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Lemons to Lemonade

Resolving Problems in Meetings, Workshops, and PLCs

By: Robert J. Garmston, Diane P. Zimmerman

No more unproductive meetings! Find out how to keep discussions on track, squash conflict without wounding pride, and deal with interruptions, disputes, and other time wasters.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781452261010
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2013
Page Count: 200
Publication date: June 20, 2013

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Description

No more unproductive meetings! The complete guide to getting the most out of every gathering of educators.

Do your meetings spiral angrily out of control? Or simply not make the most of the participants’ talents? Lemons to Lemonade by Robert J. Garmston and Diane P. Zimmerman is the playbook you need to promote civil, productive discourse, detailing:

How to prepare yourself to facilitate the discussion and keep it on task
Best practices for squashing conflict without wounding pride
Methods for dealing with “frowners,” “interrupters,” “subject-changers,” “humorists,” and other time-waster types

With this book, you will never waste another opportunity for problems to get solved by the combined powers of capable minds. Take a look at the facilitator proficiency scale.

“Garmston and Zimmerman have written a book that is the perfect blending of theory and research with very practical, user-ready techniques for facilitating meetings AND for dealing with specific challenges. I would LOVE to see this kind of training offered for administrators!”
—David Chojnacki, Executive Director
Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools

Key features

The techniques outlined in this book are organized from novice to expert, providing interventions for all kinds of meeting snafus. While this is essentially a how-to book, we want to stress the importance of personal wisdom—your own experiences and reflections.

This book encourages positive interventions on the part of the facilitator. To intervene means to take action in order to change what is happening or might happen in order to prevent counterproductive behaviors and increase group productivity and learning. It offers multiple solutions to help facilitators increase their intervention repertoires and chances for success.

From Lemons to Lemonade will aid in resurrecting the positive energy and good will that should pervade group settings. Readers will be able to anticipate and prevent problems before they occur and gain confidence in addressing those that still sneak in the door. Time will be used more effectively. Greater senses of positivity will prevail. Groups will gain faith in their own power to make a difference in their work.

Author(s)

Robert J. Garmston

Robert J. Garmston is Emeritus Professor of Educational Administration at California State University, Sacramento. He is co-developer of Cognitive Coaching with Art Costa and co-developer of Adaptive Schools with Bruce Wellman. He has worked as an educational consultant and made presentations and conducted workshops for teachers, administrators, and staff developers on leadership, learning, and personal and organizational development in twenty-four countries on five continents. Formerly an administrator and teacher in Saudi Arabia and the United States, his work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, and Spanish. Bob lives in El Dorado Hills, California, near his five children and five (bright and cute) grandchildren.

Diane P. Zimmerman

DIANE P. ZIMMERMAN, Ph.D. is a writer and consultant focusing on entrepreneurial learning and schools that make a difference. She obtained her Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development from the Fielding Graduate Institute. She recently retired as a superintendent of schools after a 36-year career in education that was rich in leadership, facilitation and conflict management.

Trained originally as a speech therapist, Diane worked early in her career as a teacher, speech therapist, program manager, and Assistant Director of Special Education in Fairfield, California. She subsequently became a principal in Davis, California and served consecutively in two schools over 13 years before being promoted to Assistant Superintendent for Personnel. In 2002, she began a nine-year journey as a superintendent of Old Adobe School Union School District, a small suburban elementary school district in Petaluma, California. She prides herself in moving the district’s teachers from contentious union interactions to cooperative collaborations as productive, interest-based educators who collectively set the highest standards possible for their school district.

Diane has been an active in professional development all of her career. While obtaining her administrative credential, Diane was assigned to Bob Garmston as her intern coach. This early career interaction turned into a life-long intellectual partnership and Diane joined the Cognitive Coaching consulting consortium founded by Bob Garmston and Art Costa.

Diane has taught in administrative training programs at several northern California universities and over the past 20 years has written and consulted in the areas of Cognitive Coaching, teacher supervision and evaluation, facilitation, stages of adult development, assessment of leadership skills, and constructivist leadership.

Leadership and mediation of conflict has always been a part of Diane’s life. She was encouraged to assume leadership roles throughout her career, from early work supervising in a family restaurant business, to her first teaching job in a new special education program, through her years as a principal. Throughout her career, she has been involved in handling divergent opinions and mediating conflict. She gained a substantive reputation as the “in house” expert in facilitation and her staff valued her ability to create learning communities long before “professional learning communities” were popularized

