g., "Working in Polarized and Politicized Environments," "Working Cross-Culturally"), allowing you to focus on the very issues that face you in your work with organizations. And like generous friends they share their own insights and experience, helping you to mine the case studies for all they are worth. I found myself reading all of what Alban and Bunker contributed and dipping in and out of the various case studies as particular issues caught my attention. I know this is a resource I will turn to again and again.

Something is missing in this book...
The Handbook of Large Group Methods: Creating Systemic Change in Organizations and Communities
by Barbara Benedict Bunker

I have read the earlier book, 'Large Group Interventions: Engage the Whole System for Rapid Change', by the same authors, in the late nineties. This book actually led me to their new book.

Although I find it very educational to read about how large group methods have been applied to deal with the six major challenges organisations & communities would face in the 21st Century:

- Working with widely dispersed organizations, & the problem of involvement and participation;
- Working with organizations facing a serious business crisis;
- Working with organizations in polarized & politicized environments;
- Working in community settings with diverse interest groups;
- Working at the global level & adapting these methods for cross-cultural use;
- Embedding & sustaining new patterns of working together in organizations and communities;

the part of the book that interests & fascinates me most is essentially the third section, covering Resources for Large Group Methods, as follows:

- Tools for Effective Transitions Using Large Group Processes;
- Graphic Facilitation & Large Group Methods;
- Using Interactive Meeting Technologies: Overcoming the Challenges of Time, Commitment & Geographical Disperion;

It goes to show that the collaborative technologies & tools to support large group interventions have made tremendous progress over the last few years.

I am quite intrigued as why the innovative work in embracing group genius of other consultants are not featured in the book, e.g. Jim Channon (large system imagineering with virtual reality experience) & Matt Taylor (creative augmentation with the artful integration of visual space technologies, collaborative environments & knowledge-intensive work processes). I have read about their respective exemplary work in 'Fortune' & 'Fast Company' magazines as well as in some other business books. This is my only adverse comment about the book.

On the whole, the book is a good resource to have in your personal library.

How These Methods Actually Work In Practice
The strength of this book lies in the fact that it not only provides methodologies and resources for creating change in organizations in the 21st century; but also identifies how these methodologies actually work in practice.

A series of case studies ranges from addressing business issues at American Airlines and the BBC to managing change in organizations in Mexico and Indonesia. The reader is taken on a journey by those individuals who were responsible for implementing large group methodologies in their respective organizations.

By reading about these success stories and the methodologies they employ, you will be able to develop a plan for you own organization that will ensure a higher level of success that would otherwise be possible.

Walter Willigan, President, Willigan Consulting LLC