Library: Recommended Resources
If you are as interested in groups as we are, you will find these articles, books, organizations, and websites intriguing. A few of these resources will be familiar to you; many will not. Each offers a unique perspective on what happens among people gathered for purpose—and what wildly different perspectives they are! We've included brief descriptive quotes from the resource itself.
Bennis, Warren and Biederman, P.W., 1997. Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration. New York: Perseus Books.
"Throughout history, groups of people, often without conscious design, have successfully blended individual and collective effort to create something new and wonderful . . . a few of {these] great groups have reshaped the world in very different but enduring ways."
Bennis, Warren, Winter/1997. "The Secrets of Great Groups", Leader-to-Leader, No. 3, Winter, 1997.
"Our only chance is to bring people together from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines who can refract a problem through the prism of complementary minds allied in common purpose. I call such collections of talent Great Groups. The genius of Great Groups is that they get remarkable people—strong individual achievers—to work together to get results. But these groups serve a second and equally important function: they provide psychic support and personal fellowship. They help generate courage. Without a sounding board for outrageous ideas, without personal encouragement and perspective when we hit a roadblock, we'd all lose our way."
Block, Peter, 2008. Community: The Structure of Belonging. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
"Block helps us see how we can change the existing context of community from one of deficiencies, interests, and entitlement to one of possibility, interest, and gifts . . . As he explores the nature of community and the dynamics of transformation, Block outlines six kinds of conversation that will create communal accountability and commitment and describes how we can design physical spaces and structures that will themselves foster a sense of belonging."
The Collective Wisdom Initiative. A fascinating website for deeper and alternative explorations of group wisdom.
"We believe there exists a field of collective consciousness—often seen and expressed through metaphor—that is real and influential, yet invisible. When we come into alignment with this field, there is a deeper understanding of our connection with others, with life, and with a source of collective wisdom. We are calling into awareness this field of collective consciousness and invite you to join us in building this discipline of collective wisdom, its study and practice."
The Community Consulting Partnership. Since 1996, this volunteer organization has worked with the Seattle not-for-profit community to improve organizational effectiveness. Teams of volunteer consultants who learn about consulting by consulting, each team backed by a senior consultant.
Cross, Rob and Liedtka, J. and Weiss, L. "A Practical Guide to Social Networks", Harvard Business Review, March, 2005, pp.124-132.
"It's crucial for executives to learn how to promote connectivity only where it benefits an organization or individual and to decrease unnecessary connections. In this article, the authors introduce three types of social networks, each of which delivers unique value."
Ehrenreich, Barbara, 2006. Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy. New York: Henry Holt.
"Cultural historian Ehrenreich explores a human impulse that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for it: the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing. She uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture."
Fetzer Institute, 2001. Centered On the Edge—Mapping a Field of Collective Intelligence & Spiritual Wisdom. No listed author, publication date, or publisher. Available from Turning Point, Petosky, MI
" . . . a 90 page exploration into those moments of magic when collective insight, co-creation and action emerge within groups. Over 100 people were surveyed about their work with groups and 61 were interviewed. The authors have endeavored to mirror back what these people said; to bring form to the images and energies that pulsated throughout this process; to capture some of the textures and multi-dimensionality of the deeper harmonic which were heard and felt."
Godin, Seth, 2008. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. New York: Penguin.
"A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). Its our nature. Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they're enabling countless new tribes to be born. Groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming. And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?"
Gratton, Lynda, 2007. Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy—And Others Don't. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
"Hot Spots . . . are places and times where cooperation flourishes, creating great energy, innovation, productivity, and excitement . . . [The author] has spent more than a decade investigating Hot Spots—examining how, why, and where they emerge, the organizational qualities that are crucial to supporting in supporting their emergence . . . "
Jaworski J., Flowers, and Senge, 1996. Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
" . . . a real leader sets the stage on which "predictable miracles," seemingly synchronistic in nature, can - and do - occur . . . this capacity has more to do with our being - our total orientation of character and consciousness - than with what we do. Leadership, he explains, is about creating - day by day - a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and are able to participate in shaping the future."
Lawrence, Paul, and Nohria, N., 2002. Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
"Two Harvard Business School professors synthesize 200 years of thought along with the latest research drawn from the biological and social sciences to propose a new theory, a unified synthesis of human nature. [They] have studied the way people behave in that most fascinating arena of human behavior-the workplace-and from their work they produce a book that examines the four separate and distinct emotive drives that guide human behavior and influence the choices people make: the drives to acquire, bond, learn, and defend."
Lencioni, Patrick. The Five Dysfunctions of Teams (2002) and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of Teams (2005) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Both books are built around a model of dysfunctions: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results. In the first, he offers " . . . actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team." In the second, he " . . . gives leaders, line managers, and consultants alike the tools they need to get their teams up and running quickly and effectively."
Leonard-Barton, Dorothy, and Swap, W.C., 1999. When Sparks Fly: Harnessing the Power of Group Creativity. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.
" . . . all aspects of the work environment from leadership style to promotion of passion to the use of space to maximize serendipity, can enhance innovation. Drawing on examples in companies . . . When Sparks Fly shows how sophisticated managers can galvanize groups to maximize their creative potential."
Logan, Dave, King J, and Fischer-Wright H., 2008. Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization. New York: Harper Collins.
"Since the dawn of civilization people have formed tribes, and research demonstrates that humans are genetically programmed to form into groups. Within every company there are tribes, often several, consisting of 20 to 150 people who know each other and work together. But while everyone tribes, the culture of each tribe is different, as is its effectiveness. Improving a tribe's culture—and its chances for greater success—requires a tribal leader who not only understands the tribe but can leverage its collective assets to build a greater team."
Pentland, Alex, 2008. Honest Signals: How They Shape our World. Cambridge: MIT Press.
"Pentland, an MIT professor, has used a specially designed digital sensor worn like an ID badge—a "sociometer"—to monitor and analyze the back-and-forth patterns of signaling among groups of people. He and his researchers found that this second channel of communication, revolving not around words but around social relations, profoundly influences major decisions in our lives—even though we are largely unaware of it."
Scharmer, C. Otto, 2009. Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
"Scharmer invites us to see the world in new ways. Fundamental problems, as Einstein once noted, cannot be solved at the same level of thought that created them. What we pay attention to, and how we pay attention - both individually and collectively - is key to what we create. What often prevents us from "attending" is what Scharmer calls our "blind spot," the inner place from which each of us operates. Learning to become aware of our blind spot is critical to bringing forth the profound systemic changes so needed in business and society today."