Table of Contents

About the Authors

Introduction

To Intercede Is To Lead

Why Read This Book

Problem Locater

Chapter 1. The Novice to Expert Journey

We All Begin as Novices

Accomplished Means Competent

Uninformed

Novice

Proficient

Accomplished

Highly Accomplished Expert

Proficiency Scale

Attributes of the Expert

Chapter 2. Building Personal Confidence

Connecting Mind and Body

1. Breathe

2. Try Progressive Relaxation

3. Walk

4. Center Yourself Physically

5. Over Prepare. Over Prepare

6. Address the Stress of Conflict

7. Check Your Negative Predictions at the Door

8. When Stuck, Move

9. Maintain Your Identity as a Facilitator

10. Monitor Your Need to Know

11. Take Care to Arrange the Room

12. Create a "Circle of Excellence"

Chapter 3. Intervention Principles

Principles Guide Decisions

1. Compassion

2. Precise Language

3. Congruence

4. From Low to High Risk

Chapter 4. Deciding to Intervene

Establish Meeting Standards

Set Working Agreements

Evaluate Working Agreements

Clarify Tasks

Intervene as Necessary

Deciding to Intervene with an Ad Hoc Group

Intervening Preemptively

1. Is the Agenda Relevant?

Plan the Beginning

Cluster Reports

Mix Strategies

2. Is Engery Waning?

Around the Room and Back Again

Card Partners

The Card Stack and Shuffle

3. Are Emotions Ratcheting Up?

First Turn/Last Turn

4. Might the Group be Heading Toward Conflict?

Grounding

Deciding When to Intervene

1. Is Intervening Important?

2. Am I the Best Person to Intervene?

3. Are My Observations Accurate?

4. Will It Be Quick or Take Time?

5. Can the Group Learn From It?

Chapter 5. Common Group Issues

Getting Attention

Attention First

Refocusing

Common Signal

Physical Proximity

Verbal Proximity

Redirecting Engagement

Join a Whole Table That is Off Task

Refocus Serial Storytelling

When Workflow is Hampered

Address a Refusal to Follow Directions

Assist with Difficulty Transitioning

Address Uneven Finishes with Group Work

Engergize a Quiet Group

Managing Your Emotions

Positional Thinking--Power Struggles

From Positions to Interest

Chapter 6. Managing Common Challenges

Low Engagement

Knitters

Non-participants

Daydreamers

Silent Participants

Frowners

Distracteds

Distruptive Group Members

Broken Records

Long-winded Speakers

Humorists

Inappropriate Humorists

Latecomers and Early Leavers

Resisters

Side Talkers

Know-It-Alls

Monopolizes

Misinformants

Interrupters

Subject-Changers

Cell Phones and Texting

Chapter 7. Strategies for Advanced Facilitation

1. Group Conflict

Grounding

Existing State--Desired State

2. Demoralizing External Events

Desired State

Third Point

Redirect Resistance

Pace and Lead

Structured Interviews

3. Disputes

Stop the Dispute Early

Verbalize the Issue

Acknowledge Each Position

Identify the Sources of Information

Check Perceptions

Reframe the Conflict as an Asset

4. Dissenting Views

Paraphrase Partner

Pace the Emotion

Redirect the Attack

Reframe the Opposition

Help Groups Utilize Styles

Assumptions Wall

Brainstorm Questions

Disperse to Agree

5. Personal Attacks

The Six-Step Response

Step Between Opposing Members

Change the Narrative

Enlist the Group in Solving the Problem

6. Challenges to the Leader

Process Commercial

Engage With More Intensity

Engage With Less Intensity

Request Civility

7. Subgroup Manipulation

Decision Matrix

Values Decision Matrix

Require a Quorum

Pace, Lead and Poll

One-Minute Advocacy

Alternate Microphone Advocacy

8. Sabotage

9. Irresolvable Conflict

Polarity Management

Reviews

"Reading Lemons to Lemonade is like having an expert at your side for every human occasion. Brilliantly to the point, Garmston and Zimmerman anticipate and deal with every issue imaginable when it comes to working with groups. Cycling in and out of principles and practical solutions (including providing sample responses) the authors have provided a succinct and comprehensive guide for becoming experts at working with people in all situations."

Michael Fullan, OC Professor Emeritus
OISE, University of Toronto

"Garmston and Zimmerman have written a book that is the perfect blending of theory and research with very practical, user-ready techniques for facilitating meetings AND for dealing with specific challenges. In particular, I appreciated the focus on reflection, the notion of the levels of expertise, and the many concrete examples of specific facilitating challenges. I would LOVE to see this kind of training offered for administrators!"

David Chojnacki, Executive Director
Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools

"Given that there is continuing turnover in educational leadership, it seems critical that effective practices be revived and renewed in order to sustain their impact. This book addresses that need not by simply reintegrating, but by refining and amplifying effective practices. More importantly the purpose of this book is to further the effectiveness of those 'being led,' and the interventions offer clear and powerful guidance for leaders wishing to amplify collective thinking power of a group."

Mark Cary, Retired Principal

"This book's major strengths include: its focus on an area that needs much support, its use of cognitive coaching as the basis for strategies and techniques, and the focus on strategies and minimizing theoretical ideas."

Dr. John F. Eller, Professor
St. Cloud State University

"Before I opened this book, I tried to predict what I would find based on the authors’ prior writings. Here’s what I thought: The book will offer sage yet practical advice in response to common challenges faced by school leaders. It will offer specific and transferable processes and strategies to enhance individual and collective performance. It will be enjoyable to read.

Indeed, that is just what I found. I predict that you will too!"

Jay McTighe, Educational Consultant

"I thought this was great! I got so many good ideas to help me become a better facilitator."

Robbie Schranz, Literacy Coach
Waupun Area School District

"Anyone who is in the position of facilitating team meetings will find Lemons to Lemonade: Resolving Problems in Meetings, Workshops, and PLCs, an incredibly useful resource. Authors Robert J. Garmston (co-founder of the Center for Cognitive Coaching) and Diane P. Zimmerman (a teacher, principal, superintendent and leadership trainer) share strategies and protocols for managing 'the unexpected occurrences that crop up when groups of people work together.' They seek to help readers use these events 'to build group cohesion, productivity, and learning.'

The strategies shared in Lemons to Lemonade help facilitators understand the needs of particular groups and address specific group dynamics in order to ensure collaborative efforts are fruitful and enjoyable for participants."

Lyn Hilt, Elementary Instructional Technology Integrator/Coach
Pennsylvania

Other Titles in: Group Facilitation | Leadership | Collaboration & Team Building

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