Dr. Mark Smutny

Dr. Smutny’s book, Thrive; The Facilitator’s Guide to Radically Inclusive Meetings is a fast-paced and comprehensive reference manual for professional facilitators. It’s written by an experienced facilitator who has worked for decades for more inclusive and peace-creating outcomes with groups of people.

Though the format of the book takes you through numerous approaches to facilitating, readers should be prepared for the sharp summaries that consolidate large fields of practice into short chunks that demand careful attention (Appreciative Inquiry, Conversation Café, Emotional Intelligence, Liberating Structures, Open Space Technology and Interest-Based Negotiation to name a few). While writing in a non-technical and easy-to-read style, Dr. Smutny delivers a generous volume of sophisticated but usable information.

This book will give beginners a place to start and become an ongoing reference for experienced facilitators. After reading this book cover to cover, I’m placing it in my library of useful reference books for working with people. In addition to becoming a kind of catalog for possible approaches to facilitating groups, Dr. Smutny has provided a significant list of current reference books in his “Further Reading” section at the back of the book.… (mere)