A Transition Town group involved in preparations for peak oil and climate change; an intentional community, founded with the highest ideals; a nonprofit dedicated to social change—millions of such voluntary groups exist around the world. These collaborative organizations have the unique potential to harness their members’ ideals, passions, skills, and knowledge—if they can succeed in getting along together.
The Empowerment Manual is a comprehensive manual for groups seeking to organize with shared power and bottom-up leadership to foster vision, trust, accountability, and responsibility. This desperately needed toolkit provides keys to:
Understanding group dynamics Facilitating communication and collective decision-making Dealing effectively with difficult people.Drawing on four decades of experience, Starhawk shows how collaborative groups can generate the cooperation, efficacy, and commitment critical to success. Her extensive exploration of group process is woven together with the story of RootBound—a fictional ecovillage mired in conflict—and rounded out with a series of real-life case studies. The included exercises and facilitator toolbox show how to establish the necessary structures, ground rules, and healthy norms. The Empowerment Manual is required reading for anyone who wants to help their group avoid disagreement and disillusionment and become a wellspring of creativity and innovation.
Starhawk is the author of eleven previous books including the award-winning Webs of Power. A highly influential voice for global justice and the environment, she is deeply committed to bringing the creative power of spirituality to political activism.
A Gift to Collective Groups This book is relevant to any group of people coming together for a common cause, whether it’s in the work-place, a peaceful movement or activism. The catch in any realm of human interactions is human emotion and being triggered by each other. This is inevitable but workable. Starhawk beautifully articulates and even diagrams how to navigate these groups dynamics in a respectful manner for all involved. Don’t pass this up, the next step in non-violent communication but taken to whole new level…
Empowered by Starhawk’s Empowerment Manual This book is exactly what I need, exactly when I need it. Being part of Transition Joshua Tree, I am suddenly forced out of my solitary life and must associate with groups of people. Because of this book, I am finding it shockingly easy to change my mind about being part of a group. That windbag who talks and talks? A couple of easy to understand facilitating techniques takes care of him. Meetings that never end? Not when you use the guidelines in this manual. I now craft an agenda, and…
Great tools for groups working together 0